Dehumidifiers are one of those household devices that we quickly learn to appreciate and wonder how we ever managed without them. What is amusing is that the concept of actively managing levels of indoor humidity is a relatively new one. If we were to step just a few decades back in time and tell people that they needed a dehumidifier, they would probably ask us to partake in whatever it was that we were smoking.
We live in today’s world, however, and dehumidifiers are here to stay. And we should be glad they are, because a high quality dehumidifier is one of the best appliances you can introduce into your home. Those that have owned a good dehumidifier are probably nodding in agreement right now, and for the rest of you, we’ll list all the benefits that high quality dehumidifiers can bring to you and your home’s inhabitants.
Interested in learning how dehumidifers work? Consult this resource.
High Levels of Air Humidity Are the Perfect Environment for Allergy Triggers
If you have a family member that has allergies, or if you are about to bring a new, small family member home, you should assess the current quality of your air. By bringing the moisture levels of the air in your home down, a dehumidifier will drastically reduce the amount of airborne allergy triggers present within the air. This, in turn, can have a very significant effect on your family’s health.
Allergies are one of the biggest concerns of both youth and older people and can lead to a lot of other health complications further down the road. Preventing this in its roots and making sure that there are as few allergy triggers in your home’s air as possible is one of the best things a family can do for itself and its kids.
A Dehumidifier Helps Prevent Water Stains from Forming on Your Walls and Ceiling as Well as Reduce the Prevalence of Damp
If rising damp is a recurring problem for your home and family, a dehumidifier can be of assistance. With a good crawl space dehumidifier running when necessary, you can forget about any white or grayish water level marks on the walls of your basement or home. This is how much moisture a good dehumidifier can pump from the air.
Of course, you should also investigate why your basement or home is so prone to water ingress, since the whole problem may have a permanent solution. Either way, a dehumidifier can help reduce the impact of the problem. Our basement dehumidifier guide has more information if your basement is experiencing a damp problem.
A Dehumidifier Removes Recurring Condensation on the Windows of Your Home
Water beading on the window, a foggy vapor covering the glass; these are the signs that there is a considerable amount of condensation building up on the interior glass of your windows. This is what happens when the humidity levels in your home are too high. This can potentially cause the wooden frames to rot and can lead to the appearance of mold. A dehumidifier can easily fix this problem by bringing the moisture in your home down to healthy, favorable levels.
This problem frequently occurs in bathrooms so buying a bathroom dehumidifier is a great way to reduce condensation caused by taking showers and baths.
A Dehumidifier Protects Your Home By Increasing the Longevity of Your Furniture, Painted Surfaces, Wallpaper, Windows, and Even the Walls and Foundation
Just as with the condensation on the windows, high levels of dampness in your home can drastically shorten the life of your wooden furniture, of your wall paint and wallpaper, and sometimes even the physical structure of your home. And this is before we take into consideration the possible mold or mildew infestations that come with such high levels of airborne moisture.
Dehumidifiers also get rid of the odors that can come from mold, mildew or anything else related to poor air quality. Is the air in your home getting clouded by unpleasant smells? This can be caused by any number of things but you can be sure that the musty smell you’re experiencing is due to moisture laden stale air. And if these odors are persistent and can’t be expected to go away on their own, you might be in need of a dehumidifier. Together with its many other beneficial features, a dehumidifier can also dramatically improve the smell within your home.
Dehumidifiers Greatly Reduce the Chance of Mold Ever Infesting Your Home in the First Place
Prevention is better than cure. Battling mold is something that no one wants to do. Battling it frequently over and over again is something that causes a lot of home owners to even go so far as to leave their homes. Getting a dehumidifier can make all this unnecessary by simply preventing mold from appearing altogether.
The leading cause of mold infestations is the high humidity level present in any internal space. Mold needs moisture to grow and can’t do so in drier air – plain and simple.
Dehumidifiers Reduce all Irritations to Your Respiratory System and Skin
Whether because of mold, mildew or allergens, whether simply because of the general dampness of the air, there are a lot of respiratory problems and skin irritations that often befall people that live in high-moisture environments.
A lot of folks don’t even realize it and instead of treating the initial problem go to the pharmacy and self-medicate themselves with respiratory remedies. Needless to say, those are sometimes useful and needed, but other times they can be rendered unnecessary by simply pumping the moisture out of the air with a good dehumidifier.
The Less Humid the Air in Your Home, the Faster Clothes Will Dry, Food Will Stay Fresh, and the Less Corrosion You’ll See on Your Tools and Electronics
The latter of those examples may feel a little over the top, but it is anything but that. The fact of the matter is that high level of moisture in the air can affect anything and virtually everything in your home. Are you tired of waiting several days for your clothes to dry off? Are you getting awfully irritated that cereal and bread go bad quicker than you can eat them? Are the tools in your tool cabinet getting rusty in the span of less than a year? Does the same happen to some of your electronics? That’s what high moisture levels do. And that’s what dehumidifiers can help prevent.
Having a Dehumidifier at Home Means Less Dust
The level of dust you will find in your house is also something that is significantly affected by the level of dampness of the air. If you are getting tired of cleaning dust almost every other day – which none of us like doing – consider reducing the cause of dust in the first place. Dust is mostly human skin that we shed all the time, however, high moisture levels speed this process up quite significantly and increase the amounts of dust as a result. And there are few easier fixes to that than a dehumidifier.
Dehumidifiers Often Reduce Your Energy Bills Instead of Increasing Them
This sounds counter-intuitive too, right? After all, dehumidifiers are electrical devices, they consume electricity! Well, yes, but if you have an A/C unit at home and you don’t have a dehumidifier, then the A/C unit must do the function of cooling the air down whilst also removing the moisture from it. And here’s the thing – while pretty great, A/C units really aren’t that good or efficient at lowering the humidity of the air. Or in other words; an A/C system works much harder and slower in homes that have high levels of humidity and as a result, waste a ton of power.
By making the air less humid, dehumidifiers make the work of your A/C unit much easier. And yes, this reduces the overall electricity you use because the typical dehumidifier is more efficient than the typical A/C unit at removing moisture from the air. And for an additional cherry on top, this whole process also greatly prolongs the life of your A/C unit because it is able to work more efficiently and doesn’t waste unnecessary energy on something that it doesn’t need to do.
Simply Choose The Model That Is Right for You
So, as you can see, a good dehumidifier can dramatically improve the entire atmosphere of your home. Literally. It can make your time spent at home much more tolerable, healthy and comfortable, and it can remove a lot of the everyday irritations that plague a lot of us even though we usually don’t know what to blame them on.
A good dehumidifier can keep your house and furniture healthier as well – it prevents mold and mildew from spreading, which can quickly shorten the life of any piece of furniture or any wall. Even just the presence of excess moisture itself shortens the life of your home by weakening the walls and foundations, by softening wooden furniture, and so on.
Simply put, a good dehumidifier makes our lives easier, healthier, longer, more comfortable, and can even lower our monthly expenses. And if this may sound too good to be true, as we often find out, yesterday’s science fiction is today’s reality.