Do I need a dehumidifier and if so which ?

House is 1930’s and always has clothes/ wet kit/ boots drying inside it.

Friends at work were talking about dehumidifiers today…are they necesary and if yes which one to go for?

This is STW, you need a woodburner 😀

do you get loads of condensation? damp? id not then no. if yes then maybe. but they often need to be emptied regularly as they collect the water that they remove from the air in a little reservoir/bucket. i have no recommendations as to units but i used to hire them out. i always though that in a domestic setting they were a bit unnecessary. if you’ve got damp/condensation then you at least need to find the underlying cause of this which is usually lack of airflow from blocked air bricks or no window vents.

They are handy to help clothes dry quicker if nothing else

Is your house well insulated / ventilated / heated?

Far too many other unknowns to just say ‘dehumidifier’.

I think they are a great idea. Saves a whole load of mould in older houses. They were nice and draughty but we keep filling the gaps and fitting new windows 🙂

As Mugboo said. Thirties house here, designed with open fires and ventilation by drafts built in. Now with double glazing, fitted carpets and such, a dehumidifier reduces condensation and dries washing. On a midway setting it only cuts in when it’s needed. What’s not to like?

open some windows?

My last house we had a amcor qt120 (from memory) but its mainly a loosing battle in a poorly vented, poorly insulated house tbh. moving from a victorian semi to a good new build was a breath of fresh air. literally 😉

If you’re anywhere near huddersfield I’ve got one you can have for a tenner. Been meaning to put it on ebay for a while. It did a great j ob but no longer needed due to home improvements.

What’s not to like?

The unnecessary cost of running one. 🙁

If you’re anywhere near huddersfield I’ve got one you can have for a tenner.

Assuming the OP doesn’t bite, sold. Email in profile, etc.

The unnecessary cost of running one.

That would be 175w working part-time. Balanced against the cost of re-heating after you’ve opened and closed windows, I think I’m winning. Though I do like to open windows on any warm & dry day for an hour or two. But not when it’s cool and damp.

‘slowoldgit’ speaks sense.

Dehumidifiers work and aren’t expensive to run.

I paid £75 for a Matsui with a 10 litre capacity about 4 years ago. It’s been lent out a few times and just keeps on working.

Recommended.

It’s all a compromise. As above, use your windows on good days and when it’s cold, keep the heat in and use the dehumidifier.

They are not necessary, they are useful. They work best in relatively confined space (eg utlity room, downstairs loo but clearly do’t let water drip onto them from wet clothes) which has been warmed up to encourage the moisture to evaporate from the clothes. To dry clothes naturally you want lots of circulating air, for the dehumid the opposite otherwise you are sucking moisture from the “whole world”. They are pretty cheap these days.

I use them a lot on boats and in fact run one 24/7 all winter on a low setting combined with a low power tube heater to keep the frost off and to encourage the evaporation.

After a really wet race with very damp sails and gear a dehumid on full power will dry out the boat totally overnight particularly if you run the heater for an hour or two first whilst in the pub.

There was another thread on here asking same question. Have a search.

We keep a Delonghi DEM 10 in the bathroom. Now in its 5th year, I’ve just had to change the filter once. It cured the damp/mould issue in the bathroom (the small window and extractor fan weren’t enough). Superb and efficient. We didn’t see a noticeable rise in energy bills. You need decent heating for it to work at it’s best.

EDIT: Get one with a timer, or buy a cheap timer switch.

If your house is fairly humid a dehumidifier will actually save you money on the heating over the winter months since it’ll extract the latent heat of evaporation.

Roughly 2.5 units of heat generated for every unit of power used by the device, plus the fact that a drier house is more comfortable.

We bought one last week and it works a treat. The house is 200 years old and the upstairs chimneys have been sealed and the windows replaced so ventilation is poor. There is a bit of damp and we are sick of the smell and clutter of drying washing.

Got one of these.

http://www.dry-it-out.com/DD822-Graphite-dehumidifier

…and it works.

It dries washing in a couple of hours that would have taken a couple of days.

They are handy to help clothes dry quicker if nothing else

Is what I use mine for.