Best dehumidifier

[Sailfree]

Got off boat finally at 23.00 after SIL fix oven - had developed a blockage in the pipe feeding oven ring. Didn't know that colour gas is a dirty gas! SIL is a gas engineer and while he had a can of air spray he could find the can of leak detector so under strict instructions to buy one and check the connection we broke.

Went to start dehumidifier for first time this autumn and found hose had disconnected. Needed to strip down dehumidifier to get access to push hose on and discovered fan and motor had lots of play. I think it's about 13 yrs old and used each winter so acceptable.

It has a defrost cycle and is 300w so wondering if there are better ones that consume less electric? Need a hose discharge as visits to boat not regular enough and tank gets full. Any recommendations ?

 

[BruceDanforth]

I have a cheap 'value' dehumidifier from argos and it has done a few winters now and been fine. There is a place to attach a hose.

 

[Martin999]

I bit the bullet two years ago and replaced my old and very inefficient dehumidifier with a Meaco one when it kept leaking water back into the boat - not cheap, but significantly more efficient, effective and economical and much lighter and compact - highly recommended.

 

[dunedin]

I bit the bullet two years ago and replaced my old and very inefficient dehumidifier with a Meaco one when it kept leaking water back into the boat - not cheap, but significantly more efficient, effective and economical and much lighter and compact - highly recommended.

Which model of Meaco did you get ?

 

[mainsail1]

The thing is, are dehumidifiers an expensive waste of time in a boat? I certainly think so.

 

[dunedin]

The thing is, are dehumidifiers an expensive waste of time in a boat? I certainly think so.

Certainly not when keeping a modern and expensive boat afloat during the winter - almost essential. It's not the boat itself that is being protected, but the cabin, furnishings etc

 

[mainsail1]

I have kept my boat in the water for many years and in the winter it has a small convection heater which does the job and uses much less electricity. I would recommend this as an alternative.

 

[Tim Good]

I have a Meaco DD8L on my 43FT which is afloat in winter.

I think heating alone is pointless unless you can ventilate as well. The dehumidifier gives out heat to do the job but the by product is that it lifts the boat temp a few degrees and the balance works well. We have tried ventilating alone and some years it is ok but others not and you find you're having to wipe mildew off things which costs most in the long run than running the unit. Providing you lock the boat down and your dehumidifier has a humidistat then once you get it to a set level, it doesn't us much power to maintain it. I keep it at around 60% which is easily enough to keep mildew down and make the boat comfortable in winter without feeling like the bed sheets are clammy.

 

[maby]

It depends on how you use the boat. If you are the kind of sailor that hauls the boat out sometime in October and leaves it out till late March, then you probably can get away with removing all the upholstery and leaving a couple of tube heaters on. We use our boat every weekend of the year and many of the weeks - two adults on a boat for three or four days in December cooking, washing, showering and generally living will create a whole lot of condensation unless you have a machine sucking water out of the air!

 

[yotter]

A have a Meaco DD8L dehumidifier, and the best point is that it works much better in very low temperatures than the compressor types.
Angus

 

[snooks]

The thing is, are dehumidifiers an expensive waste of time in a boat? I certainly think so.

Your opinion.

But I wouldn't be without mine. During summer sailing it drys out oilskins, at night it stops condensation. and even if leaving the boat there is no build up of dampness or moisture or water in the bilge.

On longer trips it drys washing in the cabin, on rainy days below there's no condensation, and even if cooking any condensation doesn't stay for long.

When I forgot to put it on last winter, on my return the boat was damp, a little musty and even small leaks had take their toll as the water remained on board.

 

[Angele]

I've got an ebac. One of the 2xxx range - can't recall the model number exactly, so not sure if mine is one of their current range. Not particularly cheap, and definitely over spec'd, as it can cope with a 3-bed house, but it certainly does the job. Hose drains into the sink.

