Bathroom Dehumidifier – What are the Best Options?
Bathrooms are typically one of the most humid rooms in the house. And it’s no mystery why. The shower creates a huge amount of moisture each and every time it is run.
But unchecked humidity in the bathroom will eventually lead to mold growth.
And though mold in the shower is easy to see, it’s all the other mold growing in dark spaces as well as on your towels, toothbrushes, and other items in the bathroom that makes it so disgusting.
Not only disgusting, damaging.
Mold can do a huge amount of damage and in a very short time. Areas like window frames and drywall can experience mold rot very quickly when mold is left to increase.
If you have a bathroom that doesn’t have an exhaust fan or maybe it does but it just can’t keep up with the level of moisture and condensation that you seem to be experiencing,
There is an option that will help reduce the humidity in your bathroom and it’s one that doesn’t carry that high of a price tag.
Table of Contents
What I’m talking about is a small bathroom dehumidifier.
Do dehumidifiers work in bathrooms?
Dehumidifiers work well in bathrooms. Not only does a dehumidifier easily reduce the moisture in the bathroom,
Being close to a sink or shower makes the maintenance of emptying a dehumidifier or running a continuous drain hose much easier.
Bathrooms in most houses generally do not come in over 40 square feet.
And the smallest portable compressor dehumidifiers typically cover around 250 square feet.
So a dehumidifier can keep the air in the bathroom very dry.
Will a dehumidifier keep mold from in the bathroom?
A dehumidifier will help keep mold from growing because moisture in the air is essential for mold to take root.
And that is exactly the point of a dehumidifier, to remove moisture from the air.
But If you want to eliminate the chances of mold growing in your bathroom, you will have to address other standing water issues on a regular basis as well as running a dehumidifier.
What is the best dehumidifier for a bathroom? In our opinion the best bathroom dehumidifier is the Medea 1500.
Eva dry dehumidifiers are completely silent, have a 10-year lifespan, and do not require any refills whatsoever.
These are small absorbing dehumidifiers that are designed for small spaces like closets and safes, and might require more than one unit for a bathroom.
These units can absorb up to 8 oz of moisture without any of the maintenance and canister emptying annoyances of compressor dehumidifiers.
The Govee is a Wi-Fi thermometer/ hygrometer that can hook up to your Wi-Fi or through the Bluetooth.
It has multiple alert functions that you can set up to keep you aware of any changes in your temperature or humidity and be able to react quickly when one or the other falls out of range.
It also keeps a record of your data up to 2 years and can be exported in CSV format entirely for free.
If you just need to know the relative humidity and the temperature of the room but you don’t necessarily want or need alerts coming into your phone,
Then JEDEW is a super basic gauge that does just that.
These thermo-hygrometers are very sensitive and measure the humidity every 10 seconds.
They work with temperatures from 32 to 152 degrees Fahrenheit and relative humidity levels from 10% to 99%.
Option 2
A small portable bathroom dehumidifier
A mini dehumidifier works exactly the same way as a full size portable dehumidifier.
The only difference is that it is much smaller and works in a smaller room.
And even though these dehumidifiers are small, they still can dry out the air in a room that is 250 average square feet.
That means you will not have any problems drying the air out in a room the size of a bathroom.
And it also means that you will have a great small dehumidifier to use in your laundry room, kitchen, or bedroom.
The benefit of using a traditional bathroom dehumidifier is that they or much more exact and can be set to reach a specific humidity level when desired.
They also have features like Auto shut off when the tank is full, and humidistats to shut the machine off when the desired relative humidity is reached.
There is maintenance involved in the form of emptying the bucket when it is required.
But there’s also the option of hooking a continuous drain line in order to avoid ever having to empty the machine.
But just like a humidifier, they have to be cleaned regularly to avoid mold and bacteria from taking root in them.
Beyn is an extraordinary very attractive dehumidifier that comes with a removable water tank or an optional drain hose. It covers 269 Sq. Ft.
It is lightweight and portable and comes with automatic shut-off to provide you with the security of knowing that it will not overflow when it is full.
The optional drain hose will allow easy drainage into your sink.
This is a very well reviewed product.
The only downside is that it will require an elevated shelf to sit on because it is gravity-based.
6.COLAZE Electric Portable Dehumidifier for 480 Sq.ft
Colaze dehumidifiers for small rooms are perfect for areas up to 500 square feet.
They feature a LED display so that you can monitor your humidity level and know the temperature of your room at a glance.
A drain hose
Humidity setting to dial in the humidity level you want
Timer
Auto shut off so that it can never overfill
And defrost function to keep it from freezing over and stopping.
Q & A
What can happen if you have excess humidity in the bathroom? Mold, damage?
Having excess moisture in the bathroom can cause a lot of damage. Specifically mold damage.
When you’re having a problem with excessive moisture in the bathroom, you will eventually discover that you have mold growing.
And when it becomes visible in the shower, you can be sure that it has found a whole host of dark places to take root as well.
High unchecked humidity in the bathroom will eventually lead to mold feeding on your wood surfaces, window frames, baseboards, etc. and can lead to significant damage.
Other areas you may find mold growing:
Ceiling tiles, wall tiles
Carpet and rugs
Gypsum board (drywall) and the insulation inside the walls. Drywall typically bows out when it’s full of moisture and the paper begins to peel.
