Best dehumidifier 2022: Rid your home of damp patches, mould and mildew
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Excess moisture leads to mould, mildew and exacerbates existing damp. Fix these problems with a dehumidifier for a happier, healthier home.
If your home suffers from damp patches or mould, the root cause is often excess moisture. Sometimes the construction of the building, poor insulation, ineffective drainage or a lack of ventilation are to blame, while cooking or drying clothes inside can have an impact. Either way, once your humidity level gets much above 60%, it’s bad for both you and your home.
It’s bad for you because bugs and mould love high humidity levels. Dust mites and mould spores thrive and can trigger allergies, skin irritation and respiratory problems such as asthma. Moods and general wellness can also be affected.
It’s bad for your home because you’ll get patches of damp and mould on your walls and ceilings – some superficial, but some creating lasting damage. You might even find your favourite things affected: books, clothing, furniture, printed art and old records can all be wrecked by mould and damp.
While opening windows and fixing up your home can help, the best way to combat excess humidity is often a dehumidifier. It will dry out your rooms, fight back against the damp and protect your walls and precious things from being affected.
Best dehumidifiers: Still in stock
As the cold weather rolls in and the annual battle with condensation begins, we've noticed that many of our favourite dehumidifiers are out of stock. While we wait for stock levels to return, here's a quick list of the products on our roundup that are still available:
- The best-value dehumidifier: Inventor Dehumidifier Fresh 12l/Day | Buy now from Amazon
- The best smart dehumidifier for power: Princess Smart Dehumidifier 20L | Buy now from Currys
- The best dehumidifier for colder spaces: EcoAir DD1 Simple | Buy now from Amazon
- The best budget dehumidifier: ProBreeze PB-13 1500ml Premium | Buy now from Amazon
How to choose the best dehumidifier for you
All dehumidifiers do the same basic job of removing excess moisture from the air. However, there are three different technologies that do all the hard work.
Compressor dehumidifiers work in much the same way as a fridge or freezer. They draw in air and cool it, condensing any moisture as it passes across a refrigerated coil. The water then drips off into a water tank below, while the air is reheated and released into the room. Compressor dehumidifiers can be noisy and may use more energy than other types, although new compressor technology and refrigerants are bringing improvements on both counts. They’re most efficient at warmer temperatures of 20°C and above, and your best bet if you need to remove lots of moisture from a larger space.
Peltier dehumidifiers also cool the air and condense the moisture content into water; but they do it using a cold heat-sink rather than a compressor. They’re not as effective as compressors, removing smaller amounts of water in a given time, but they’re quieter and more energy efficient. Peltier dehumidifiers tend to be compact, lightweight units designed for smaller spaces.
Desiccant dehumidifiers don’t use a heat-sink or refrigerated coil to condense excess moisture, but instead draw the air across a wheel made from a desiccant material, which sucks the moisture out. As the wheel turns, moisture drips into the tank, while the damp patches are heated to dry them out again, warming up the air. Desiccant models tend to be expensive, but they’re generally quieter in operation than compressor dehumidifiers and more effective at lower temperatures. In fact, they’ll work in temperatures under 10°C, where compressor and Peltier units won’t work at all. If you need to dry out a loft or garage, you really need a dessicant model, but they can also be useful in a cold British winter for drying out your colder, damper rooms.
What size dehumidifier do I need?
It all depends on how much space you need to dehumidify. Dehumidifiers are often rated in terms of their extraction rate: how much water they can remove from the air in a single day. This is separate from their water tank capacity, which covers how much water they can store before you need to empty them out.
An extraction rate of around five to ten litres per day is fine if you’re dehumidifying a small to medium-sized room in an average UK home, but if you want to dry out larger rooms where you spend more time, you might want to go up to 10 litres and beyond. Push that further to 15, 18 or 20 litres and you can dehumidify large rooms or even a flat, terraced house or a floor of a detached house or semi.
If you’re only planning to dehumidify occasionally – for a few hours here or there in a kitchen or bathroom, for instance – you can get away with a mini-dehumidifier with an extraction rate of under one litre. It will be cheap to buy, cheap to run and perfectly effective. The same applies if you’re trying to fight damp or mould in a smaller area, such as a wardrobe, utility room or box bedroom.
If you’re pulling out 15 to 20 litres per day, the dehumidifier needs to have a tank with the capacity to handle it or you’ll be emptying it out every few hours. Three litres is the absolute minimum, while five or six litres will give you a bit less emptying to do.
Is there anything else worth looking out for?
Dehumidifiers don’t have to be noisy, and there are some good near-silent options. They will work discreetly in your home without interfering with your sleep or work, so a quiet mode or eco mode is well worth any extra, particularly if it will save you some cash in running costs.
