14 best dehumidifiers to rid your home of damp and mould

Score: 98/100

Taking the crown is this 20L model from Sharp, which effectively removes excess moisture from the room and then redistributes the dry air evenly. It also boasts a simple LED control panel and soft push buttons, which our testers found straightforward and easy to use.

Over a two-hour period, this machine collected an impressive 940ml of water – with a 3.8L water storage tank, you’d need to empty it every eight hours if it were run continuously, which isn’t a big issue. The unit is weighty, but our testers found the wheels and carry handles useful for moving it around and transferring the tank to the sink for emptying. Overall, this a great buy for dealing with any damp spots in your home.

Score: 97/100

This has an accompanying app so you can control it when you're out and about. Testers found it straightforward to use, easily adjusting the speed and settings from their smartphones.

It's a good option for drying clothes quickly, impressing our testers by removing 85.2% of the water from our load of laundry, so you won’t have wet clothes hanging around your home for long periods.

It was a little noisy when placed on its highest setting, but that’s a minor niggle, especially given that it collected over 1L of water within two hours. It is large and heavy, but the four-wheel swivelled design makes it easy to move around your home.

Score: 92/100

As one of the larger models we tested, this Meaco 20L dehumidifier is a great option if you’re tackling damp and high humidity throughout your home. It removed over 850ml of water in two hours and, thanks to its large tank capacity, you’d only need to empty it around every 10 hours if run continuously, which is handy if you’re busy during the day.

It also doubles up as an air purifier and uses a medical grade filter to keep your air dry and free of dust and other allergens. Our testers loved the easy, accessible design, including the simple LED display that made navigating the menu a breeze.

Like the Princess model (above), its weight may prove tricky for some, but the combination of wheels, a handle, and pouring spout on the water tank, made emptying a mess-free task.

Score: 92/100

This EcoAir model proved a great option for any family home, collecting over 800ml of moisture from the air in our tests in just two hours. With a 3L capacity water tank, this means you’d have to physically empty the tank up to three times a day, if running for 24 hours.

It’s fairly lightweight (under 7kg without water) and the handle allowed for fuss-free transportation between rooms. While it’s not the fanciest design on the market, this dehumidifier has plenty of great features including a built-in humidity sensor, a laundry mode, three fan settings, and auto shut-off when the water tank is full, which meant it scored well across the board.

One of the features our testers particularly liked was that it blows out slightly warmer air, helping to heat your space, too. You can also direct the air flow thanks to its swinging air outlet.

Score: 91/100

This large dehumidifier impressed our testers with its ability to dry clothes in under five hours, meaning less time with wet clothes hanging around your home. It collected 700ml of water across two hours, and we liked how the indicator told us when the 3.4L water tank was full.

On the top of this model, you’ll find a clear digital display – although, if you do get stuck with the controls, detailed instructions and diagrams are there to help you out.

There’s no spout on the water tank, so our experts found it difficult to empty it without spills. That quibble aside, they found this dehumidifier intuitive to use.

Score: 90/100

This is another stand-out desiccant dehumidifier from EcoAir; it removed over 700ml of water from the air in two hours and dried our laundry in four. It also has some smart settings that make it a more efficient buy, including the ability to automatically switch off when the room reaches your desired humidity, then monitor the air quality every half an hour and switch back on if the humidity rises again.

Testers found it easy to use from start to finish – even when changing and cleaning the filter. Its water tank has a spout for splash-free emptying and there’s a protection feature that switches the machine off automatically if it tilts. There are three fan speeds, but no wheels, so you will need to carry it about. Luckily, it’s the lightest we tested (when empty) at 6.7kg.

Score: 88/100

Sometimes, simplicity is key and that’s exactly what our testers loved about this dehumidifier. With just one on/off button and four modes (three based on the humidity of your environment, and one for laundry), it’s super easy to set up and use – it really is as simple as plugging it in and pressing the 'on' button.

Under conditions similar to those in our humidity chamber, it would take six hours to fill a full 2.1L tank, so you shouldn’t need to empty it too often. Even so, it does have an automatic switch-off feature when the tank is full, as well as a bright indicator light to tell you when it’s ready to be changed.

With a curved, slim design and a solid performance across our in-house tests, this is a great buy.

Score: 87/100

Scoring slightly less than its predecessor, Meaco’s Arete Two dehumidifier is still a fantastic option. What separates this model from the Arete One (above) is the added app functionality, which lets you control your dehumidifier via Google, Alexa or Siri voice control. The app also tells you when the water tank is full, how long your laundry has left to dry, and lets you adjust the settings and target humidity from a distance, all features our testers appreciated.

