This sell-out dehumidifier dried clothes faster than a tumble dryer - and for a fraction of the price

I don't say this lightly, but the Meaco DD8L Pro Desiccant Dehumidifier is the best dehumidifier l I’ve ever tested. It dries a full load of laundry in under two hours (yes, faster than my tumble dryer), costs pennies to run, and is genuinely easy to live with. When it launched back in November it sold out almost instantly, and now it’s finally back in stock, which means your chance to get hold of one has returned.

In my job, I test a lot of models that could reasonably claim a spot among the best dehumidifier for a specific home or problem. Very few, however, earn a permanent place in my own flat. Since space is tight, I like to keep products rotating, and I’m notoriously hard to impress, but the Meaco DD8L Pro broke all my own rules.

It’s quickly established itself as the most cost- and time-effective way to dry clothes at home and cemented its place in my small flat, even though I didn’t want a big dehumidifier. So, would the Meaco DD8L Pro Desiccant Dehumidifier suit your home? Is it their best model yet? And what's their trick for getting clothes dry almost as fast as a tumble dryer?

Meaco DD8L Pro Desiccant Dehumidifier review

Who would the Meaco DD8L Pro Desiccant Dehumidifier suit?

In my home, the Meaco DD8L Pro Dehumidifier ticks a lot of boxes. It's quiet, cost efficient, and very quick when it comes to clearing condensation off the windows. Whilst it might be a fraction more expensive than competitors, it's worth the splurge for near pointless performance.

The Meaco DD8L Pro will suit people who need reliable moisture control in cooler or harder-to-heat spaces, such as basements, garages, utility rooms or older homes where temperatures regularly dip below 10°C. As a desiccant dehumidifier, it performs consistently in the cold and even adds a gentle sense of warmth, making it a better choice than compressor models in these conditions. You can see the difference between compressor and desiccant dehumidifier models over here.

While it’s part of Meaco’s traditionally portable DD range, the Pro is a larger, stay-put model, so it’s not the most discreet option visually, but it makes up for that with performance. With an 8-litre extraction rate, a dedicated clothes-drying mode that can dry laundry in as little as 1 hour 40 minutes, and the added bonus of air-purifying functionality, it’s ideal for households that dry washing indoors year-round or want a quieter, lighter alternative to a compressor machine. If you prioritise cold-weather efficiency, laundry drying and multi-purpose use over compact design, the DD8L Pro is a very sensible fit.

Unboxing the Meaco DD8L Pro Desiccant Dehumidifier

As with all dehumidifiers, the box for the Meaco DD8L Pro Desiccant Dehumidifier is big and heavy. However, in the context of the actual dehumidifier's size, the Meaco DD8L Pro isn’t that much bigger than the box in which it is sent.

Even better, there isn’t a huge amount of packaging that needs to be handled once you’ve unpacked this. Most elements are recyclable, save for a plastic bag and plastic wrap around the air purifier. Both of these could still be recycled if you live near a large supermarket that accepts soft plastics, so there isn't a big environmental cost to wrestle with.

Part of unboxing is also the preparation that you need to do before plugging this in to go. There’s a cord storage attachment to click in, a film that needs to be removed from around the air purifier filter, and then the DD8L Pro can get to work.

Meaco sends a QR code and an instruction manual that you could peruse if you needed more information, but I think Meaco is really great when it comes to intuitive design, so you can work out most of the functions without it.

What is the Meaco DD8L Pro Desiccant Dehumidifier like to use?

Once plugged in, the Meaco DD8L Pro Desiccant Dehumidifier control panel will light up a few of the buttons. You can then turn it on and the full display will come to life, showing you the humidity level of your room, letting you set a target humidity, set a timer, choose between modes (night, laundry, three fan speeds), and choose a child lock.

On other dehumidifiers, these icons can be a bit fiddly or difficult to see, but I found they were clear enough to understand without any problems. Plus, the DD8L is also app compatible, so you could choose to control it from your phone too.

If you are constantly struggling with condensation on your windows, you’re not alone. This is a battle I fight every morning and laundry day, so the prospect of testing the Meaco DD8L Pro Desiccant Dehumidifier (which I have had previously good experiences with the siblings of) was a hopeful one.

I wanted to start off by seeing ether this could clear existing condensation off the windows in my 35 m² room. I plugged this in to find out that my home currently resides on 65% humidity, which is about 10% more than ideal, so I plugged it in, set the target to 45% and left it to work.

The noise levels this makes are no greater than a fan (I recorded 32 dB on normal running and a maximum of 52 dB when I had it on full, with a breeze for drying laundry), so it’s not disruptive in the sense of preventing conversations or stopping us from watching TV. I happily joined work calls with this whirring away and my microphone didn't pick any of it up.

Within 15 minutes, the condensation had crept back to the edges of the window, and another 15 minutes later, it was all gone. Granted, the condensation was just what had gathered overnight in my home, but half an hour is really impressive for completely clearing the room.

