I tried everything to solve damp at home and this was the only thing that worked (original) (raw)
When my house was built in 1929 the bathroom was not designed with a 2024 lifestyle in mind - the need to facilitate long, hot baths and a revolving door of users visiting the shower. It is spacious enough for a four-piece bathroom set but the window is way too small for the amount of condensation a busy family bathroom produces, especially in the winter.
Opening this under-sized window, a ceiling fan extractor, a garden of plants that claim to absorb moisture were of some help last winter but when the bathroom was under siege from family use and they were no match for the tsunami of condensation.
I tried turning on the heating of course, but with energy bills are soaring the thought of doing that too often making my blood pressure soar too, I researched the problem and what I found made me feel much better - it appears to be quite a common problem for many people and it was comforting to know it wasn't alone.
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Hundreds of positive reviews of dehumidifiers were a revealed during my research and I was tempted but, as the problem is sizable, I knew I needed a larger machine that could match so a smaller, cheaper unit was probably a waste of money, so I narrowed it down to the Meaco MeacoDry ABC Dehumidifier an overall size of 10 litres which claimed to cost only around 5p per hour to use.
I kept changing my mind - putting it in my Amazon basket and then coming off the website, deciding that £149.99 was way too much to be spending on this problem, until I saw the start of black mould creeping around the useless window and I knew I had to splash out on this soggy situation. The unit looked like it was popular, also available for the same price, from John Lewis.
Compact but powerful it's now a valued member of our family! (Image: Meaco)
Can you get excited about a dehumidifier? I didn't think so until I started using the MeacoDry and now I'm rather too excited about how it has become a valued member of the family, no, honestly, it really has. Maybe my dehumidifier rambles have become a great cure for insomnia, but my family and friends have managed to stay awake long enough for me as I reveal how amazing this product actually is.
When the neat gadget turned up and I unboxed it I did wonder if it could cope with the amount of condensation our bathroom was producing. After reading the instructions - this is absolutely vital for your safety and care of the machine - I placed it in the room after the morning crop of showers had been completed, with the door open and window closed and wandered off for a while.
Easy to use controls but it's vital to read all the instructions for safety plus machine care (Image: Meaco)
The air was thick with moisture droplets and the mirrors were steamed up to sauna standard when I left but when I returned about 90 minutes later it was almost all gone - I was stunned. After switching it off I opened the tray at the bottom of the unit and it was full.
There was, and still is, a sense of wonderment on how this compact unit can tackle so much moisture and at a noise level low enough to have Quiet Mark approval.
Some pointers that I quickly learnt - check on the 2.6 litre tray on a regular basis as it fills up more quickly than you might expect, although there is an auto stop that is supposed to kick in when the tank is full.
Customer reviews include people using it to help dry clothes by placing it in the utility room (Image: Meaco)
Also, if it's going in a bathroom, keep the lid of the toilet down. I was puzzled the one time I forgot to do this as the tray was filling up very quickly and then when I looked down the loo it hardly had any water left in the bowl - ha, the machine was drying up the loo too!
The unit also has a child lock and a timer and the instructions also say don't let it get splashed with water and only clean with a dry cloth.
I'm not alone in my enthusiasm for the machine with both retailers showing 4.6 out of 5 star customer review level with one John Lewis customer summing up what the majority of reviews are saying by leaving the comment, 'Works amazingly, great for when needing to dry laundry indoors - it just pulls the moisture out and dries it super quickly. Has also really helped with high humidity issue causing mildew, and general level of humidity in my home helping with health. I recommend'.
Used by some people to eliminate condensation and moisture in the kitchen from cooking (Image: Meaco)
The only negative is the weight of it - I can't lift or manoeuvre it very easily but that is really an issue more of my lack of muscle strength. Reviews on the John Lewis and Amazon sites include people who love using the unit for drying clothes by placing it in the utility room and generally taking moisture out of the air in older buildings more prone to damp.
It's been a game-changing in our house - we have said goodbye damp and the worry of mould and hello to happy condensation free bathroom.
You can buy the Meaco Dry ABC Dehumidifer from Amazon, here, if you want it in a different colour to suit your desired room, buy directly from Meaco, here.
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