Drying washing indoors is bad for your health

What happens when wet washing is dried indoors?

Clothes dry by releasing moisture into dry air. In winter, the relative humidity of the air increases as the temperature drops.  With windows kept shut, moisture inside a property is added to by everyday activities such as showering, cooking and breathing.  Cold damp air means washing will take longer to dry, plus the moisture from wet laundry will further raise humidity levels.  Signs of high moisture levels in a property can be condensation on windows and the growth of mould, damp on walls and on adjacent soft furnishings.

Damp indoor environments are bad for your health

Research has shown that living in damp conditions can cause several health problems including:

• Asthma – reoccurrence for people that already have the condition and possibly the onset of asthma
• Coughing
• Wheezing
• Catching colds, chest infections and flu’s
• Being short of breath or finding it hard to breathe
• Rhinitis – swelling of the lining of the nose, causing sneezing and a runny or blocked nose

Mites and bacteria flourish in damp conditions

Mould releases mould spores (seeds) to spread around a home causing allergic reactions to some when inhaled. In addition, a less visible effect of high humidity is a rise in dust mites, who reproduce when the relative humidity is high, and the allergic reactions (e.g. asthma symptoms, eczema and rhinitis) caused when their droppings are inhaled.

One way to protect one’s health and reduce the effects of high humidity from indoor clothes drying, is to use a dehumidifier.

How to use a dehumidifier for drying washing fast

• Take the clothes and hang them up or put them onto a clothes horse making sure that the clothes are not lying on top of each other.
• Place the rack into the smallest room you have.
• Put the dehumidifier next to rack so that the dry air from the dehumidifier blows over the clothes.
• Don’t let any water drip over the dehumidifier.
• Close any windows and close the door as well.
• Rotate the rack after an hour or so to dry all clothes evenly
• Use a cooling fan (the MeacoFan is very energy-efficient) that you might have spare from the summer to dry the dry air over the clothes faster

This will reduce condensation and mould growth, and dust mite rate of reproduction, so a home will be a healthier place to live; the home will feel warmer and washing will dry faster. 

Which dehumidifier is best for drying washing indoors?

A smaller property will need a small quiet dehumidifier. The MeacoDry ABC 10L and 12L range has been designed with flats and small houses in mind, with a whisper quiet noise level of 35dB, is low-weight (so can be easily moved from room to room) and is available in a choice of colours.

The Good Housekeeping approved  Meaco 12L Low Energy Dehumidifier has been designed specifically with drying washing in mind, for family sized homes.  It has a massive air flow, twice as much as other dehumidifiers.  This combined with its large extraction rate will dry the clothes very fast.  The air is forced across the clothes by a rotating air deflector that moves the air up and down across the clothes.  In Laundry Mode it uses less energy and it has a Quiet Mode to reduce the noise level down to a target 41dB.  It can do this because it uses unique DC Technology.

The Meaco DD8L Zambezi is the pick of the desiccant dehumidifiers for drying laundry as it decreases drying time because of the extra heat generated as it uses a heater as part of the drying process.