Good price on Ausclimate Dehumidifiers on Amazon. Not the cheapest but still good.
Also the 20L one is on deal. https://www.amazon.com.au/Ausclimate-NWT-Dehumidifier-Exclus…
CamelCamelCamel.
i can recommend these units especially for QUEENSLANDDDERRRRRRRRS
For Melbourne, the better option would be to go with Desiccant Dehumidifier, not the Compressor version listed here.
I got the desiccant version and the amount of water it has pulled out of the air is a lot.
Not quite as simple as that. Many Melbourne houses are heated and may not need a dehumidifier at all (e.g. reverse cycle air may do the job).
https://coldhotair.com/cooling/central-ac/does-air-condition…
According to this, around 20 degrees is the switch-over point.
https://www.ausclimate.com.au/article/compressor-vs-desiccan…
So, if you run a cold house, it may be better for you to have a dessicant model but it probably won't be as efficient in summer months.
Reverse cycle AC on cooling dehumidifies but does a AC on heating mode dehumidify?
No it doesn't — the "dry" mode on reverse cycle air conditioners actually cools the air. When you have the AC on heating mode, it doesn't dehumidify. You might see the relative humidity drop by 3-4%, but that's mostly just due to the air being heated up.
In summer, when you're using your aircon to cool the air, it does naturally dehumidify as well. However, you can also run your dehumidifier at the same time to help things along, if the air is particularly humid.
The outside unit of an A/C generates water in the summer so I believe it does but I'm not going to bet on it.
I don't get dehumidifiers. So you dehumidify a small enclosed amount of air but you've got all that humid air out there in the world. Do you keep a closed room and the dehumidifier on all the time? Seems like trying to keep the tide out with a bucket.
Yep, you gotta close the windows. Or rather, you close the windows when the humidity outside is high (60% RH or higher). Otherwise all that moisture outside will be constantly trying to get in. And if you have a smaller dehumidifier, you'll definitely need to close the door(s) to your room as well, else the little unit will struggle trying to dehumidify the entire home.
This is why I recommend always getting a medium (20L/day) or large dehumidifier (35L or more/day), and they are much more energy efficient as well compared to the small dehumidifiers — they do draw more power, but they don't need to run as long to achieve their target. Don't get the 10L models, they will struggle to make a difference when you really need them to do their job.
Most people don't run their dehumidifier all the time, only when there's unusually high moisture. They do use a fair bit of continuous power (~350W for medium sized models, 520-760W for the larger ones) so your power bill will definitely stack up if you're running it 24/7.
Dehumidifiers work best if you have a relatively air-tight home (which is very few Aussie homes), else you definitely will be fighting the tide, yes.
Almost all dehumidifiers (including these Ausclimate ones) have a preset humidity level you can set, so it tries to maintain or bring it down to that level, e.g. 50% RH. Once it's reached that level, it'll automatically shut off until it detects that the humidity has risen again. During a very rainy and humid stretch, expect to run the dehumidifier maybe for 3-4 days continuously, 24/7.
I used to think dehumidifiers were useless, but after we started getting all this La Nina weather with weeks of moist air and mould growing despite opening all the windows, I'm a convert. Dehumidifiers for La Nina and floods, air purifiers for COVID and bushfires. Can't wait to see what else the future brings!
It is doing that to a degree…..but periodically drying a room is better than leaving it constantly damp.
Drying washing indoors is one of the worst things you can do and so many people do it not realising that the moisture in the clothes has to go somewhere. Shove it in a room with a dehumidifier running and it will dry faster with the added benefit of the moisture being pulled out of the air.
We normally use a 25l dehumidifier in the bathroom to keep the fog away. During the big wet, our furniture started turning blue green so I shifted it to the lounge and left it run 24 hours per day. Its bucket filled three times per day. It was nowhere near as efficient as in the bathroom but it did slowly bring the humidity level down inside and the mould stopped.
To do a larger area, the 50L size would work better. It would also be heavier to move about than a smaller model.
To your question. Unless you live in a very humid area, you don't need a dehumidifier on all the time. In really humid times close up and switch on. In dry times, open and switch off.
They also do a great job if you spill water on the carpet (but getting a commercial carpet dryer would be better). We were in a place that leaked when rain came from a certain direction. The wall-to-wall carpet was lifted, mop dried then the dehumidifier took over. After two days the carpet and underlay were bone dry (we had tried opening up but improvement was slow).
