With the DD8L Pro, we completely reimagined the desiccant dehumidifier from the ground up, putting performance and user control at the centre of the design.
We have been selling desiccant dehumidifiers since circa 2005 and therefore have an ingrained and deep knowledge of how they work, which applications they are best suited for and, thanks to our close relationship with our customers, a very good understanding of what customers like and dislike about them.
There was a time when sales of desiccant and compressor dehumidifiers were roughly 50 / 50. As sales of compressor dehumidifiers started to grow around 2018, desiccant models remained stable until energy prices increased significantly in Autumn 2022. At that point consumers began to scrutinise any appliance perceived to consume more electricity. Tumble dryers were a good example of this, and ironically a dehumidifier provides a cheaper alternative method to dry clothes.
The profile of dehumidifiers increased as they were seen as a money saving alternative to the tumble dryer. With more people working from home, dehumidifiers shifted from a niche product into the mainstream. This led to a massive increase in sales volumes for compressor dehumidifiers, but desiccant dehumidifiers did not follow suit.
This is largely because of the headline wattages of the two technologies. A really energy efficient dehumidifier like the Meaco Arete® can have a rated wattage of 150 to 200 watts depending on its size, while a desiccant dehumidifier will typically have a rated wattage of around 660 watts. At first glance this is a huge difference and explains why many consumers moved away from desiccant models and chose compressor dehumidifiers instead.
But like a lot of things in life, it is not as simple as that.
Desiccant vs Compressor Dehumidifiers: Which Is Cheaper to Run in Cold Temperatures?
What we should really be looking at is litres of water extracted per kW of electricity used. That gives a true reflection of which type of technology is cheapest to run and best suited to a particular application.
Compressor dehumidifiers extract less water as the relative humidity and/or temperature falls. This affects their energy efficiency and means that they are definitely not the answer to all dehumidifier applications.
For most domestic applications, there is no need to drive relative humidity particularly low, as this would usually be a waste of money. The only times you may want to go below 50%rh are when drying laundry with a dehumidifier or during very cold nights to help reduce window condensation.
To keep things simple, you can focus on temperature to help you decide when to buy a desiccant dehumidifier and when to buy a compressor dehumidifier.
As temperature falls, a compressor dehumidifier extracts less and less water. This is true of all compressor dehumidifiers from all manufacturers. It is simply the physics of creating condensation inside the machine at lower and lower temperatures. The process becomes increasingly difficult and requires more energy per litre of water collected. Eventually you reach a tipping point where a desiccant dehumidifier will use less energy and will therefore be cheaper to run to extract the same amount of water.
For small compressor dehumidifiers, typically described as 6L, 10L or 12L, 15°C is the point below which they are no longer the right solution. The larger Meaco Arete® 20L and 25L dehumidifiers have been engineered to remain efficient down to 10°C and provide a low cost solution in areas such as conservatories or unheated bedrooms. Below 10°C a desiccant dehumidifier will always be the right answer.
Despite the higher wattage, it will be the more cost effective solution because the cost per litre of water collected is lower.
Why a Desiccant Dehumidifier Is Ideal for Boats, Garages and Unheated Rooms
Another benefit of a desiccant dehumidifier is that it does what you bought it for: it dries the air and collects water, while also returning the energy it uses back into the room as free heat.
This either supplements your existing heating source or allows you to turn other heating down to keep overall energy consumption cost neutral.
As desiccant dehumidifiers are normally used in colder rooms, customers genuinely appreciate this additional warmth alongside the primary job of keeping the space dry. This makes them particularly well suited to boats coming out of winter storage, garages, workshops and other spaces that remain cold during early spring.
DD8L Pro with Adjustable Wattage: Full Control Over Electricity Consumption
With electricity costs being so high, and set to increase again in 2026, it is understandable that consumers focus on headline wattage figures rather than the detail of how much each litre of water costs to collect.
When we began designing the DD8L Pro, we recognised the need to update the desiccant dehumidifier. The goal was to make it more user friendly and to give the user control over electricity consumption and operating costs.
On the DD8L Pro the user has two choices when it comes to electricity consumption and dehumidification power. You can allow the dehumidifier to make all of the decisions, adjusting power automatically to reach the desired relative humidity that you have set as a target, or you can take full control.
