I'm now drying my clothes without having to put the heating or tumble dryer on

05 December 2023 , 18:53

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Drying clothes is challenging over winter (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

After putting it off for a while, I finally caved in over Black Friday weekend and bought a dehumidifier. We get condensation on some of the windows over the winter months, so it seemed an obvious solution.

I previously used a window vac to get rid of the excess moisture, and while it was effective, it was pretty time consuming and a bit of a faff constantly pulling blinds up and down and having to remember to charge the battery and empty it. So when I saw dehumidifiers were among the discounted items over Black Friday, I decided to finally bite the bullet - and it's proved a brilliant decision so far.

I picked up the Russell Hobbs 10L dehumidifier and it's instantly made such a difference. It's not only stopped the overnight window condensation, but it now means I can dry clothes on an airer, without the need to put the heating on.

You just turn it on, close the door in the room it's in and it gets to work. It takes a fair few hours, particularly with thicker items like towels, but it's nice to have the option to save some pennies while the cost of energy is still so high.

If any thick items are really soaking I just get the remaining moisture out in the tumbler, but it takes far less time and saves a lot of electric. It also means the house doesn't have the dreaded clothes draped all over the radiators over winter which is a real pet hate of mine.

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It seems fairly cheap to run, I can't work it out exactly what it's costing but the smart meter doesn't go crazy like it does when the dryer is on. What's the downside I hear you ask? Well, they don't come cheap and this particular dehumidifier is a bit on the noisy side.

Russell Hobbs RHDH1001 10 Litre/Day Dehumidifier (Amazon)

It does have a 'silent' button which reduces the noise, but labelling the button 'silent' seems a bit of an oversight to me giving it's still anything but. 'Quiet' might have been a better label for that mode as it does reduce the noise but certainly doesn't eliminate it.

Personally, the noise doesn't hugely bother me, I sleep with a fan on over summer and don't mind the white noise, so it's not much different to that. But if you want it to reduce condensation in a bedroom and a humming sound would bug you while you try to sleep, then this one won't be right for you. It's currently priced at £129 at Amazon, Dunelm and Asda, or £159.99 in black, if you're happy to pay an extra £30.99 for a different colour.

There are lots of different options out there, including this Challenge 12 Litre Dehumidifier which is suitable for bigger rooms up to 35m² and can extract 12L of moisture per day. But at £165 it's a tad more expensive.

There are plenty of cheaper ones too, but one of the main snags is that many have smaller water tanks, meaning you have to empty the water more often. It's unlikely to be an issue if you are planning to use it in a small room, or able to empty the tank every few hours.

This Pro Breeze Dehumidifier is £33.74 on Amazon but only has a 0.5L capacity. It's lightweight and portable though, so would suit households who want to move it around throughout the day.

Just be mindful that 10% of reviewers did rate this one star out of five, with some saying it broke after a few weeks. More than half did give it five stars though, so plenty of customers did like the product.

Samuel Jones