Laundry modes are another great feature. Wet laundry drying on a rack or radiator is one of the most common causes of excess moisture in the winter months, and models with a specific laundry setting are designed to suck the water out of your drying clothes at a faster rate and prevent it from adding to the room’s humidity. They might even create airflow across a drying rack. Your clothes should dry quicker, too, making this a more eco-conscious alternative to slinging them into a tumble dryer.
How much do they cost to run?
This varies according to the design, size and extraction rate. Generally speaking, desiccant dehumidifiers use more energy per hour than a compressor model, but can also work more effectively at removing moisture, which means costs tend to even out.
However, it’s worth looking out for newer and more energy-efficient designs. For example, Meaco’s MeacoDry Arete One 20L costs around 6p per hour to run, based on an electricity rate of 28.3p per kWh, while some models will cost significantly more at the same rate. Use your dehumidifier daily for a couple of hours and the difference soon mounts up.
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The best dehumidifiers to buy
1. Inventor Dehumidifier Fresh 12l/Day: The best-value dehumidifier
Price: £143 | Buy now from Amazon 
This compact dehumidifier from UK manufacturer Inventor crams in plenty of moisture-fighting power. It will remove up to 12 litres per day, filling into a 2.1-litre tank, and there’s a hose for continuous drainage if you’ve got a drain within easy reach. The “Silent” function is arguably a misnomer: it’s quieter, but at around 41dB there’s still a noticeable fan hum. Otherwise, this is an easy-to-use dehumidifier that does the job, with a digital humidity indicator, built-in air filtration and an automatic shut-off when the tank gets full.
At 11.4kg, it’s just about light enough to move from room to room, and the smart defrost function means it will work in cooler environments than many compressor models. There’s also an automatic timer to turn it on and off when you’re not in the room, plus a continuous dehumidification mode you can use when you have a damp room, spillages or clothes to be dried. If you have a larger house or want to dry multiple rooms at once, you might want to step up to a 20-litre model, but this is a brilliant no-fuss option at a reasonable price.
Key specs – Dehumidifier type: Compressor; Tank size: 2.1 litres; Extraction rate: 12 litres per day; Dimensions: 42 x 32 x 21.5cm (HWD); Weight: 11.4kg; Warranty: 2 years
2. DeLonghi Tascuigo AriaDry Multi 16L: The best dehumidifier for small to mid-sized homes
Price: £280 | Buy now from Appliances DirectThe AriaDry Multi is a stylish, compact dehumidifier which comes in a glossy midnight blue. It’s easy to use, with just three humidity settings targeting 40%, 50%, and 60% levels, and a laundry function. It’s easy to look after too – the 2.1l water tank pulls out neatly from one side, and DeLonghi also provides you with an outlet and a 1m plastic hose for continuous draining, if that’s an option. 
Don’t get too excited about any claims of silent running – we found that, while actively dehumidifying, it puts out around 50dB on all of its three settings, so you won’t want to sit and watch the TV while it’s on. However, it’s a good performer for its size, reducing humidity in a damp-prone living room by 9% in the first hour and by nearly 22% within two hours. The laundry function’s quite effective too, helping dry your washing indoors without adding a layer of condensation to the windows. And, at 9kg, it’s light enough to take from room to room, making this a great dehumidifier for the average flat or small to medium-sized home.
Key specs – Dehumidifier type: Compressor; Tank size: 2.1 litres; Extraction rate: 16 litres per day; Dimensions: 50.8 x 33.2 x 22cm (HWD); Weight: 9kg; Warranty: 2 years
Buy now from Appliances Direct
3. Princess Smart Dehumidifier 20L: The best smart dehumidifier for power
Price: £279 | Buy now from Currys 
Don’t get too excited about this dehumidifier’s smart capabilities. You can connect it to your smartphone or tablet via Bluetooth, but the app is little more than a glorified remote control with only basic scheduling features and no way to integrate with existing air quality metres you might have hooked up. That aside, it’s a well-designed and effective dehumidifier, capable of extracting up to 20 litres per day into a larger-than-average 6-litre tank. We found this surprisingly easy to remove from the rear of the machine when full, with a built-in handle for carrying.
The Princess isn’t as quiet as Meaco’s Arete models, but you can live with the 46dB it puts out at its highest fan setting, or the 40dB noise levels at low. It also has a useful laundry drying feature that makes the most of the vertical swing on the air output and the powerful fan. It’s simple to control, either through the app or via the built-in controls, and you can keep an eye on the current humidity level through a subtle “hidden” digital display on the front. Rival dehumidifiers have the edge on noise and performance, but the Princess gives you a great set of features at a very reasonable price.
