What to look out for when buying a dehumidifier
16/2/2026
Translation: Katherine Martin
There are almost 500 dehumidifiers in our range, so I’ve compiled some tips to help you find the right one for your needs. The most important thing to be aware of? Follow-up costs.
Unless you’re planning to go into the fungi farming business, you should try to keep your home’s humidity level within a healthy range. In other words, between 40 and 55 per cent relative humidity, at a room temperature of 19–22 degrees Celsius. Bedrooms tend to be on the cooler side, while bathrooms are usually slightly warmer. As a result, the recommended humidity levels for those rooms are a little different. You’ll find additional tips on creating an ideal indoor climate in this «Beobachter» article (in German).
First things first, you should find out how humid your home is. You can do this by buying an inexpensive hygrometer. We have a wide selection of them in our range. If you use Apple speakers, such as a HomePod or HomePod Mini, you can ask Siri to read the humidity from the speakers’ built-in sensor.
Thermometers + Hygrometers
Quantity discount
EUR7,73 per piece for 2 units
TFA Digital Thermo-Hygrometer with Comfort Zone Thermo-/Hygrometer White
When should you be using a dehumidifier?
High indoor humidity tends to be more common in autumn and winter. If windows are poorly insulated, warm and moist air condense on the inside of the pane. This quickly leads to mould, and can damage wooden frames. If that’s the case for you, your goal should be to keep indoor humidity below 50 per cent. This becomes a tricky task when you’re cooking, showering or hanging laundry up to dry.
However, you’ve also got to keep an eye on your home’s indoor humidity in spring and summer. During those seasons, it’s inevitable that warm, damp air will get inside. What’s more, because of the Swiss building standard – Minergie – modern houses are built to be pretty airtight. This can cause moisture to build up, especially if you don’t ventilate your home properly (linked content in German).
Where should you be using a dehumidifier?
It’s really important to check your basement’s humidity level from time to time. If the air stays moist for long periods, mould will eventually grow on the walls or maybe on shelves, inside ski boots or on sleeping bags you’ve stored down there. Basements get damp in summer when warm, humid air hits the room’s cold surfaces and condenses there.
If you use your basement as a place to hang up laundry, you’ll usually have no choice but to get a dehumidifier. That is, unless your building manager’s already taken care of it.
If you’re looking for a dehumidifier for your basement, I’d recommend going for one with a high dehumidifying rate. This is measured using the device’s capacity for absorbing moisture, i.e. how much water it extracts from the air within a certain time period. The ones in our range indicate this capacity in litres per 24 hours. You can even filter for it when searching for a dehumidifier.
Most devices operate at 10–30 litres per 24 hours. Depending on the size of your basement and its typical humidity level, I’d advise you to look at devices in the 20–30 litre range. It’s rarely worth going for a more powerful dehumidifier – unless the building has water damage or you’re moving into a new build. The walls of new homes often still contain a lot of moisture from the mortar, plaster and paint.
As you’d expect, dehumidifiers that extract a high quantity of moisture from the air need a generously sized tank. If it’s too small, you’ll have to empty it every few hours. Otherwise, the dehumidifier will stop working.
Another thing worth bearing in mind when looking for a dehumidifier for your basement is the device’s ability to perform fairly well at cold temperatures. While some manufacturers provide information on this in the product specs, some unfortunately don’t. If in doubt, you’ll have to do your own research or ask our Community.
Hose for added convenience
Too lazy or forgetful to empty a dehumidifier tank? As an alternative, you could choose a device that continuously drains water out through a hose. Just pop the end of the hose in a sink or position it over a floor drain.
You can find these devices on Galaxus by selecting «Continuous discharge» under the «Additional functions» filter. In fact, I’ve gone ahead and done it for you.
Portability’s handy for bathroom dehumidifiers
When it comes to choosing a dehumidifier for a bathroom (which in Switzerland is often an interior room, i.e. lacking a window for ventilation), compact dimensions, quiet operation and aesthetics might be more important to you. Personally, I think the Xiaomi dehumidifier’s particularly nicely designed and convenient. Firstly, because it meets all these criteria, and secondly, because it has wheels, meaning it can easily be moved into a bedroom after use in the bathroom.
