Last week I went to a colleague’s leaving drinks. Most of the people around the table at the pub were considerably younger than me – like, twenty years younger – so I did wonder how the conversations would pan out that evening. But thankfully I had nothing to worry about, because the moment I arrived I was cornered and asked about one of my current favourite talking points: dehumidifiers. Turns out that before I’d arrived they’d identified me as someone who may be equipped with the information they were after – keen as they were to hear about the benefits, costs and where to buy – and naturally, I was only too happy to oblige. 

The following evening I was with a crowd who were mostly older than me and the same thing happened. There is clearly a demand for dehumidifier information! Which is why I thought I would write about my own experience in a blog post (spoiler alert: I am a fan).

Meaco 12L low energy dehumidifier and air purifier, £199.99 (johnlewis.com). This post contains some affiliate links.

Before we get into the nitty gritty about the pros and cons of getting a dehumidifier, let’s bring this back to sustainable fashion. Because one big factor in being committed to it means looking after your clothes after you’ve done the fun shopping bit, as well as the obvious point of buying from responsible brands. Making them last as long as possible in your wardrobe, as well as ensuring that they are in great condition if they no longer fit or you want to pass them on for some other reason, is all part of the deal. For this reason, I now wash my clothes less frequently and we don’t have a tumble drier in our house; tumble driers put a lot of stress on your clothes which can shorten their lifespan, plus they absolutely guzzle electricity.

This is all well and good in the summer, and if you have outside space to dry your clothes, but what to do in the winter? Or in a flat? I hate having washing drying all over the radiators and in fact, none of our radiators are the right shape and size to dry clothes on anyway. Previously we had storage heaters, which are also useless for laundry, which is why a couple of years ago I bought a heated clothes airer which has been very helpful indeed. But despite being well insulated, the very act of drying clothes in our house causes a lot of condensation. So on the recommendation of my brother and sister-in-law, we invested in a dehumidifier. Here’s what I’ve learnt.

Meaco 12L low energy dehumidifier and air purifier, £199.99 (johnlewis.com)

They dry your clothes quicker

Dehumidifiers are great for absorbing moisture in damp houses, but they also absorb water from your laundry, which in turn means that your clothes will dry quicker. The dehumidifier then collects the water in a little container – the first time you use it, you’ll be really surprised how much is in there!

They’re expensive

There’s no getting around the fact that getting a dehumidifier is an expensive outlay. Ours is a Meaco 12L dehumidifier and air purifier, £199.99 from John Lewis. There are cheaper ones available but I was keen to get something I knew worked well from reviews, and this ticked the box. It’s showing as out of stock at the moment but it’s worth putting your name on the wait list as I did – I was notified that it was back in stock the following day and it arrived really quickly. 

They’re cheap to run

We have an electric boiler, which is more expensive to run than a gas one, and we also have a smart meter, which means we very rarely put the heating on (usually just for an hour in the morning) because we can see how much it costs in real time. Lots of slippers and blankets in this house. So the fact that the heated airer runs on about 10p per hour and the dehumidifier on just 5p per hour is very appealing. I reckon we’ve already made back the money we spent on buying the dehumidifier on the amount we’ve saved by not putting on the heating to dry clothes.

They take up space

They’re not the ugliest things in the world, but they do take up a small amount of space. It’s worth doing a bit of measuring up to see if you can tuck it away behind or even inside a cupboard when you’re not using it. I would also advise making sure you can fit a clothes airer (heated or not) next to it as you want them to be a close as possible for the best results.

Meaco 12L low energy dehumidifier and air purifier, £199.99 (johnlewis.com)

They give off a bit of heat

It’s not like a fan heater or anything, but every little bit of warmth helps during an energy crisis. Which is why we choose to have our clothes drying on show in our bedroom, rather than hiding  in the spare room where we wouldn’t see them. It’s also advised that you shut the door to the room you’re drying clothes in, which makes our bedroom a cosy little room in the evening when we’ve done some laundry, even if we haven’t had the heating on.

Some models double as an air purifier

If you suffer from allergies (as Mr Brogue does), you may discover added benefits with your dehumidifier, because some double up as air purifiers. In fact, one particularly sneezy morning last week, we realised we hadn’t done any washing all week so the air in our bedroom hadn’t been purified. The proof of the pudding, as they say, is in the sneezing. (They don’t say that)

They’re not silent

But they’re not really noisy, either. I’d say similar to a fan heater, and much quieter than a hairdryer.

They create useful water

Distilled water is much better for lots of things than tap water because the act of distilling it removes impurities like minerals and bacteria. Water collected in an air purifier isn’t drinkable, but it’s essentially the same thing as distilled water. I pour the it into bottles to use in my hand steamer (you can read about how much I love that here) to prevent it clogging up with limescale (you can also use it in an iron for the same reason). Plus, house plants much prefer distilled water to tap water – mine have all been looking much healthier since I started watering them with what is collected after doing the laundry.

So there you have it. Another laundry and clothes-care based post. If you’d asked me when I started my little flat shoe blog ten years ago what I’d be writing about in a decade’s time, I’m not sure I would have predicted this! But here we are. Do leave any of your own hints and tips in the comments below.