The next element of my window test is preventing condensation in the first place, which means running the Meaco overnight. I gingerly pressed the night mode button to see the screen go black and the noise levels plummet from that of a fan to more of a gentle whisper. It happily sat in the corner of my room with no disruption to my, somewhat sensitive, sleep.

I woke in the morning to see the windows completely clear and condensation-free. There was a collection of water in the reservoir that told me the Meaco DD8L Pro had been working effectively and efficiently overnight to keep my room at its target 45% humidity level.

Now, we come to my favourite part of the DD8L Pro. I've openly celebrated the Meaco DD8L Pro Desiccant Dehumidifier as a hero for drying clothes and it really is. This is the model behind their tests, which proved that a dehumidifier can actually rival a tumble dryer when it comes to drying clothes - and it can do it on a budget.

When you select the laundry icon on the dehumidifier, a hood pops up, rolls back, and reveals a fan, which blows air across your clothes. This keeps the moisture moving, mimicking a light breeze on a washing line. Whilst plenty of dehumidifiers have done decent jobs of drying clothes, none have worked as well as this. In fact, I have been teaming it up with my heated airer to achieve exceptional levels of low-cost, quick clothes drying.

If I space out my laundry, using every other rack, so that it's half full, I can dry clothes (including socks and thick cottons) in 2-3 hours. A light load of laundry (2kgs of light cotton tops and sportswear) was dry in just over 1.5 hours. And, if I fill my clothes horse to a point of almost hopelessness for normal air drying, it will need a mere half a day to a day to have everything ready for the cupboard, even in the winter.

My most recent test was in my house, at 15°C with a full, heavy set of three loads of washing. This would never dry in my house, but I had my third load on the clothes horse by midday and the clothes were ready to be packed away at 10pm. That's exceptional.

My one and only gripe is that the dehumidifier needs time to cool down after it's been used. Mine took 15 minutes to cool after drying laundry and I wanted to leave the house, but didn't want to leave this 'running'. If you're patient and plan ahead, you'll be fine, but it's worth noting nonetheless.

Cleaning and maintaining the Meaco DD8L Pro Desiccant Dehumidifier

The Meaco DD8L Pro Desiccant Dehumidifier is really low maintenance. The reservoir can hold 2L of water and, if it's full, the dehumidifier will automatically shut off to keep it safe. Aside from that, Meaco recommends cleaning the air purifying filter every 6 weeks, depending on how many allergens and impurities you have in the air.

Aside from that, I would give the control panel a wipe down with a microfibre cloth if it gets a little dusty, but there's very little else you need to do. There's also the nifty cable tidy at the back that you can wrap the plug around, if you'll be packing this away or carrying it into a room.

You can find out more about how to clean a dehumidifier on our dedicated page.

How does the Meaco DD8L Pro Desiccant Dehumidifier compare?

Meaco has quite a collection of dehumidifiers, so you might be wondering how this one stacks up against the collection. In a nutshell, the DD8L's greatest difference is that it's a desiccant dehumidifier, which means it's the one you should use when the room is cooler (think garages, conservatories, and cold rooms in the home). It's slightly more compact than the other models, but still offers impressive clothes drying (the fastest on test) and speedy humidity control.

The Arete One and Two collection from Meaco are both compressor dehumidifiers. They offer more choice in capacity (ranging from 6L to 25L), so you can take your pick over how big you want your model to be. the DD8L Pro, whilst smaller, only comes with wheels as an extra that you have to buy separately, whilst the Arete collection either has handles or wheels that help with mobility around the house.

The Arete Two has the best smart features of all the models, with impressive app functionality, larger capacity, and air flow that's super fast. So, if your home is bigger, consistently damp, and a touch warmer, this is great. It also purifies the air, so if you've found yourself sensitive to damp and allergens, this one will be good company.

The Meaco Arete One is the predecessor to the Arete Two. It's cheaper and a little simpler (there's two, rather than three, fan speeds, no apps, and fewer smart behaviours like a timer and adjustable airflow louvre). It's a brilliant budget option.

Should you buy the Meaco DD8L Pro Desiccant Dehumidifier?

If you're looking for the best dehumidifier to dry clothes, help you on laundry day, and generally, quickly keep your home at the perfect humidity, you're in fantastic company with the DD8L Pro. It's exceptionally good.

How we test dehumidifiers

At woman&home, we have a series of standardised tests that we put all of our dehumidifiers through. There's the obvious, practical ones, from how fast it can remove condensation from the windows, how well it works overnight, and whether it can dry laundry, as well as more niche functions that come with each model.

I talk about how well they sit, store, and what they're like to clean, as well as how they compare to other models on the market. All in all, my reviews aim to cover everything you need to know before buying the dehumidifier.

You can find out more about how we test dehumidifiers on our dedicated and detailed page.