There are other devices boasting these features in our range. Just use the filters to find one that’ll meet your needs in terms of appearance and functionality. Here are three extra suggestions from me:
What does a dehumidifier cost to run?
When buying a dehumidifier, you need to take note of more than just the sale price. Let’s face it, as far as household appliances go, dehumidifiers are one of the biggest electricity guzzlers. They consume much more energy than, say, your fridge.
One of Galaxus’s bestsellers, the ecoQ DryAir 20L, has a maximum power consumption of 245 watts. If you were to leave it running for four hours a day, for example, it’d use 365 kilowatt hours of electricity per year. Depending on the price of electricity in your area, this could rack up running costs of around 100 francs.
You need to compare and contrast your electricity costs against your dehumidifier’s performance – and that’s no easy feat. When put to the test, dehumidifiers perform very differently depending on the test method used. This TCS review deems an Ecofort device to be the most efficient.
However, in a review conducted by «Saldo» (issue 5/2025, article available in German, with a subscription ), the Kibernetik M16 and the Wood’s MDK11 came up trumps on energy efficiency, both scoring 5.7.
The problem is, Switzerland doesn’t have an independent label setting out energy efficiency classes. Instead, there’s the Dehumidification Efficiency Ratio, or DER for short. This measures a device’s dehumidifying performance relative to the electricity it requires. Check out the information page on topten.ch (in German) to find out more about this.
Here’s the thing: dehumidifying performance also depends on the temperature of the room. Saldo’s review, for example, demonstrated that many devices achieve the performance promised on their packaging at temperatures of 30 degrees Celsius. Put them in a Swiss basement at 18 degrees, however, and they’ll often perform a whole lot worse.
Should you go for a «smart» dehumidifier?
All dehumidifiers have some degree of if-then intelligence. If the measured air humidity’s higher than the target level, then the device runs. If it’s lower, it switches off. In my opinion, that’s all you need. Especially if we’re talking about basement dehumidifiers. In living areas, it might be useful for your device to follow a schedule defined via an app. For instance, you could set it to go into quiet mode when it’s running in a bedroom at night.
I’ve made the air-laundry dryer in my basement (which I’ve written about here) «smart» by using a MyStrom plug. The plug allows me to use surplus power generated by my rooftop solar panels to run the dryer. To do so, however, I had to set up a Wi-Fi access point in the basement first. That’s a whole other story, which I’ll be going into at a later date.
How do you clean a dehumidifier?
Dehumidifiers are generally pretty low-maintenance. You just have to regularly empty the water tank and occasionally vacuum dust out of the filter. Every now and then, you also need to clean the water tank to prevent mould from forming. On most devices, you can take off the filter frame and occasionally clean it thoroughly in soapy water.
You generally don’t need to buy replacement filters. The exceptions to that rule are combi devices, which both dehumidify and purify air. These are fitted with HEPA or activated carbon filters that can’t simply be washed.
If you’re not particularly disciplined when it comes to cleaning, or if your basement just gets really dusty, your dehumidifier might get dirty fairly quickly. This makes it all the more important that you can clean each part of the device properly. Ultra-cheap «Chinese models» make this impossible because the plastic components are glued together so tightly. It’s better to get a device that allows you to reach the compressor so you can wipe it down.
Got any questions about dehumidifiers? Feel free to drop them in the comments. Alternatively, you could give our new buying guide a go. Just bear in mind that we can’t make any guarantees on its quality, as the feature’s still being developed. It also relies on accurate product data to work, and that’s still not quite up to par in the furthest reaches of our product range.
Header image: Wood's
Martin Jungfer
Head of Content
Martin.Jungfer@digitecgalaxus.chJournalist since 1997. Stopovers in Franconia (or the Franken region), Lake Constance, Obwalden, Nidwalden and Zurich. Father since 2014. Expert in editorial organisation and motivation. Focus on sustainability, home office tools, beautiful things for the home, creative toys and sports equipment.
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