Meaco Heat Motion Eye 1.8kW Heater. Warmth only when you need it. Automatically turns on when you are close by. (Black)

Product Information

Cost of living concerns mean we're more conscious of the high c ost of running a tumble dryer, but drying clothes naturally can incur additional costs, warns Chris from Meaco. 'The moisture released by the clothes as they dry will stay in the air, meaning that wet washing will take increasingly longer to dry – especially as households may be keeping windows closed to keep precious heat in,' he says. The other controls let you choose between quiet Sleep mode, powerful High mode for laundry and economic Low mode for daytime use. You can fine-tune these by setting the fan speed and desired humidity level (you’ll want it under 50 percent, see below). But that’s it. Very much a fire-and-forget machine. I like the way it looks, too. Although it’s an American company, there’s something reassuringly Swiss about it. Maybe that’s just me. A fan option means they can be used all year, adding warmth in the summer months on a chilly day, but becoming a fan to cool a room in hotter weather. The smaller model, 1.8kW has two outputs levels to save energy, a 1-7 hour off timer and a fan only mode for summer use. The larger 2.0Kw adds oscillation to the specification to distribute the heat evenly through a 70° arc. A three-level thermostat replaces the off timer to provide another level of control. Available in a range of colours and sizes MeacoHeat Motion Eye 2.0kW It’s the setting with the highest ventilation speed and dehumidifying capacity. In my testing, I found it to really work. I don’t struggle too badly with mould in winter but I do find it difficult to dry clothes (I’m a little too stoic about not switching on the heating). With this DeLonghi dehumidifier sat next to my standard, non-heated clothes airer, my washing dried within a few hours, including a pair of jeans and a hoodie.

Established in 1991 specialising in monitoring and control equipment for museums and art galleries, Meaco soon expanded its air purification range to include award-winning cooling products, dehumidifiers, air purifiers, and heaters distributed in over twenty countries throughout Europe, USA and South Africa. A winner of multiple Which? “Best Buy”, and Good Housekeeping Institute Tried and Tested Awards, and achieving the Quiet Mark status for its range of fans, Meaco’s expertise is unrivalled. Meaco’s products cater for the needs of home and industry, plus specialist areas including boating, caravanning and swimming pools. Its award-winning fans, the MeacoFan range, are designed to suit all room sizes, with advanced DC technology ensuring low noise levels, and low energy usage. The recommended humidity for your home is 40-60 per cent in the summer months and between 30-50 per cent in the winter. You can measure it with a hygrometer (a humidity gauge - they’re not expensive). If it goes over 70 per cent, you run the risk of condensation, damp, mould, fungi and bacteria. That’s when you need a dehumidifier. Which is better, a compressor or desiccant dehumidifier? This model comes with a raft of features, including two heat settings (1kW and 2kW), an IP24 rating for Zone 2 bathroom use, a 24-hour and seven-day timer, and the aforementioned touch, app and voice control options.

MeacoHeat from Meaco Dehumidifiers

This heater’s top panel is home to a set of touch controls for its various features. There’s a fan-only mode and two levels of heat, plus a countdown timer for up to seven hours of use. While it’s a shame there’s no thermostat, there’s an unusual motion-sensing feature that keeps the heater off until it detects movement. This could be useful if you want to avoid heating a rarely used space. There’s a control for oscillation, which lets the fan heater rotate through 60 degrees. Plus, you get a Stat control (L, M and H), which turns off the fan when a set temperature is reached. There’s nothing in the manual to indicate the rough temperatures that these apply to, so you may need to experiment a little to get the right mode. Thanks to the range of MeacoHeat, those days are over! MotionMove technology utilises motion sensing technology that turns the heater on when you enter the room and off again when you leave. This technology ensures that heaters are automatically turned off once you leave the room, giving you the heat you want when it’s needed ensuring less energy usage for the money & environment conscious households.

For a bathroom, you should position the dehumidifier just outside the bathroom door and ensure the door is left open so the unit can draw the moist air towards it. If you’re drying clothes, just place the dehumidifier in the room, making sure the door and windows are all closed. Domestic dehumidifiers can extract up to 25 litres of water per day. We have largely focused on 20l models since these are the most popular for domestic use. For larger spaces, damper environments or colder temperatures, choose something more powerful. (Or vice versa for smaller spaces.) Fan speed isn’t particularly impressive, with the single speed pushing out air at 0.9m/s at 15cm; at 1m, it was 0.37m/s. That’s enough to feel a small breeze, but you’d have to sit close to the fan in summer to feel the effect. Don’t sit so close in winter, however; I measured the heat output at 56.2ºC from 15cm, which is pretty uncomfortable.When it’s in this automatic mode, the noise varies between 37dB (fine) and 46dB (pretty loud) so I set the timer to switch it off at 10:30pm every night, so it didn’t bother me as I drifted off. The other options, operated by buttons on top of the machine, include adjusting the fan speed, increasing or decreasing the target humidity and switching between laundry drying, continuous or SMD (smart dehumidification).

The beauty of a desiccant dehumidifier is not only that they are typically quieter than compressor models, but they are ideal for smaller, unheated areas such as conservatories, campervans, garages, boats and cellars. They’re also fantastically efficient.Dehumidifiers are the best way to reduce humidity in your home and many are cost effective and energy efficient. They range from bathroom dehumidifiers to compact ones for your car and even ones you can control from your mobile phone. Small dehumidifiers are ideal for flats or smaller spaces, while the bigger models can dehumidify a five-bedroom property or a small business space.

If there’s a problem room, the dehumidifier should be kept in there, preferably with doors and windows closed,” says Chris Wood, also from Aircon Centre. “If it is to be used to control the moisture for the whole house, however, then it should be located centrally, on a landing or in the hallway, and the air from the rooms should be able to flow towards the units. So keep the interior doors open and the exterior windows shut.” How much does a dehumidifier cost to run?The MeacoHeat Motion Eye 1.8kW Heater manages to fit some useful features into one of the smallest heaters we’ve seen. It’s light, and feels rugged, making it a great occasional heater for small rooms, or for boats or caravans that can cope with its 3kW peak power demand. The Dragon 4 Pro comes with an intuitive dial-and-push digital control system, comprising a thermostat, three power settings and a daily timer control. Simply set the thermostat to the temperature you’d like the room to be – say 22˚C – and then select the power output to minimum, medium or maximum. Alternatively, select Eco mode and let the heater choose its most energy-efficient power level so you don’t get hit with too heavy an electricity bill. While it’s great to have a fan-only feature, don’t expect this heater to supply a powerful breeze come summertime. Measured at 15cm there was a 1.7 metres-per-second waft, but a metre away this had fallen below our anemometer’s 0.8m/s threshold. And while you’ll need to sit close to benefit in summer, we wouldn’t advise it in winter: at 15cm we measured the air output at a scalding hot 58.6℃. Should you buy the MeacoHeat Motion Eye 1.8kW Heater A dehumidifier will not only dry washing, but it will also protect the whole house from damp and condensation problems and one with a HEPA filter will also clean the air,' he explains. 'As dry air is cheaper to heat than damp air, a dehumidifier will help households save on heating bills. The energy that it uses will also heat the space, so there are many gains all around.'