In manual mode you can select one third, two thirds or full power, which equates to 230 watts, 440 watts or 630 watts. This is new for a Meaco desiccant dehumidifier and places the customer and the cost of electricity at the heart of the product design. In many applications 230 watts will be perfectly sufficient to maintain the desired relative humidity.
Designing our products here in Britain gives us a real advantage. Feedback comes through our customer services team in Guildford and goes directly to the product design team for implementation.
The Meaco Arete® Two has been a huge success, so we carried across the user interface and large LCD display. It provides far more feedback and gives the user a clear understanding at a glance of what the machine is doing and how it is interacting with its target relative humidity.
The Best Dehumidifier for Drying Laundry Indoors Quickly and Cheaply
One of the most common reasons people now buy a dehumidifier is to help dry their laundry. Awareness has grown of both the cost of using a conventional tumble dryer and the moisture damage caused by leaving clothes to dry naturally around the house.
A dehumidifier dries clothes by trapping the moisture and preventing condensation and mould problems within the home. In theory a desiccant model should be excellent at drying washing, especially as people often dry clothes in unheated or colder rooms where the additional warmth is welcome. However, until now, no desiccant dehumidifier had been designed specifically for laundry drying from inception. With the DD8L Pro, that changed.
To dry clothes quickly you need three elements, strong airflow, dry air and heat. The DD8L Pro delivers all three.
The crucial factor is ensuring that the dry air hits the clothes on the airer.
Our design team spent months refining the airflow from the front louvre to ensure that air travels as close to the ground as possible to reach garments on the lower tiers of a clothes airer, and high enough to hit those at the top. The user can select the angle through which the louvre travels so that the airflow matches their specific setup.
The result is quite simply the fastest way to dry your washing.
In our laundry drying tests comparing natural drying, a compressor dehumidifier and the DD8L Pro, with and without a Meaco Sefte® Pedestal Fan, the DD8L Pro dried a load of washing in just 3½ hours on its own and in 1 hour 40 minutes when assisted by the fan, all for around 32p. That represents a substantial saving over using a tumble dryer.
Attention to Detail: British Engineered Features That Reduce Common Issues
It was not only the user interface that was carried across from previous models. The popular sterilising ioniser from the Meaco DD8L Zambezi has also been included in the Pro to help reduce viruses, bacteria, mould spores and other allergens in the air.
Like the Arete®, many of the features that make the DD8L Pro special come down to small details which, when combined, create a machine greater than the sum of its parts and superior to other dehumidifiers. These include:
Night Mode turns off all lights and bleeps, ensuring the dehumidifier does not disturb you while you sleep. In this mode, the louvre opens as wide as possible to reduce resistance on the exiting air and minimise noise for quieter operation.
The hose is configured to drain downhill, simplifying continuous drainage and ensuring consistent performance.The lid of the water tank includes an adapter to match a standard garden hose, reducing unnecessary plastic and allowing installation to the left or right. Crucially, the hose can only be locked in place when draining downhill, preventing common issues with water not flowing correctly.
The no-drip bucket design ensures a clean and mess-free operation. When removing the tank to empty it, a cover automatically flips into place to seal the drainage spout, preventing leaks into the tank compartment.
Fan management addresses common customer questions about why the fan continues running after switching off the machine. This behaviour, common to all desiccant dehumidifiers, is essential to allow internal components to cool properly, extending the machine’s lifespan. To reassure users, a countdown progress bar shows the fan is operating normally and steadily progressing towards shutting down.
A cable tidy and overheating protection reduce errors caused by restricted airflow. The cable tidy positions the unit at the correct distance from walls or furniture to prevent overheating. The DD8L Pro is designed so that even if overheating occurs, built-in safety devices prevent damage, reducing unnecessary error codes or customer concerns.
When you consider the level of attention to detail that has gone into the design, it becomes clear why Meaco dehumidifiers are so highly rated and win so many awards. The DD8L Pro is already a Which? Best Buy and has received excellent reviews from both professional media and customers alike.
If you have any comments on how we could improve one of our products in the future, please feel free to email sales@meaco.com. Your feedback will reach the right people within our design and engineering teams, and we are always grateful for your input.
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