Key specs – Dehumidifier type: Compressor; Tank size: 6 litres; Extraction rate: 20 litres per day; Dimensions: 59.5 x 37.1 x 25.1cm (HWD); Weight: 16.4kg; Warranty: 2 years
4. MeacoDry Arete One 20L: The best dehumidifier for larger homes
Price: £260 | Buy now from Meaco 
High-capacity dehumidifiers are usually power-hungry and noisy, but the MeacoDry Arete One is designed to do more with less energy and a lower volume, topping out at 40dB during typical use and keeping consumption to around 200W. In fact, both figures fall dramatically as humidity levels start to drop. It’s an excellent dehumidifier for larger spaces and, unlike most compressor models, will work at temperatures of between 5 and 25°C.
Its talents don’t end there; it has a laundry mode to dry your washing and a night mode for working quietly while you get some kip, although it’s still not really suitable for lighter sleepers. It also has an air purifier mode, complete with a proper HEPA filter. Throw in easy-to-use controls and a five-year warranty, and you’re looking at one of the most feature-packed and effective dehumidifiers out there, and easily the best for medium-sized and larger homes.
Key specs – Dehumidifier type: Compressor; Tank size: 4.8 litres; Extraction rate: 20 litres per day; Dimensions: 56.2 x 37.6 x 23.2cm (HWD); Weight: 15kg; Warranty: 5 years
5. EcoAir DD1 Simple: The best dehumidifier for colder spaces
Price: £147 | Buy now from Amazon 
This EcoAir model can extract up to seven litres of moisture per day, and as a desiccant-type dehumidifier, it works at lower temperatures than your average refrigerant device.
It’s slightly louder and consumes more power than the equivalent refrigerant, but can also run more effectively over shorter periods. That makes it a good bet for drying clothes or using in an outside office, garage or workshop where damp is becoming a problem, and it’s relatively lightweight and portable to boot.
With a two-litre tank, it might need emptying more regularly than some models, but there’s a 1m hose if you need continuous draining into a sink or drain. And while there’s no timer, you do get a laundry mode and a choice of quiet and turbo functions, and the rotary control is – as advertised – simple and easy to use.
Keep it running all day long and the costs could mount up, but this is an excellent dehumidifier for situations where a refrigerant model just won’t work.
Key specs – Dehumidifier type: Desiccant; Tank size: 2 litres; Extraction rate: 6 litres per day; Dimensions: 48.5 x 29 x 17.5cm; Weight: 6kg; Warranty: 2 years
6. MeacoDry Arete One 10L: The best dehumidifier for smaller homes
Price: £160 | Buy now from Meaco 
The latest model in Meaco’s dehumidifier range is a compact version of the superb Arete One, dropping the extraction rate down to 10 litres per day, but reducing the size of the unit to less than 50cm high. Not only is the Arete One 10L physically unobtrusive, but it’s also impressively quiet. While we measured noise levels of around 42dB with the fans running at full tilt, these rapidly decreased to well under 40dB, which is about as close as dehumidifiers get to silent. In its night mode, the Arete One 10L can go as low as 35dB.
Just like the larger model, the 10L has a laundry mode to dry your washing, and can double as an air purifier with the bundled HEPA filter inserted – although we found it a little less effective in our air-purifying tests than most dedicated models. As a dehumidifier, it’s hard to fault, working efficiently in small and medium-sized rooms to reduce humidity levels and get rid of mould and moisture. Throw in the intuitive controls and easily removable water tank, and this is the best of the compact options, and ideal for smaller rooms and homes.
Key specs – Dehumidifier type: Compressor; Tank size: 2.5 litres; Extraction rate: 10 litres per day; Dimensions: 47.2 x 23.7 x 31.9cm (HWD); Warranty: 5 years parts and labour
7. ProBreeze PB-13 1500ml Premium: The best budget dehumidifier
Price: £70 | Buy now from AmazonThis ProBreeze dehumidifier uses Peltier technology, giving it two immediate advantages: it’s very quiet and very cheap. Putting out approximately 42dB, it’s nearly as low-noise as the Meaco Arete One 10L, and, while most dehumidifiers start at around £120, you can pick this up for under £70. Peltier tech is also energy-efficient, saving you even more. And at just 30cm high, the PB-13 will barely be noticeable in a corner of the room. 
Of course, there is one major limitation: despite the 1500ml in the title, the PB-13 can only extract around 500ml of moisture from the air per day, so it’s not going to have the same impact on your humidity levels as larger, more expensive units. That’s not a problem in smaller rooms, or where you’ve only got a little excess moisture to deal with, but it’s not really suitable for larger spaces. It’s light, quiet and easy to use, but don’t expect too much in the way of power or laundry-drying features.
Key specs – Dehumidifier type: Peltier; Tank size: 1.5 litres; Extraction rate: 500ml per day; Dimensions: 30.8 x 22.3 x 16cm (HWD); Weight: 2kg; Warranty: 1 year