If you have a small room, they'll function much like a clothes dryer (not as efficient as a dehumidifying clothes dryer).
I have been looking for a few months now, but just wondering if anyone here knows if there is any decent 'dumb' dehumidifiers still being sold? I prefer to get dumb appliances as they can last longer in the long run. Also, I can connect a one to a smart plug that works with HomeKit. There doesn't seem to be any HomeKit dehumidifiers on the market in Aus.
Dehumidifiers shouldn't be switched off with a smart plug as they have a cool down period after turning off where the fan keeps running for a couple minutes.
Yes. My one states to not turn off the power from the outlet as it needs to cool its parts down when unit is turned off.
Oh I did not know that, hmm ok looks like I may need to drop the smart plug idea. I guess another idea is to get a ‘smart’ one like the breville that I can connect via homebridge or something. Tbh it’s probably too much work. These Aus climat ones look decent. I’ll chat to my partner but maybe this is the one device we gotta have a little bit of smarts in 😅
@art-fanatic: I'm curious, what kind of home automation smarts do you need for your dehumidifier? They already have built-in humidistats so you can program them to maintain a set level of humidity, and they'll automatically turn off once they've reached that.
@art-fanatic: BTW, with the Ausclimate compressor dehumidifiers, there doesn't seem to be a problem with switching it off with a smart plug — in fact, in the manual they even recommend using a timer to turn it on and off. There is also an auto-restart function after power loss.
Here, take a look:
https://www.ausclimate.com.au/compressor-dehumidifier-operat…
https://www.ausclimate.com.au/products/nwt-large-35l-dehumid… (best to check the specific model that you're interested in, but I can't imagine that the others would be any different)
I just received my Ausclimate 35L dehumidifier today and can confirm that after you power it off (via the button on the unit), the fan does not continue to spin afterwards, and no power is drawn. It consumes around 0.47W of idle power when "off", according to my Power-Mate Lite.
I also tested the auto-restart functionality by pulling the plug while it was operating at full blast, and then reconnecting it after 5 minutes, and it resumes operation flawlessly as expected.
I recently started dabbling with Home Assistant and have a decent setup now, but I don't expect I'll be using my dehumidifier with a smart plug, at the moment I don't see the need.
We have a Dimplex 25L model in the bathroom.
https://www.dimplex.com.au/en-au/25l-dehumidifier-electronic…
It has a range of switches that let you make a few choices about how it functions but we just switch it on and set the timer for 0.5 hours when we go in for a shower. The timer switches it off. You could set it in a room and have the inbuilt humidistat switch the dehumidifier on and off but the fan would still run. Despite any claims of 'quiet' a fan disturbs the air and is not silent. The mirror never fogs in the bathroom if it runs about 5-10 minutes before the shower goes on (get the humidity down to 60-70 before starting).
We also have have one in a storage area combined with a Rainbird humidistat.
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/332018855588?frcectupt=true
The humidistat switches its power totally on or off. When humidity exceeds a user-set level it switches on. When humidity drops below a user-set level it switches off. It uses a drain tube through the wall into the garden. So, almost set and forget and no wasted fan time. You do need to occasionally check it is working and clean the filter.
https://www.dimplex.com.au/en-au/25l-dehumidifier-electronic…
https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B08KS2NQD2/ref=ppx_yo_d…
I got this one from Amazon UK. It has a build in timer to switch itself off and its been working pretty good against the humid throughout this year
I have the 20L one. Absolutely solid. This sale price is really good.
Does anyone find the humming (white noise) from this tends to get quite loud. We have the 20L model bought in Apr'22 during the peak demand for dehumidifiers
Could be related to the floor not being totally level. If the noise increases as the tank fills, try some cushioning underneath, which seemed to stop the vibration in out Dimplex.
Thanks. Might try that as I'm finding the noise on the unit a bit much at full speed.
Thanks will give it a go
Compressor dehumidifiers are loud, especially the bigger machines. It's simple physics, the fans have to work hard in order for the machine to do its job efficiently. Some dehumidifers have selectable fan speeds, but if you run it at the lower speed then it'll be less efficient. And the reduction in fan noise at the lower setting isn't usually very much anyway.
Don't listen to those silly reviews where people say that dehumidifers are quiet, they are anything but. I find they are often just as loud as air purifiers (which is not surprising as they rely on powerful fans to do their work as well), and people complain about those constantly.
