Dehumidifier or Tumble Dryer

[liberatordeluxe]

Does anyone own a dehumidifier and how effective are they are for drying laundry? The Ebac dehumidifiers seem to get good reviews though not sure if i would be better off considering a dryer. Only issue is i have no spare room for one so maybe a compact one would be a good compromise?

 

[awooff]

Dehumidifier

Central illinois here and most people here use a dehumidifier almost year around else a musty basement smell will result. My dehumidifier can run constant and barely keeps up, thinking its a 30 pint/24hrs. - thinking wet laundry would not dry well as about 47 percent humidity is as low as i can get it. Adding wet laundry to the room would overshoot humidity levels.

Aaron

 

[wayupnorth]

My next door neighbors bought a Whirlpool heat pump dryer recently. Granted that it does use less power to operate but nearly 3 hours for a load of towels and then a big container of water to empty.

 

[logixx]

Many dehumidifiers around here gave a Clothes Drying setting. Swiss manufacturer V-Zug had dehumidifiers in their portfolio that would be mounted to the wall in "drying rooms" where you could hang your clothes and dry them that way.

 

[petek]

Never heard of using a dehumidifier for drying clothes. That being said if you were to it would probably be best to use it as such in a smaller room that can be closed to other parts of the house. As well when it comes to dehumidifiers it's generally better to go for the largest capacity model rather than smaller. THey extract more, more quickly, and shut off (less usage) whereas a smaller unit will have to run longer to achieve the same result.

 

[launderess]

Dry air (as in less damp) is better for drying, but movement of air currents is also important.

This summer was horribly moist and quite warm. We had air conditioner on constantly more to cope with humidity (damp) than anything else. When drying laundry on airer or clothes horse would also have a small fan going to circulate and move air. Things would dry but AC had to cope with all that extra moisture removed from air.

If climate and or air is already damp, you're going to be placing more work on a dehumidifier as it must cope with also moisture evaporating off laundry as well. Would think if you could confine laundry and dehumidifier to an area that could be closed off (small room, airing cupboard) might prove more efficient.

They were often expensive to run, and could prove dangerous, but those compact drying cabinets were invented for just this sort of dilemma.

https://www.1900s.org.uk/1950s-60s-flatley.htm
[this post was last edited: 10/9/2021-17:20]

 

[tomdawg]

Glad I’m not crazy for thinking this!

Someday, someday in my dream laundry room. I want to build a cabinet with a dehumidifier in it to create a fast and effective drying system.
Before kids and mountains of laundry… I would hang most clothes up after the wash and my garments would look almost new after 10 years. I see the differences when you throw clothes in the dryer.

Sorry I’m not much help. I hope you find a solution!

 

[launderess]

No need to build any such thing IMHO, well not unless sort of person that likes busy work. *LOL*

Asko, Maytag and Whirlpool sold drying cabinets for years in USA. Not sure if one or both still do, but can find units on fleaPay, CL, FB and elsewhere. Many nearly unused with plenty of life left.

Americans never really took to concept of drying cabinets, though they had been around since early part of last century. Tumble dryers largely replaced drying cabinets, but if one had room would have the former in a heartbeat.

 

[logixx]

Some Swiss laundry (drying) rooms.

 

[logixx]

The fancy alternative

V-Zug Dual Dry dryer that opens up to dehumidify the air.

 

[launderess]

DualDry - VZug

Interesting concept.

Basically takes in damp air and like an air conditioner cools it to drain out moisture. Cooled air is then heated and then either sent back into room or to drum to dry laundry. All this working off a heat pump dryer system.

Dryers and Tumblers | V-ZUG Switzerland

V-ZUG’s dryers and tumblers for home use and multi-family housing boast a long service life, low energy consumption and excellent drying performance. Read more.

www.vzug.com

 

[chrisbsuk]

Hi Liberator!

I've got a Meaco Dehumidifier that I use to dry laundry with - for the bits like jumpers that I don't put into the tumble dryer.

