Great experience buying a dehumidifier

I have recently bought a desiccant dehumidifier for the workshop. I ordered a refurbished unit at a great discount on Christmas Eve, it arrived the following Friday.

Unfortunately this one had a slight slow leak from a cracked water tank. It had been repaired with epoxy putty, and I could have just put a dab of epoxy on to fix the leak, but I decided to return it.

One phone call to technical support, no arguments, a courier was booked at a time that suited me, FOC.

The day after the courier collected it I received an email saying it had been received and that they did not have a refurbished unit as a replacement so some one would call me. Next morning I was called and a full refund was offered. As I had already seen how well the Ecoair worked I decided to pay the extra £30 and get a new one. Next day it arrived.

The reason for this post is that throughout the process of buying and replacing the unit I had superb customer support. Helpful emails keeping me informed of what was happening, friendly timely staff on the phone, and all with good prices and fast service. The usual disclaimer, I have nothing to do with them except being a satisfied customer, but I recommend BuyItDirect to anyone.

I have one running in my fully insulated & thought dry garage. Every day I get at least a pint of water out of it. Brilliant device.

I have bought four(?) second hand Meaco desiccant dehumidifiers over a period of time - all were ‘dead’ as purchased. Total cost was less than a hundred (plus delivery/collection).

First runs quite well on low speed setting as the fault was within the heater element (I removed the offending resistance wire). Everything needed new lubrication as the chinese ‘stuff’ was not grease as we should understand the term!

Second also finished up with a similar heater element (I bought it just thinking I would have a spare heater for the first, should it be necessary).

As I expected to enlarge my workshop, I bought two more scrap machines, but one water tank and filter was missing, so have only finished with three working machines (two in operation and a working spare).

They work brilliantly but clearly they were not one of the most reliable items around. But easy to fix.

I have only needed to run one at a time this winter, although I left both running (at different times on E7) while we were away over Christmas - just so one did not fill the two litre tank and turn off.

If there is any air exchange, damp air from outside will percolate in, there will be moisture from below (unless a damp-proof sheet was laid under the floor) and we breathe out water vapour, so there will always be some water to collect (I leave mine on the ’laundry’ humidity setting and just run for two or three hours at night).

I’m currently collecting about half a litre per night. Not sure if it is running two or three hours. Running costs are either less than 6p or less than 9p per night, I think the former. The heat is likely as important as the humidity reduction.

I expect the innards of the ecoair are much the same as the meaco - possibly built to be more reliable than the early meaco machines, but same principle of a rotating desiccant wheel with desiccant recharging, by blowing hot air through the drying medium in part of the revolution.

I had one good experience with appliances direct - I collected a chest freezer. But since then, they have not quite cut the mustard. I got a better deals for each of the dishwasher, tumble dryer and washing machine from more-local suppliers. One often finds their model numbers are slightly different to the usual brand code for that item - and nobody wants to explain any differences.

This is the one I have. Bought it years ago for a boat I had. Still good after many years use.

I too have an Ecoair dehumidifier and I am very impressed with the machine and the excellent service.

About 10 months after I got mine it stopped shutting off when the tank was full. I worked out that the level switch was faulty and contacted Ecoair, they arranged to get a courier to pick it up next day, it was back in four days with a new switch and float and an emailed apology for the problem about 5 minutes after the delivery.

A great working machine and excellent service.

P.S. The Ecoair has a clothes drying mode and my good lady loves it if the weather is inclement. ( She hangs the clothes in the garage/workshop which means I am banned from working in there for the duration!)