It boasts advanced DC (direct current) motors, which claim to deliver more airflow for the same energy consumption as the Arete One.

There are also three (instead of two) fan speeds, which helped to dry our clothes in five and a half hours when tested in the lab – not the quickest we’ve come across, but very effective, extracting almost 95% of the moisture. Plus, even at the highest speed, it wasn’t too noisy, measuring just 45dB.

Score: 86/100

A quick “Alexa turn on the dehumidifier” is all it takes to get this smart model whirring. Testers found its app easy to navigate, and the device pairing simple. They liked that you could monitor and adjust settings remotely too. Occasionally, however, the dehumidifier disconnected, which meant they had to turn it on manually to reconnect.

As its strong score suggests, it was effective at removing moisture from the air. Our experts also found it easy to use throughout testing, whether setting up its timer, monitoring the water level or changing the filter. On max, it wasn’t the quietest, but it has a night mode, and its neat design means it should fit right in wherever you place it in your home.

Score: 83/100

With wheels and two carry handles, this is a more portable dehumidifier than many. It’s still heavy, but if you need one you can move from room to room on the same floor, then it will suit nicely. Plus, a long, 1.5-metre power cable means it’s no problem if plug sockets are relatively sparse in your home. Even the water tank has a foldable handle, which is useful for emptying.

It’s automatically designed to maintain the humidity of your room between 45 and 55 per cent, and it fared well in our water collection and laundry drying tests. Our experts found it simple to set up and use too, praising its clear LED display and three fan settings. It’s not the quietest though.

Score: 83/100

With a clear indicator light that shows the current humidity level, this dehumidifier is handy for keeping a close eye on any damp environments in your home.

Our experts found it easy to assemble and quickly got to grips with the controls. Plus, the unit has a 12-hour timer, a child lock, and an adjustable humidistat that ranges between 30 and 80 per cent.

In testing, we found the dehumidifier excelled in laundry mode, removing a good level of moisture from our clothes in under five hours. We had some difficulties removing the water tank once it was full, but it comes with a continuous drainage hose to do away with any faff.

Score: 79/100

Testers appreciated the design of this dehumidifier – additions like a carry handle and clear LED display make it a well-thought-out appliance that’s incredibly easy to use. It came fully assembled too and we quickly got up to speed with the controls thanks to the detailed instructions and clear settings.

In test, however, it didn’t collect as much moisture as we’d have liked, gathering a total of 345ml in the two-hour test period. It collected an impressive amount on our laundry test, though, albeit it took nearly six hours to do so.

Score: 78/100

With anti-frost protection, this is a good one for keeping in harder-to-heat areas of your home when it's a bit colder. It also has a child lock, wheels, and a clear display that shows you the room’s humidity in real time.

While it’s very easy to use, it was loud on max. It also doesn’t have a detailed manual, and only has two speed settings. It was reliable when it came to removing moisture from our test room though, lowering its humidity by 45% in two hours, and it dried our laundry more quickly too. This is one of the most budget-friendly buys on our list, but even though it’s priced at just over £100, it still delivers a solid performance.

Score: 72/100

Dehumidifiers don’t tend to be the most aesthetically pleasing of devices, but this model's digital display and slim design make it one of the more stylish options. You can switch between three different speed settings, as well as being able to manually change the direction of the wind, to adjust to different spaces.

On test, it collected almost 500ml in a two-hour window, meaning you’d have to empty the 2.5 litre water tank every 10 hours if it ran continuously – a task made simpler thanks to its castor wheels. However, it lacks proper handles, making it a little more difficult to lift and empty the tank.

This quibble aside, our tester appreciated that the machine clearly displays the temperature and humidity of the room, a key feature many models often miss. The auto shut-off functionality is another useful addition.

This compact dehumidifier is discreet and requires minimal space if you need to store it away. Plus, our testers found it easy to empty and move between rooms.

In the lab, it collected 35ml of water in two hours, which means it would have taken over 48 hours to fill the full one-litre tank. Unsurprisingly given its size, this is a smaller moisture extraction rate than other models we tested, but it also doubles up as an air purifier, claiming to capture 99.95% of airborne allergens, dust, and pollen.

While it's important to note that you can’t use both features at the same time, our tester found it easy to switch between the two using the interface on top of the appliance. Thanks to its small stature, this is also the cheapest and most energy-efficient model we tested, costing just 1p an hour to run. It’s a savvy buy.