Compressor dehumidifiers
Best compressor dehumidifiers for a heated UK home
Short answer: for a heated flat or bedroom, we'd go for the MeacoDry Arete One 12L. It's quiet, and Meaco publishes how much it pulls out of a 20 °C room, not just the warm headline. For a damp 3-bed house, we'd step up to the Arete One 20L. If your room's cold, though, a compressor is the wrong tool, and a desiccant will do more for you.
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01 · Best compressor for a heated flat
MeacoDry Arete One 12L
Compressor + HEPA · 12 L (manufacturer claim; 12.18 L at 30 °C / 80 % RH)
Short answer: this is our everyday pick for a heated UK flat, quiet enough for your bedroom. At 20 °C / 60 % RH Meaco’s table is 5.23 L/day, the everyday heated-flat figure; at 10 °C / 60 % RH it falls to 1.95 L/day. Compare it with the OmniDry 12 L on price and documentation.
Recent UK listings have sat around £170–£190 — check Amazon for today’s price. Extraction claims are warm-lab figures; see Method.
02 · Best compressor for a whole house
MeacoDry Arete One 20L
Compressor + HEPA · 20 L (manufacturer claim; 20 L at 30 °C / 80 % RH)
Short answer: the Arete One 20L is our whole-home pick for a damp heated house. At 20 °C / 80 % RH Meaco’s table is 14.02 L/day, a more useful British-house row than the 30 °C headline; at 20 °C / 50 % RH it’s 5.78 L/day. It’s 618 × 366 × 272 mm and 15 kg, with a 4.8 L tank and 38–40 dB(A) published.
Recent UK listings have sat around £230–£270 — check Amazon for today’s price. Extraction claims are warm-lab figures; see Method.
03 · Big tank and laundry mode for less
Pro Breeze 20L
Compressor · 20 L (manufacturer claim)
Short answer: pick the Pro Breeze 20L if you dry washing indoors and want a 5.5 litre tank, a one-click laundry mode and a carbon filter for less. The 20 L headline is still a laboratory maximum, and Pro Breeze doesn’t publish the cooler-room table Meaco does.
Recent UK listings have sat around £140–£180 — check Amazon for today’s price. Extraction claims are warm-lab figures; see Method.
04 · Value 12 L compressor
Pro Breeze OmniDry 12L
Compressor · 12 L (manufacturer claim)
Short answer: pick the OmniDry 12L if you want a 12 L compressor for a heated flat for less than the Meaco. You get a 2 L tank, a humidistat, a 24-hour timer and a drain hose on typical UK listings. The headline litre is a warm-lab figure, with no stepped temperature table.
Recent UK listings have sat around £100–£140 — check Amazon for today’s price. Extraction claims are warm-lab figures; see Method.
What a compressor dehumidifier does well
A compressor dehumidifier works like a small fridge. It chills a coil, the damp in your air condenses on it, and the water drips into the tank. In a heated room that's an efficient way to dry the air. Meaco lists the Arete One 12L at 151 W at 20 °C / 60 % RH, which is about half what the EcoAir DD1 desiccant draws on its economy setting.
Here's the catch: the colder your room, the less a compressor collects. Meaco's own table for the Arete One 12L drops from 5.23 L/day at 20 °C to 1.95 L/day at 10 °C, both at 60 % RH. That's why we'd put a desiccant like the Meaco DD8L or EcoAir DD1 in a cold garage or unheated utility instead. Both list 1 °C as their lowest working temperature.
What size compressor dehumidifier do you need?
If it's a heated one or two-bed flat where your windows stream every morning, a 10 L or 12 L class machine is the usual size. If it's a 3-bed house with damp in more than one room, or washing on an airer most days, we'd look at the 20 L class.
Worth knowing: the litre figure on the box is measured at 30 °C and 80 % RH. Your living room won't be that warm, so we'd compare the 20 °C rows wherever the maker publishes them. Meaco lists 14.02 L/day at 20 °C / 80 % RH for the Arete One 20L.
Other compressors worth a look
If you want app control, the MeacoDry Arete Two 20L adds it, along with a faster laundry fan. The Duux Bora Smart 20L is Quiet Mark certified, but it's only for rooms that stay above 15 °C. The Bosch Dry 4000 is a quiet 16 L with simple Auto, Night and Laundry modes, and the VonHaus 20L is a budget smart 20 L with the hose in the box.
Not sure which type you need? Our guide to choosing a dehumidifier walks through compressor versus desiccant and how to work out your running cost.
Common questions
- What's the best compressor dehumidifier in the UK?
- For a heated flat or a bedroom, we'd go for the MeacoDry Arete One 12L. Meaco lists 35 and 38 dB(A) and publishes 5.23 L/day at 20 °C / 60 % RH, a figure much closer to a British home than the 30 °C headline. For a damp 3-bed house, we'd step up to the Arete One 20L.
- Is a compressor or desiccant dehumidifier better?
- In a heated home, a compressor. It's usually the cheaper one to run in a warm room. In a cold garage, utility or conservatory that sits near or below 10 °C, a desiccant keeps working where a compressor slows right down.
- What temperature does a compressor dehumidifier work at?
- Most of the compressors we cover list 5 °C to 35 °C. The Duux Bora Smart 20L lists a 15 °C minimum. Below about 5 °C, a compressor struggles, so a cold room needs a desiccant.
- Are compressor dehumidifiers noisy?
- They hum, because there's a compressor inside, but the quieter ones are fine in a bedroom. Meaco lists 35 dB(A) on the Arete One 12L at its lower setting, and Duux lists 36 dB in night mode on the Bora Smart.
More reading: Best 5, how to choose a dehumidifier and all reviews.