Dehumidifiers

[mikebh50]

Quick question now the weather not good we are drying our washing on the landing which in turn is I think causing us to have condensation on all the windows in the morning. So if we were to get a dehumidifier and put it and the washing in say the conservatory would it dry the washing?

Mike

 

[Burnerman]

Its not the appliance you need Mike - for sure, it will remove some of the rooms moisture content but not in the volume you require......can you install a tumble drier somewhere?
John

 

[Iamchamps]

A tumble drier is expensive to run if you want to dry every single clothes wash you do in it. I have my washing drying in a spare room with the window partly open and just a couple of them £1 pot dehumidifiers about. I dont seem to suffer much condensation issues.

 

[Seafarer1966]

Myself and the squaw use an electric dehumidifier to dry the laundry. Now the kids have all gone the small bedroom is the laundry room when it is bad weather. The machine is cheap to run and it does a cracking job. I keep the resultant water (deionised by the dehumidifier), decanting it into empty pop bottles. This goes into the steam iron and if needed, car batteries.

Our dehumidifier is an Argos own brand (Challenge) but it's actually a DeLonghi. Ours is a 12 litres per day model. They have come down in price actually. The model I bought 3 years ago was £150 but I've just looked at the Argos website and they are on sale at the moment at £99.99. Like I said we've had ours for 3 years and it's been a good, reliable machine. When it is full of water it turns itself off.

http://www.argos.co.uk/product/5386956

 

[Burnerman]

How much water comes out of the room when the laundry isn't there, me hearty?
I find mine is great in the summer - 4 litres a day maybe - but in the winter when it's damp as hell outside this reduces to around 1/2 litre per day.
John

 

[Seafarer1966]

I originally bought the dehumidifier to address a damp problem in my hall. It sucked up a fair amount of water each night when I put it on. I subsequently addressed the damp using Dryzone injection cream. Hundreds of 12mm holes in my hall walls later and with knackered knees my damp is sorted.

It was the squaw bless her who tried using our now redundant dehumidifier to dry the laundry.

Well the small bedroom really is a box room and when she's got half a dozen damp pullovers on hangers on the curtain pole, plus damp undies (oooh matron) and socks on the rad plus whatever else on a foldable airer that machine is a godsend (and I'm an atheist saying that).

I haven't noticed any difference in performance during different seasons but then again I haven't really looked.

 

[Burnerman]

Cheers for the reply.....I guess that box room is really quite warm anyway, which makes the washing dry and the moisture being dealt with by the dehumidifier?
Mine is a 100 sovs machine, left on 24/7 to deal with a still air area.
John

 

[Seafarer1966]

Intel Report FAO Burnerman:
After discussion with the squaw on drying laundry I am able to report that our dehumidifier works equally as good with or without the heating on : )

(She's knitting a toy Santa for the grandson at the mo and says hello)

 

[Burnerman]

Mrs Squaw and Mr Brave, it's an honour to greet you both - smoke signals or otherwise
John

 

[mikebh50]

Hi
Thanks for the replies that was my other question as I suggested putting it in the conservatory which has no heating but my better half said that would not work as the room need to be warm/hot to dry the washing even with the dehumidifier in there but looks like that might not be true?.

Mike

 

[Curlewhouse]

As long as the humidity in the conservatory is low, your stuff should still dry, albeit slowly. If there is a good seal between your house and the conservatory (and there is meant to be nowadays), why not open the conservatory windows a bit even on a cool day and get airflow through to dry the clothes? Obviously if there's not a good seal and that would make your house cold it's not so good an idea.

In the current house we are in condensation was a real problem even from showering etc. So now we have the window in there open a crack all year round. Curiously the bathroom is still warm, though a draft doesn't blow in just because of the fortunate configuration of the building I think. But in the end, as clothes drying was a non starter with the condensation, we bought the highest eco rated (B) tumble drier we could for winter day drying. As we're renting until our new house is built I couldn't put a hole in the wall for the vent so we bought a Bosch condensing one which I am amazed at the efficiency of. Our bills also have not gone up as I'd feared to my surprise. Mostly we dry outdoors of course though.