Drying Clothes With a Dehumidifier: Does It Work?

Can a dehumidifier really dry a load of washing?

Yes. A dehumidifier pulls the water your washing gives off straight back out of the room, so clothes on an airer dry properly instead of dumping moisture into your walls and windows. UK owners routinely report a full airer drying overnight, and several say they have stopped using their tumble dryer altogether.

There is a second benefit, and it is the one people notice a fortnight later. Drying laundry indoors without extraction is one of the biggest moisture loads a UK house takes on, and it is a common cause of window condensation and black mould in bedrooms. Move that water into a tank and the condensation problem you did not connect with the laundry tends to go with it.

How long does it take, and does it beat an airer alone?

Six to eight hours is the figure most consistently quoted for a dehumidifier working alongside a laundry rack, and owners of 20–25L machines commonly report a full airer drying overnight. An airer on its own has nowhere to put the water: it evaporates into the room and lands on your windows and walls instead.

There is an easy way to see the machine working: look at the tank. That water came out of your clothes and out of the room, and it is a fair proxy for how much moisture would otherwise have gone into the fabric of your house. It also tells you which machine to buy — the MeacoDry ABC's 2.6L tank will need emptying part-way through a big drying session, while the 4.8L tank on the Arete One 20L and 25L will usually see an overnight load through without interruption.

If you dry washing indoors several times a week, size the machine for that job rather than for general damp. We cover the whole ranking, tank sizes included, in our guide to the dehumidifiers UK owners recommend.

Is it cheaper than running a tumble dryer?

Yes, comfortably. The Meaco Arete One 20L draws 195W — about 5p an hour at a typical 27p/kWh unit rate. Eight hours of drying works out at roughly 1.6kWh, or 42p. That same 42p buys you around 47 minutes of a 2kW tumble dryer, and the dehumidifier is drying your whole room at the same time.

The arithmetic is worth doing yourself, because it is simple and it settles the argument. Take the machine's rated wattage, divide by 1,000 to get kilowatts, and multiply by your unit rate. At a typical 27p/kWh, a 195W compressor costs 5.3p an hour. Most 12L compressor models draw 150–220W, so 4–6p an hour. Desiccant models draw considerably more — typically 300–650W, or 8–18p an hour — which is one of several reasons the forums only recommend them for cold spaces.

What does 'laundry mode' actually change?

Laundry mode runs the fan at full speed for a fixed period — usually up to six hours — and ignores the humidity target, so the machine keeps working instead of switching itself off when the room hits 55%. If you plan to dry washing indoors regularly, it is the one feature worth checking for before you buy.

It is not universal, even on good machines. Ebac's 2650e is criticised precisely for lacking a clothes-drying mode, so read the model number rather than trusting the brand. Among the machines we rank, the Meaco Arete One 20L and 25L, the MeacoDry ABC, the Pro Breeze 20L and the EcoAir DD1 all have a dedicated laundry setting.

Pro Breeze's 20L is the value pick here for a reason: its laundry mode and 5.5L tank are the two things reviewers and owners consistently single out, with testers noting how well it performs on drying clothes. The trade-off is noise — several reviewers flag it as too loud for a bedroom, which makes it a utility-room or living-room machine.

What size dehumidifier do you need for drying clothes?

12L a day is the sensible UK starting point for general damp, but indoor laundry is exactly the case that justifies going bigger. Choose 20L a day for a typical 3–4 bed house that dries washing weekly, and 25L if the house is large, cold, or the damp keeps coming back however often you air it.

Remember what that headline number means. The litres-per-day figure is the maximum the machine can extract under warm, humid laboratory conditions — not the tank size, and not what you will see in a chilly British December. Real extraction in a cold room is a fraction of the sticker figure, which is why undersizing shows up first in winter, precisely when you are drying indoors most.

How should you set up the airer and the room?

Small closed room, machine right next to the airer, door shut, garments spaced out. The dehumidifier can only treat the air it can reach, so the most common mistake is a dehumidifier in the hallway and an airer two rooms away with the doors open. Six steps get you the six-to-eight-hour result.

This is the part that separates the households who rave about their dehumidifier from the ones who think it does nothing. Everything below is about concentrating both the moisture and the machine in the smallest volume of air you can spare.

• Put the airer in the smallest room you can spare — a spare bedroom, a utility room or the bathroom — and shut the door.
• Stand the dehumidifier next to the airer, not across the room and not in the hallway outside.
• Point the machine's louvre or air outlet at the clothes, so the dry air it returns passes over the wet fabric.
• Space the garments out with a gap between them, and hang heavy items like jeans and towels at the ends where airflow is best.
• Switch on laundry mode. If your machine has no laundry mode, set the humidistat to around 50% so it does not shut off too early.
• Leave it for six to eight hours, or overnight. Empty the tank before you start, or connect the continuous-drainage hose if the machine has one and you are running it while asleep.

Which dehumidifiers do UK owners use for laundry?

Meaco dominates. The Arete One 25L is the forum pick for households drying washing all year, the 20L suits most homes, and the MeacoDry ABC is the quiet, cheaper option for smaller loads. Pro Breeze's 20L is the value alternative — liked for its laundry mode and 5.5L tank, but noisy.

The MeacoDry ABC is the machine to choose if the airer lives somewhere you also sleep or sit. It is Quiet Mark accredited at around 35dB and owners rate it specifically for drying clothes — though be aware that one side-by-side reviewer found it noisier than the certification suggests, so 'quiet' is relative.

One important caveat if your drying room is cold. Every machine above is a compressor model, and compressors lose efficiency below about 15°C. If you dry washing in an unheated garage, conservatory or outbuilding, you want a desiccant machine such as the EcoAir DD1, which keeps working down to about 1°C and gently warms the space while it runs. We set out the whole trade-off in compressor vs desiccant dehumidifiers, and you can browse the rest of our home appliance guides if laundry is only part of the damp problem.