For reference, I measured my Ausclimate 35L dehumidifier at 55.6 decibels average (running at the high/max fan speed) at a distance of 1m away, using the DecibelX app on my phone. At the low fan speed, it's an average of 52.4 decibels.
For comparison purposes, my Xiaomi 3H air purifier reads 58.2 decibels average (running at fan speed 3, the highest stock speed setting though not quite the max power of the machine).
This is loud — the average person would have no chance of sleeping in the same room with these machines at these settings (unless they wear ear plugs or noise cancelling headphones or similar).
NOTE: I have no experience with dessicant dehumifiers — people say they tend to be quieter than compressor dehumidifiers, but I have no idea if that is true or just a load of BS.
I have 2 little kogan ones but they are obviously very limited. Should probably gumtree them.
Reverse cycle aircons can also dehumidify though right? They have a mode for it? I really should check mine as we also had mould issues this year.
Reverse cycle aircons can also dehumidify though right? They have a mode for it?
Yes, but note that the "dry" mode actually cools down the air, so it's not good for winter time. During summer, using your air con in the usual cooling mode does naturally dehumidify the air, though not as much as a dedicated dehumidifier would.
Ah ok thanks deadpoet. Our joint in Sydney is freezing in winter and hot in summer being brick and besser block with rubbish thin windows, we dont even bother fighting it other than running ac in bedorom at night during summer. But as others mentioned above humidity during excessive rain has become a big challenge we need to do better dealing with. Sounds like we might need a standalone unit in the middle of the house.
Yep a standalone dehumidifier is definitely useful for those super rainy periods (I dry my clothes indoors when it's raining or too humid outside). Get a medium or large machine (35L to 50L) because the smaller ones just aren't up to the task.
can anyone help me with my situation?
in melbourne.
I have a shipping container where i store furniture and other stuff (renting the property, so most of my stuff is in temp storage)
its got a whirlybird on top, but with no airflow, its useless.
in summer, its shockingly hot.
in winter, its shockingly cold.
i think some of my furniture is starting to rot, and my gym equipment is rusting. Is a dehumidfyer the way to go?
i want to call a specialist, but i wouldn't know where to start. an Air con specialist?
thanks!!
How hot does it get inside the container? I think a dehumidifier would definitely help, but you may have to look into climate and temperature control as well, yes. Definitely worth talking to a shipping container expert.
10°c in winter up to 50°c on the underside of the roof sheet (roughly about 10°c more inside than outside temp)
i'll try a shipping container modification guy. most shipping container experts i spoke to were salesman looking to sell 'as is' containers
That's a big temperature swing, and I imagine the metal container will be full of condensation…
The storage firms like Storage King give you an indoor unit in a somewhat controlled environment.
If your stuff is just sitting in an unlined steel container outdoors in the weather then yes you're going to have issues.
Mine makes a loud vibrating noise and it doesn't auto shut-off when the tank gets full. it also blows out hot air in summer so its unbearable to use then. I would return it but I'm too lazy to send it back…
How to check humdity levels in the house and whst is considered normal?
Buy a hygrometer/humidity monitor, they cost between $15-35 depending on the model. I like the Acurite brand, you can get them for around $25 when they're on sale:
https://www.amazon.com.au/AcuRite-01083M-Accuracy-Temperatur…
You'll probably need to buy 2-3 of these and leave them in various rooms around your home. They tell you the min and max values reached so you can see what kind of ranges you get over the course of a day. You'll probably find that some rooms are significantly more humid than others.
Once you have a humidity monitor, you'll quickly get a feel for what's normal. A lot of Aussie homes are leaky (lots of outside air coming in via holes/gaps, even when you've got all doors and windows closed) and tend to be very humid as a result.
I'd say anything over 70% RH is quite humid and you might start seeing mould issues. Anything 80-90% is guaranteed mould-growing territory.
40-50% RH is probably ideal. If you live in a leaky home like mine, you'll rarely achieve that, so I'm usually happy with around 60% RH. Make sure you open the windows and ventilate regularly when the outside humidity is low, that will lower the humidity inside your home as well.
Indoor humidity will be very weather-dependent if you live in a leaky home. During super-rainy weeks where it pours non-stop for days on end, it's not uncommon for the indoor RH to shoot up to 80-90% and stay there for long periods, which is where a dehumidifier can be extremely useful.
Can highly recommend these. Bought the slightly smaller 35L model a few years back and it has been invaluable throughout all the wet and humid weather we've had in Sydney.