It can handle up to a 1,500 square feet room (more than enough for my tiny bathroom), removing up to 22 pints of water a day. The Midea does vent out of the side, and the only feature on the top of the device is the controls, so there’s plenty of space to put other stuff. These units are not tiny - it’s like having a carry-on suitcase in your bathroom at all times - so I wanted to make it as functional as I could. I aimed for a completely flat and featureless top - in case I ever needed to stash an eye pencil (which would roll into vents on other models) or set down a hair dryer on top of it, even temporarily. Given my tiny bathroom and shortage of surface area, I really wanted a side-venting model. Most dehumidifiers pull air through a filter on the back of the machine and release it out of vents on the top. (Or you can have it drain continuously via a hose, but you will need a floor drain handy, like in a basement area, which didn’t really work in my bathroom.) The water accumulates in a holding tank, which you will need to empty when full. Dehumidifiers work by pulling in air with a fan, running it over coils that remove the moisture using condensation, and then blowing out the warm, dry air from a vent. So I figured the dehumidifier might also be well designed. The unique U-shaped design (which preserves window space) was so popular this year, it was perpetually out of stock all summer and seemed to be featured in every New York apartment I went into. The brand was relatively new to me, but just about everyone seemed to love the company’s air conditioner. It has more than 12,000 reviews on Amazon and a 4.5/5 rating.

After reading dozens of reviews and looking at many different products, I settled on a Midea 22-pint Energy Star–certified dehumidifier. While I didn’t want to devote my already limited floor space to a pricey appliance that may or may not help, I figured I’d give it a shot. I figured I needed to change it up, because frankly I never wanted to clean my ceiling again. All these steps helped, but none were a magical cure. I’ve replaced an underpowered bathroom fan (twice! still useless), routinely cleaned walls and ceilings with bleach products like Tilex, and repainted the walls and ceiling (also more than once) with special anti-fungal paint that you can buy at Home Depot or just about any hardware store. Given that it’s a 100-year-old home, it never really had the technology or setup to help keep moisture down, and steam radiators made the problem worse. However, having two family members with asthma, I’ve been fighting the good fight against mold and mildew (mildew is often used as a more generic term, and can refer to mold that has a flat growth pattern) in our one and only, poorly ventilated bathroom, for ages. (We are not talking about toxic black mold here, which can be dangerous.) Usually a few, if you are healthy, are not a problem. Now let me say I do appreciate fungi in all of their biological glory outside my home - there are millions of fungi species and frankly mold spores are all around us and we likely inhale them with every breath we take. For people whose allergic reactions are also tied to asthma, mold can cause shortness of breath, wheezing, cough, and difficulty breathing. It produces spores that at high levels can cause allergic reactions and symptoms, including a stuffy nose, congestion, itchy, red eyes, and throat irritation. Poor ventilation, warm temperatures, and water sources (that toilet! steamy showers! dripping faucets!) can combine to create a high-humidity environment where mold can thrive.Ī type of fungus, mold isn’t just unattractive when its black spots pop up in a bathroom - it can be a health risk too. It’s no secret that bathrooms have the type of conditions that make it easy for mold to grow. Also, all prices were accurate and items in stock at the time of publication.

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