Money expert Martin Lewis says households can use a dehumidifier to dry their clothes instead of a ‘demon appliance’.
As winter gets going and the warm days for drying clothes start to get fewer and further between, households are beginning to battle with trying to dry laundry indoors, and all the many problems that brings with it from mould and condensation to mildew and stale, poorly aired garments.
But the Money Saving Expert founder has warned that tumble dryers are not the answer if you have one eye on your energy bills because the ‘demon appliances’ are actually very expensive to run.
Martin instead suggests that people use dehumidifiers instead, which are significantly cheaper to use and will dry your clothes out quickly and avoid mould, damp or condensation.
Speaking on an episode of The Martin Lewis Podcast on BBC Sounds, Spotify and Apple Music, Martin Lewis named ‘demon appliances’ which people should steer clear of.
One of these was tumble dryers, which are notoriously expensive to run, sometimes costing up to £1 per hour.
Instead, Martin suggested swapping to a tumble dryer. He said: “Many dehumidifiers have different wattages – the one I checked out was 200W.
“Once we know it’s 200W and we know a kilowatt is 1,000W, which is how electricity tends to be priced, we know this is a fifth of a kilowatt.
“And you pay roughly 34p per kilowatt per hour. A fifth is 7p, so you’re going to pay roughly 7p per hour to run a dehumidifier at 200W, assuming it uses full power the whole time.”
Energy costs are slightly down since those calculations, meaning it will only cost about 5.5p an hour now based on 26p unit prices this winter.
By contrast, energy supplier Utilita reckons that a tumble dryer costs as much as 53p to £1 an hour to run, which is ten to 20 times the amount. Demon appliance indeed.
So which is the best dehumidifier or the cheapest dehumidifier?
The Pro Breeze 12L dehumidifier has laundry drying settings built in and a 12-litre tank, meaning you can run it lots of times before you have to empty the tray. It’s available at Amazon for just £134.99, which may sound like a lot up front but it’s much cheaper than running a tumble dryer and cheaper than fixing mould, so it will be worth it in the long run.
Devola has a larger 20L model which also has an air purifier built-in, so you can improve the air quality in your house while also stripping out moisture and drying your clothes. That’s £179.99 for the larger 20L model or just £119.06 for the smaller 12L size, and also has a quiet run mode at just 38db, quieter than a fridge.
Finally, the EcoAir DD1 7L is a bit smaller, but its slimmer profile will fit into a living room more easily. It has a laundry setting and a quiet running level at just 34db, the quietest model here.
It’s slightly pricier at £229 but is the most sophisticated model here with lots of settings, an app to connect to and glowing reviews.
There are some cheapy portable options but these don’t have laundry settings and aren’t recommended for drying clothes as they won’t be powerful enough or have enough water storage.