Meaco DD8L Zambezi review & features
Meaco, a British company that’s not just happy to sit back and relax after their recent success with the two-award winning low energy compressor based dehumidifiers. What do they do next? Churn out what is potentialy another award winner, this time a desiccant, the DDL8 Zambezi – current online price here. Is it any good? Well their marketing says “probably the best domestic desiccant dehumidifier in the world”, and given the serious thought and effort they have put into the features and functions it may not be far off the mark…
Design and size
Appearance is always a personal thing, but for me it has a much more agreeable look compared to their older DDL8 models, which I thought were overly rounded (for me anyway). The new design should blend into the home much better, the dimensions are Width : 358mm Height : 548mm Depth : 200mm. Although it’s not lightweight, its not heavy either at 7.8kg making it quite portable if you need it to be.
Unusually for a dehumidifier the brochure is actually worth a read and that can be found here and the manual can be found here.
Capacity
Suitable for most 3-4 bedroom homes and up to a small 5 bedroom property, the maximum stated water extraction comes in at 8 litres per day in ideal conditions. The water collection tray is a large 3L tank that is easy to remove, and for most homes will probably mean twice per day until any problem is under control. There’s also a continuous drain function and an ingenious feature called 20+ that is well worth reading about in the brochure if you have a need for it.
Economy
Power consumption is among the best on the market at 350w in standard everyday slow speed and a respectable 660w in the high power setting. Just like all the best dehumidifiers it has a humidistat to stop potential over drying of the air, this partners with the in built ‘control logic’ to maximize on energy saving whist in operation. Again all mentioned in the brochure.
How quiet?
The 3 modes are low speed, high speed and extra high speed; this comes in at 41dB, 45dB and 50dB respectively. The quietest mode is as ever, slow speed, which is where most people spend the vast majority of their time. While I can’t say it is the absolute quietest dehumidifier I have ever heard, it’s not far off and has a nice continuous tone with no pitch changes. So placed outside a bedroom or a landing let’s say it shouldn’t be a problem, and you can hear this in my video at 2m43s here.
Real world effectiveness
Because this is a desiccant dehumidifier, it has a large operating temperature range from as little as 1 to 37C making itself very useful in cold locations too. During two hour testing runs it brought down the humidity very quickly and extracted 580ml of water in the low speed test, 795ml in test two and 810ml in test three – the highest speed. I get the feeling that if my lounge was damper and more water was available the extraction figures would have been higher, but as it happened the weather outside was extremely cold and dry during testing (between 0 and 4C) and this will have stopped me getting the absolute best from it. Having said that I was still impressed. You can see my testing environment here if interested.
The laundry function and automatic louvres are easy to use and very configurable through no less than five settings, this also compliments the laundry+ energy saving system talked about in the brochure.
Other features worth a mention
Well where to start? This has quite a few, here are some I haven’t mentioned already.
- Ioniser function – I’m fairly indifferent to an ioniser usually, but this one is a very good one made by Samsung and used in their ‘virus doctor’ air purifiers. So if clinically proven clean air would help you, for instance if you have allergies or asthma, this is very hard to top.
- On timer – Light sleeper? Want it to come on while you’re asleep? It can do that.
- 24 hour daily run on / off timer – Have solar panels or economy tariffs? Make extra savings with this feature, and it’s a great idea. I’m sure there are many other situations too that also would benefit from this function.
- Cooling mode – The fan runs for 10 minutes after switching off to cool the inbuilt heater to protect the dehumidifier long term.
- Unblocking functions – Meaco have rather cleverly made drainage points available to clean and unblock at home if that ever becomes a problem in future years. Unnecessary postage back to the manufacturer for simple maintenance procedures saved there then…
- Child lock – Children (and some adults) love to play with buttons, lock them out.
Conclusion
I really liked this dehumidifier. What I liked most wasn’t the quality, the features, the looks, or the fact it works very well, although it achieves all off of these. What I really like was it embodies. This is a dehumidifier someone at Meaco has really made an effort with, not only an effort to create a good well rounded product, but to listen to the features that end users ask for, actually fit them all in, and still make it easy to use. A dehumidifier for the connoisseur or the average quick start user, make no mistake this will take some beating. Current online price here.
Also see…
- My other best dehumidifiers – My personal top recommendations
- Dehumidifier testing – How I test every dehumidifier I reccomend