Once mold has become a problem in the bathroom, the spores from the mold will be everywhere from your towels, toothbrushes, as well as your pillows and bedding if your bedroom is adjacent.
When do you need to use a bathroom dehumidifier? Winter, summer?
The summer months news typically when you find the higher levels of humidity outside and when you have the most problems controlling the humidity inside.
But humidity inside of the bathroom can be an issue in the winter also when the outside air is cold and it is coming in contact with the warm inside air via the window.
You have probably noticed condensation on your windows during the winter.
The condensation will lead to mold just as fast as any other type of moisture.
So controlling the humidity in the bathroom can be a all year endeavor
Where would you put a dehumidifier in the bathroom?
Finding the space in a bathroom for a dehumidifier is not the easiest thing to do, especially if you, like me, live in a house with a lot of females.
The ideal spot for a dehumidifier in a bathroom would be on an elevated spot on the sink countertop.
That way you could run a small hose to the sink from the dehumidifier and not have to continuously empty it.
The same concept would work well for the shower too. An elevated spot next to the shower would give you excellent access to either emptying the dehumidifier we’re running a continuous drain hose to the shower drain.
Desiccant dehumidifiers come in small portable units easily hung on the wall next to the shower.
Desiccant dehumidifiers do not extract nearly the amount of water as a traditional mini compressor humidifier, so using more than one in the bathroom is a good idea.
Does a bathroom dehumidifier use a lot of electricity?
The amount of electricity that a bathroom dehumidifier uses depends on the level of humidity and the runtime of the dehumidifier to extract the humidity everyday,
You can expect a small dehumidifier to use as much as 30 Watts and a larger dehumidifier to pull as much as 70 Watts.
How loud are bathroom dehumidifiers?
Bathrooms are pretty loud spots in my house, it’s not uncommon to hear the radio blasting, shower running, and hair dryer is going at the same time.
Dehumidifiers can be compared to the level of noise you would get from a window air conditioner. Around 65 db.
Pretty loud.
But the bathroom is not exactly in use as much as the living room or a bedroom.
What’s the difference between desiccant bathroom dehumidifiers and mini dehumidifiers?
Desiccant dehumidifiers absorb humidity much like a sponge. They also never have to be emptied or run with a continuous drain hose.
They are also much quieter.
Desiccant dehumidifiers for small spaces like bathrooms and closets, or easily mounted to the wall or hung from a hook.
You probably know “desiccants” as the little silica gel packets that come and everything from shoe boxes to keeping gerbil snacks fresh.
Desiccant dehumidifiers are the same concept in a much larger version.
Traditional compressor dehumidifiers extract moisture from the air exactly the way that a window air conditioner does. It pulls air in with a fan, drags it pass a series of condenser coils that capture the moisture and then releases the air back into the room dry.
A mini compressor dehumidifier can extract moisture from a room as big as 200 or even 300 square feet.
That’s much more then you will be able to achieve with a small desiccant dehumidifier.
But there is also maintenance to be considered with compressor dehumidifiers.
If you do not go the drainage hose method, you ‘ll have to empty the bucket for the dehumidifier to run.
And the potential of having standing water is much higher. Dehumidifiers must be cleaned often to avoid mold growing in the machine.
They can also be quite loud.
But One mini portable dehumidifier is big enough to use in the bathroom, bedroom, laundry room, and kitchen.
Will a dehumidifier soak up water?
A dehumidifier will make it easier for water to dry and is often used to help clothes to dry faster on hangers.
But it is primarily a device to remove moisture out of the air.
Although it will help considerably to reduce the capacity for mold to grow, it will not soak up standing water, nor will it wipe down or squeegee off shower walls, or condensated windows.
Bathroom dehumidifier versus an extractor fan
Installing a dehumidifier is as simple as plugging it in and turning it on. But you will have to empty the bucket on a continual basis and keep the machine clean.
Which to be fair is a much easier endeavor when you are next to a sink or a shower.
On the other hand, a humidity extractor fan just has to have a switch flipped on. No other maintenance involved.
But installing a humidity extractor fan will take much more than plugging it in.
It will require cutting a hole in the ceiling, and hardwiring it into your existing electrical grid.
Recap
Though the bathroom can be one of the most humid rooms in the house
Dehumidifiers are devices that can do a great job of remedying that problem.
Small dehumidifiers that you can benefit from using in your bathroom come in both desiccant and compressor type.
Desiccant dehumidifiers use chemicals to soak up moisture in the air. They are very inexpensive and work well for light to medium humidity.
They are also very safe and require very little maintenance. The only maintenance that you will have to keep up with using a desiccant dehumidifier is keeping it charged.
A small compressor type bathroom dehumidifier uses refrigerator cooling coils to condense the moisture in the air.
The water that is captured through the condensation process either goes into a bucket that has to be emptied or can be drained through a continuous drain line.
Compressor dehumidifiers can extract much more moisture out of the air then desiccant dehumidifiers are capable of.
Traditional bathroom dehumidifiers also I’m more likely to come with bells and whistles like built-in hygrometers, auto shut off when the tank is full, and auto defrost if the temperature is lower.
Desiccant dehumidifiers will require a separate hygrometer in order to be able to keep tabs on your relative humidity.
Do dehumidifiers work in bathrooms?
The first option
Option 2
