The look, feel and function of Arete® One: a dehumidifier designed with a real user in mind

Here at Meaco, we understand that a dehumidifier isn’t the most exciting appliance to have in your home, and in the past, they haven’t been very attractive either. Owning a dehumidifier isn’t just about its performance, the way it fits in with the rest of your home is important too. Whether it’s the colour, the sound it makes or even being able to know when the water tank is full, we have designed every last detail to suit the needs of its owner.

Arete® One: The look

If you have thought about buying a dehumidifier, you might worry about it cluttering your home. Since a dehumidifier performs best when it’s left to run in a central area of your home 24/7, we realise this makes their aesthetics as important as their function.

Dehumidifiers don’t have to be an eyesore and that is why we designed the Arete® One under a careful design language, made to blend in with your home, whilst still being highly functional. The smooth curvature and matte finishes connects the design to the softer surfaces in a home like sofas and curtains. A monotone colour scheme aims to transcend taste and fit into a wide variety of settings, whilst bringing emphasis to user touchpoints (changing the filter, emptying the water tank, adjusting the settings).

Where the dehumidifier lives is important too. Look at any other dehumidifier and you will see that it should be 30-40 cm away from the wall or any piece of furniture. Dehumidifiers are often placed in a hallway or landing; and, for most of us, getting this 30-40 cm away from the wall is very inconvenient. With Arete® One, none of this is a problem. You can push Arete® One right up to the wall and it will work as normal. Flush and out the way, just like another piece of furniture.

Arete® One: How it feels

We designed Arete® One based on hundreds of customers’ feedback to make sure it was engineered to be as convenient for the user as possible.

The water tank

Nobody who owns a dehumidifier wants to pull out the water tank every time to check if it’s full. Arete® One’s water tank is positioned at the front with a large window to avoid this very problem. Or even better, simply just wait for the water tank full light to appear on the interface!

Having the water tank at the front also makes for an easy emptying process. While having the water tank positioned at the rear gives the dehumidifier nice clean lines, it makes the emptying process far more difficult. You can imagine the frustration: turning the dehumidifier around to access the tank, taking out the tank, emptying it, replacing it, and turning it back again into position. With Arete® One’s water tank at the front, you can pull it straight out, without having to adjust the dehumidifier. A simple yet significant design feature.

The water tank is fitted with large hand holds at the side, allowing a natural position to grip the tank and pull it out. On the larger 20L and 25L models the tank has a handle to make it easier to carry because of the increased weight of a full tank. We also added pouring holes on both the left and right sides of the tank, making it easy for left and right handed people to empty the tank.

Another minor issue we noticed is the inevitable slight water spillage that occurs when removing the water tank. To remove this issue we designed Arete® One so that, when the tank is full, its compressor is turned off so no more water is collected. Then, the fan will run for 3 minutes to blow the last drops of water through from the condensate tray, down the spout and into the bucket. This allows for a drip-free emptying of the water tank.

The handle

Dehumidifiers can be heavy and awkward items to carry between rooms, making the handle a crucial feature to get right. This is another area that dehumidifier designers try to save money on by building the handle into the mould on the rear or the side of the machine. This methodology does make for a cheaper dehumidifier to produce, but it isn’t ideal for the customer who has to live with the machine.

The Arete® One handle is hidden in the centre of the control panel, positioned directly above the machine’s centre of mass, making it far easier to either wheel along or lift. Once you have moved your dehumidifier the handle can be recessed, disappearing from view.

The cable

Arete® One is all about clean lines and great design. We didn’t want this to be spoiled with an excess of mains cable on view. The cable tidy allows you to coil up the excess lead so that it is hidden from view. It’s the small things that make a big difference.

The filter

A standard dehumidifier will have a dust filter to stop dirt from blocking up the cooling coils. Arete® One has a standard dust filter and an additional H13, medical grade HEPA filter, which means it cleans the air whilst it dehumidifies. And because this filter is so large, it means that you get deeper and better air purification.

The air inlet that the filter protects is at the rear of the machine. Just like with the water tank, we didn’t want users to have to keep moving the dehumidifier back and forth, so with Arete® One you can slide the filter out and access both the dust filter and the HEPA filter without having to move the machine.

You should clean the dust filter every two weeks and replace the HEPA filter when it turns from white to grey. To learn more about how to install your filters you can watch our YouTube video here.

Arete® One: The functions

When it comes to operating a dehumidifier, research teaches us: the simpler the better. There is education out there on relative humidity and correct fan speed, but many of us don’t have time to figure this out (or we just don’t want to!). With Arete® One, the machine does all the hard work for you. On top of this, smart modes are triggered at the touch of one button.

Smart Humidity Mode

If you are not bothered understanding relative humidity and you don’t know what target humidity you should be aiming for, then just turn Arete® One on and do nothing. The machine will automatically control to a sensible level, and you can go off and do something more interesting instead.

Smart Laundry Mode

Arete® One is perfect for drying laundry. There is nothing more frustrating than waiting days for your clothes to dry; but with Arete® One, you can dry a load of washing on an airer in less than six hours. Simply press the Smart Laundry button and walk away.

Not only this, once the air around the clothes is dry enough, Arete® One is so clever that it turns its compressor off and runs in fan only mode, continuing to dry the clothes as cheaply as possible. Once the 6 hours are up, Arete® One will turn itself off completely. That’s why we call it Smart Laundry mode.

Night Mode

Night Mode does a number of different things to ensure you sleep soundly with your Arete® One running. Turning off all lights means no annoying glow in the bedroom. Switching any bleeps off means no waking you up when the tank is full. On top of this, Arete® One will run at low fan speed only.

It will still work to whatever target you have set it to, it will just do so quietly. Because of this, Night Mode is popular not just at night, but whenever and wherever in the home you would like to be able to concentrate on something else.

We want our dehumidifiers to be an easy appliance to own, which is why we have taken care with the intricate details of its design. Hopefully this blog has given you a background into how the look, feel and function of Arete® One came to be what it is today.