When drying clothes indoors, using a dehumidifier is a budget-friendly option compared to a tumble dryer or a heated airer. As you dry your laundry inside, moisture quickly accumulates in the air surrounding it. A dehumidifier effectively collects that moisture, but you also need proper airflow to complete the process.
According to Katie Lilywhite, home appliance expert at AO.com, using a fan alongside your dehumidifier can “significantly speed up laundry drying”. She explained: “By using a fan, this will quicken up evaporation and prevent any damp air pockets from forming around your clothes’ fabric.”
However, she pointed out: “It’s worth noting that your fan won’t remove moisture by itself; it’s only when paired with a dehumidifier that this can speed up the drying process.”
Chris and his team measured drying time and energy costs for drying t-shirts without a dehumidifier, with a 20L dehumidifier and a third one with the same dehumidifier together with a pedestal cooling fan.
He said: “For each test, we used the same 13 t-shirts, put through the same rinse and spin cycle in the same washing machine. They were hung on the same clothes horse in the same utility room, and we recorded the starting temperature and relative humidity.”
The results were very eye-opening. The no dehumidifier drying method took 20 hours. With a 20l dehumidifier, four hours and 45 minutes – and with a dehumidifier and pedestal fan, an astounding two hours.
Chris added, “The dehumidifier alone offered a substantial improvement over natural drying, but pairing it with the pedestal cooling fan made the biggest difference.
“Drying time dropped by 58%, from nearly five hours to around two. The short runtime meant both appliances consumed far less energy overall, and the very low running cost of the fan helped keep the total to just 14 pence for the load.
“The fan is not just an add-on. It is the catalyst that forces moisture out of the clothes so the dehumidifier can collect it more quickly. Used together, they produced results faster than we expected.”