I like ones with a variable humidistat, so you can determine how dry you want the air and therefore how often the dehumidifier is on. I also like ones that start up as soon as the power comes on, without requiring an on-off button to be pressed. In the winter, I set mine on a timer switch so that at no point is it running more than 3 hours a day. It also means that, if the power is temporarily disconnected during the winter, it will come on again as soon as the power is restored, without requiring someone to go on board to reset it.

A few years ago I bought a dehumidifier from Compass24 - the online chandlery that used to operate in the UK. Unfortunately, it requires a button to be pressed each time the power supply is turned on, so I don't use that one on board. (I swapped it with my home one, the predecessor of the current ebac).

Most ebac models are rather large, so not ideal for finding somewhere to store on smaller boats. Sailfree shouldn't have a problem on his luxury yacht, though.

Got back from Cherbourg last night, absolutely drenched after 5 hours of heavy rain. Hung up all the wet stuff in the saloon, turned on the dehumidifier and then left the boat, travelling home by train. I'll pop down with the car at the weekend to collect my wine purchases and then I'll put the dehumidifier away.

As others have said (e.g. Snooks), the dehumidifier has many purposes - it can stop soft furnishings from going mouldy over winter and stop the boat smelling musty; it can dry off wet clothes after a damp outing; and it can remove the moisture from living on board in the autumn/winter/spring when you don't want to let in a load of cold air.

I wouldn't be without one on board, even though it gets little (or no) use between May and September.

 

[Strolls]

A have a Meaco DD8L dehumidifier, and the best point is that it works much better in very low temperatures than the compressor types.

There have been a couple of previous threads on this subject this year, and I believe it was remarked in one of them that this model, the Meaco DD8L, won best-of in a group test made by one of the yachting magazines. It's on Amazon for £151 at the moment.

• http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?436380-best-constant-drain-dehumidifier
• http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?438928-Dehumidifier-Recommendations

 

[dunedin]

There have been a couple of previous threads on this subject this year, and I believe it was remarked in one of them that this model, the Meaco DD8L, won best-of in a group test made by one of the yachting magazines. It's on Amazon for £151 at the moment

• http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?436380-best-constant-drain-dehumidifier
• http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?438928-Dehumidifier-Recommendations

Yes these ones do seem to be highly recommended - I plan to get one to replace my 10 year old big and bulky device.

There seems to be two versions of the DD8L - the vanilla one and the "Junior", which is £30 or so cheaper. It looks like the difference is just in some extra filters, so may not be worth the extra cost

 

[Matt341]

I use a Meaco DD8L Junior, purchased last year to replace my trusty B&Q compressor dehumidifer. The big bonus with the Meaco is the fact that you don't have to have an additional heat source. The old compressor dehumidifier would freeze up in cold periods over Winter and require a separate oil filled radiator to keep the temperature up so that it would work efficiently. The Meaco actually produces it's own low level heat which is enough to keep it working. I used to connect my B&Q dehumidifier to a timer for approx 4 hours per day to control the electric usage and it would happily run in this way. However, the Meaco cannot be used with a timer as it has to run through a cool down period before being shut off. I thought this was a big disadvantage at first but it's actually a lot more efficient at controlling the humidity when left on permanently. Once the set humidity is reached it shuts off and then samples the air every half an hour after until it needs to start up again so it's not actually running at 600watts all the time. I would say it also extracts double the amount of water than the compressor type would. Purchased from Maplins at a reasonable price.

 

[gjgm]

EcoAir simple was also best buy type of thing in the magazines.
http://www.ecoair.org/DD122-Simple.html
Certainly alot better in cold weather when the compressor types are, frankly, useless. Ecoair told me to get the simple version as it seems shore power is not always that reliable and a dehumidifier is supposed to run after you swtich it off (ie , it still needs power) for a few minutes. They said the simpler electronics of the base model seemed more tolerant of abuse than the fancy models.

 

[Martin999]

Which model of Meaco did you get ?

DD8L with ioniser (not really sure what that bit does)

 

[Tim Good]

DD8L with ioniser (not really sure what that bit does)

Apparently meant to make dust drop to the floor. If your sensitive to that sort of thing then maybe a good idea even if it is placebo.