and as it can take up to 10l of excess moisture out of the air daily, you shouldn’t have to constantly empty the tank unless your space is suffering from high humidity. 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. 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. The water tank is situated at the front of the unit and there’s a small window, so you can keep an eye on the water level, but when it’s full the LED light will light up to indicate it needs emptying. 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.

While, normally, they’d be sitting on the clothes horse for a couple of days, by using this machine, they were all cupboard dry within 24 hours. Another option is to just use the top half and run its hose into a sink or drain so that you never have to empty it at all. 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 less than one litre. Dehumidifiers are often rated in terms of their extraction rate: how much water they can remove from the air in a single day. Sharp keeps things simple with just two modes – Dehumidfy and Dry – to tackle damp and deal with your laundry.While it doesn’t have a dedicated laundry mode, it did reduce laundry-drying times, thanks to the powerful fan. Not only that, a good dehumidifier will reduce dust and allergens in the air, as well as help reduce any odours.

A choice of fan speeds is possible so you can select a quieter more discreet level of operation, whilst the integrated carry handles and easy glide castors aid positioning around the home. Although this dehumidifier doesn’t have a dedicated laundry mode, it worked well when it came to drying clothes, especially when on full speed. The first button lets you cycle through the target humidity in five per cent increments from 40 to 70 per cent.It’s worth noting, though, that its maximum extraction of 250ml is one hundred times less than the Honeywell 24l and it works best above 15C (so no good for very cold rooms in winter). 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. What further sets the Midea Cube apart is that it is smartphone compatible, meaning you can not only control it from your mobile (or smart devices like Alexa or Google) but can also enjoy real-time monitoring of the humidity status and alerts when the water tank is full.

There’s also a safety feature designed into the lid, so children’s fingers won’t get caught if they investigate it. 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 ten litres and beyond.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. We tested the laundry function, using it to dry a range of clothing – from light pillowcases to thick denim – and found it worked extremely well. 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. The latest model in Meaco’s dehumidifier range is a compact version of the superb Arete One, dropping the extraction rate down to ten litres per day, but reducing the size of the unit to less than 50cm high. We all want to save energy at the moment – and that’s where the Meaco 20L Low Energy comes into its own,” adds Kandola.