Dessicant or refrigerant dehumidifier?

caroline1973lefty

any advice on what would be best (most effective & energy efficient) for a large 1 bedroom flat) where I have nowhere outside to dry clothes, and where I have significant condensation issues on my windows (causing mould and corrosion) throughout? From researching it sounds like dessicants are possibly best for the British climate, for doing a whole house, and for creating a warm draught through laundry, if a little more expensive to run (but maybe cancelled out by being quicker / more effective, if I get a good one like the Meaco DD8L Zambezi?) Does that sound right, have people got experience of this? I did think about a heat pump tumble dryer (most energy efficient type) but a lot of my clothes are delicates (wool/linen/silk) so i’d still need to air dry quite a bit. I am investigating other actions (with advice from here and elsewhere) to reduce condensation, which occurs not only when I have laundry drying but also on cold nights, like improving my (not brilliant) extractor fans and use of them, and window vac (I have single glazed leaded and sash windows in an old stone listed building so changing them would be v difficult / expensive) - and I’m so sick of laundry hanging around for days in the living room, which is the room I keep warmest and also have windows open most - but if I put them in my cooler bathroom or north facing bedroom they’d *never* dry!

Wanderingpomm

I’ve got a meaco dessicant and it’s great. Small and quiet 

BrassicWoman

Dessicant; I have an electriq which has an app to turn it on and off - fab when I forget to do it before going to bed, etc.

Rural_Puppy

Get an electric clothes airer, dries clothes much quicker than air drying, and some of them have a hood to keep the moisture in.

Spies

Rural_Puppy said:

Get an electric clothes airer, dries clothes much quicker than air drying, and some of them have a hood to keep the moisture in.

This makes no sense, the moisture has to go into the air else the clothes would never dry.

To the OP, if your room is 19c or higher in the room you're drying clothes, refridgerant would be better as they are cheaper to run and most efficient around that temperature.

If 16c then a dessicant one would be best but they do use more power as they use a heater to release the moisture from the dessicant drum.

caroline1973lefty

Rural_Puppy said:

Get an electric clothes airer, dries clothes much quicker than air drying, and some of them have a hood to keep the moisture in.

I’ve got one and it’s pretty useless tbh

caroline1973lefty

just to say, Argos has some meaco (dessicant) dehumidifiers at half price at the moment - though stock is vanishing fast - I went for the 12 litre one at £90 though it’s mislabelled as 20 litres in the item headline (correct in the description)