Can I dry clothes with a dehumidifier? Yes, and here’s how to get the best results

Winter is the best time to year to invest in one of the best dehumidifiers. Due to the cold and wet weather, there tends to be more moisture in the home, and a dehumidifier can help combat that – but the thing it’s most used for is drying clothes.

Drying your clothes indoors on a clothing horse or heated rack has become more popular and consistent for most homeowners compared to using a tumble dryer. The main reason for this is because tumble drying can get extremely expensive, especially during the later months of the year when you can’t use the outside clothing line and when you have events like Christmas coming up.

Instead, drying clothes indoors becomes more popular during autumn and winter. However, it can get tricky as having wet clothes in your home for a prolonged period of time can cause mould and damp – which is where a dehumidifier comes in.

A dehumidifier is one of the best ways to help facilitate or speed up your clothes drying – here’s how it works, and how to use one for the best results.

How does a dehumidifier dry clothes?

As dehumidifiers remove moisture and dampness, they can be extremely handy for drying your laundry. Dehumidifiers work by extracting water vapour from the air to make it drier, and it does the same with clothes by pulling the water vapour out of them efficiently.

Wet clothes naturally release water into the air as they dry, so having a dehumidifier next to your laundry can help speed up this process by getting rid of this moisture. It can do this even faster if you have clothes hanging on a rack, airer or clothes horse with a lot of space around each item to allow for better air flow and circulation.

As your dehumidifier dries clothes, it also removes other excess vapour which can linger in your home and create damp. Dehumidifiers tend to use less money and energy than a tumble dryer, too, and they typically cost around 3.3p or 4.5 cents an hour to run, so it’s more cost-effective. Furthermore, dehumidifiers don’t use heat, so using one to help dry your clothes is more natural and kinder to fabrics.

3 tricks you can use to speed up your dehumidifier’s drying

If you’re impatiently waiting for your clothes to dry, there are a few tricks you can use to speed up the process while using your dehumidifier. The first tip is to use your dehumidifier alongside a fan. Using both devices at the same time not only creates a cooling effect – handy during summer but not so much this time of year! – but it can speed up drying due to the increased air flow.

Placing your dehumidifier in the right place can also improve drying time. This is a common mistake people make with dehumidifiers as placement can impact their effectiveness and even potentially damage them. With drying clothes, your dehumidifier should be up to six feet away from them, and ideally, your clothes should be spread out to get better air circulation.

Finally, the best trick you can use is to put your dehumidifier on laundry mode if it has one. Most dehumidifiers now come with a dedicated laundry setting which is engineered to dry your clothes quickly and effectively.