It has a specific laundry setting on it, which basically means it runs continuously until you either turn it off, or the water container fills up. It works exceptionally well, drying a full rail of jumpers that have been spun at 600-800rpm, overnight - the trick however, as I have found (and the instructions tell you this too) is to make sure that at least some of the air exiting the unit blows towards the clothes on the rail, as this helps somewhat. It's also important to have the room it is in at a fairly decent temperate to support the dehumidification process (after all, water doesn't evaporate in a freeing cold garage for example!) - dehumidifiers, particularly ones that have refrigerant systems in, need a little bit of warmth to support their operation.

I have a Heat Pump tumble dryer for towels, bed linen etc etc - I suspect however, the dehumidifier would dry these too, albeit may take slightly longer.

I've stuck a link in below for the unit that I have here - have a look at the reviews too, most of those cover drying laundry too. Give me a shout with any more questions!
Chris

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www.johnlewis.com

 

[whatsername]

Does the LG styler count as a drying cabinet? No mention of drying in its description, just steam.

 

[eurekastar]

Interesting thread to read!  In my part of the world, we have just the opposite issue -- not enough humidity.  Here, people often have evaporative coolers (swamp coolers) to cool their homes in summer and to introduce humidity into their homes!  But they are only effective at cooling when the humidity outside is low.  In seasons with a lot of thunderstorm activity, they don't work so well.

 

[henene4]

Stacking

I know many people who say they don't have space for dryer, and just forget to stack them.

But a tumble dryer isn't matchable in results by any form of hang drying.
Softer, less creased, quicker.

I live near the sea and if you hang dry here, you need a huge space and constant ventilation, otherwise you will have mold issues.
I have some granulat based dehumidifiers in my kitchen and bedroom to keep moisture levels even. They wouldn't be viable if I used them as clothes drying support.

I tumble dry everything and so do both of my flatmates, but we still use an acceptable amount of power.
An A++ dryer for a single person should be enough in terms of efficiency and can be had pretty cheap.
A+++ of course is better, but a bit more pricey.

If a washer dryer combo is the way to go, many of those sadly use a lot of energy, a lot of water for drying and are anything but safe for everything.

The only reasonable washer dryer combo with a heat pump is the AEG ÖkoKombi, but it is on the more expensive, complicated and failure prone machines.
But it performs pretty OK apparently for a combo.

Pricing is comparable to a mid-line washer and heat pump dryer seperartly.
But I would get an extended warranty for sure with that one.

 

[henene4]

LG drying cabinet

On that - I think it has a dry only function, but I don't think it's intended to be a main feature.
But I'd imagine that it isn't much quicker than well spun loads with a dehumidifier in the room. Especially if you have to run multiple loads consecutively, but I guess the same is true for a dryer.

 

[warmsecondrinse]

I've learned bigger is better. Go for a 90pt/24hr model. I have a Danby. It's quiet and fills the tank in about 8 hours.

When the weather is cooler you could also use a heated drying rack. See link below. They're just like any other folding drying rack but the rails warm up.

Others have a bonnet you pull over the clothes and attach what is essentially a hair dryer.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/233275638986?hash=item36504fc4ca:g:tA8AAOSw7e9dGfvm

There's also this DIY drying cabinet I found online:

https://www.hunker.com/12407287/how-to-build-a-laundry-drying-cabinet

Let me know how it goes...

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www.amazon.com

 

[warmsecondrinse]

The Flately looks like something people could use today.

I'd probably want a few minor updates like a timer, auto-off switches in the event of overheating. tipping, etc.

 

[lakewebsterkid]

Dehumidifier

Our old house did not have a basement. Thus, we never needed a dehumidifier as we always ran the air when it was humid, and always had issues with dry air when the heat-pump was on in the winter.
Now, we have a house with a basement, and we keep the HVAC fan on to keep the air circulating. Though, the air is not as dry in the new house in the summer. When clothes are laid out to dry, they do take longer now.
With that said, a dehumidifier would be necessary if we hung or laid all clothes out to dry. Instead we use a dryer for quite a bit of items. IF I were in a location that did deal with more humidity and dried clothes inside, I feel that a dehumidifier would be necessary even while using HVAC.