For some reason, Pro Breeze has neglected to put a cover on the top of the water tank, so when you pull it out to empty it (which is in itself awkward as there's no proper handle to remove it) the water sloshes around everywhere, potentially drenching your flooring. As previously mentioned, emptying the water tank on the Pro Breeze 12L Low Energy Dehumidifier was neither easy nor a pleasant experience. A dehumidifier removes excess moisture from the air to dry out the room, depositing it safely inside its water tank until you are ready to pour it away. Its job is to help you reach the optimum humidity level, and some even purify the air, removing allergens and dust through their filter. Overall, I found this one of the easiest dehumidifiers to use out of all the options I've tested. Especially thanks to its Smart humidity sensor which automatically controls the dehumidifier for you to achieve your desired humidity level. More on that later. Performance Once you've removed it, it's important to regularly clean out the water tank to ensure that you don’t have a build-up of deposits. It can be washed in warm soapy water, just be sure to fully dry the water tank before replacing it in the machine, especially if you’re not going to use the dehumidifier for a while so that you don’t get any mould.

Our survey respondents have reported the following as three of the most common dehumidifier faults:

Living in a Victorian terraced house, our home does suffer with damp and mould, and this dehumidifier extracted enough moisture from the air to fill the water tank in just four hours when I first powered it up.

In practice, the Pro Breeze 12L Low Energy dehumidifier uses an average of 220W to operate. This is far less than the 440W the Pro Breeze 20L Premium Dehumidifier with Special Laundry Modeuses, but still far higher than the comparable MeacoDry Arete One 12L Dehumidifier which uses on average just 151W. A compressor dehumidifier is the most common type in the UK as it works best in higher temperatures, such as in a heated home. Inside the box, you’ll find the unit, an instruction manual and a small piece of plastic pipe, which can be used if you want to run this dehumidifier in continuous mode, but more about that later.Dehumidifiers do not kill mould, but they help make it inert and stop it from spreading (the spores love humid air!). You need a dehumidifier to treat the underlying cause and a good mould killer to eliminate it completely. Here’s our guide to the best mould removers so you can clean it off any surface and stop it from regrowing. How do dehumidifiers work? The cheapest and smallest dehumidifiers on the market can often only extract 0.5L of water from the air per day – in many cases even less – but larger and more powerful dehumidifiers can extract up to 25L per day which can make a huge difference to your home's health if you struggle with damp issues and condensation. That said, if you find the Pro Breeze 12L Low Energy Dehumidifier on offer, and are willing to accept its flaws in exchange for its lower price point, this can be a great value buy that does the job and will make a big improvement to general damp issues.

This dehumidifier is designed for managing fairly low moisture levels in small rooms up to 15m² or 2200 cubic feet, so it isn't going to cope with major damp issues or be able to control humidity within an entire house like larger capacity dehumidifiers. That said, the ProBreeze 1500ml Mini dehumidifier still impressed us during testing, and as long as you don't expect too much of it, this mini dehumidifier has a lot of plus points, not least its affordability.If you don’t want to think too hard about your usage, a device with an auto setting will be more efficient as it will only come on when the humidity levels go above your RH setting, saving you from wasting energy. How much does a dehumidifier cost to run? There are a few key things you need to consider when shopping for a dehumidifier, and various features you need to weigh up the importance of in terms of quality. Here are the sort of things you should be looking at when considering the best dehumidifier for your needs: Perfect for small houses and flats, Meaco designed its Arete range with the help of 2,000 customers over five years, which is why it is ultra-quiet and easily portable. Not much louder than a whisper (30dB), it has castor wheels to roll it from spot to spot throughout your home. Also, did we mention its dual purpose? The Arete One comes with medical-grade HEPA filters to help you care for your home and health. Manufactured in Britain, its features are optimised for the wet British weather and will remove up to 12 litres of moisture daily (perfect for when you've had your condenser tumble dryer running all day!). Feel free to leave it on and let it do its thing, costing you a cost-effective 5p per hour to run. Boasting an industry-leading five-year warranty, this is a dehumidifier that is well worth the investment and a brand you can trust to help solve your damp problem. It's also available in 10, 20 and 25l models.