How the Meaco DD8L pro desiccant dehumidifier gave a cold garage the perfect storage climate for a super car

My partner has yet to finish his new build garage, built specially to house his pride and joy. Meanwhile, I was itching to use this new space to get rid of some clutter from the house, which is a very small, two-bedroom cottage.

But while my partner has added electric underfloor heating to the garage floor (apparently cars need such luxuries), he has yet to finish off the electrical work to connect it up and heat the space. This means the garage is very cold, raising the risk of stored items (and his car) becoming damaged by condensation, damp and mould while the weather is dank outside.

So when I was given the opportunity to test the Meaco DD8L pro desiccant dehumidifier I jumped at the chance. I wanted to see if this was the best dehumidifier to keep my stored items damp and mould free, while my partner was salivating at the thought of potentially giving his car optimum climate-controlled conditions.

Practicalities of using a dessicant dehumidifer in a cold space

It's important to understand why I chose to test this Meaco DD8L pro desiccant dehumidifier in a cold garage, rather than inside the main house.

When it comes to desiccant vs compressor dehumidifiers, desiccant dehumidifiers work better in colder spaces because they operate by absorbing moisture from the air with a desiccant material. Compressor dehumidifiers meanwhile use refrigerant to cool coils inside them so moisture can be removed from the air via condensation. For this condensation to occur, there needs to be a noticeable difference in coil temperature and room temperature, hence why compressor dehumidifiers tend to work better in warmer spaces like inside the house.

That said, a desiccant dehumidifier still needs a minimum temperature threshold of 1°C to make sure the machine doesn't freeze up. Given the lack of underfloor heating in the newbuild garage, to solve the problem for testing, I added an oil-filled radiator to the space to make sure the temperature was always higher than freezing.

Shop for using a dehumidifier in a garage

Unboxing the Meaco DD8L Pro

The Meaco DD8L pro desiccant dehumidifier arrived in a smart cardboard box that was well-packed, with protective inserts to stop the contents moving around and getting damaged.

The machine itself had a dust cover over it, meanwhile the information booklets on how to use the dehumidifier were easy to find when opening from the top. There was a large ergonomic indentation at the back of the machine for lifting the dehumidifier out of the box.

This particular model was fairly large so I would say it had a reasonable weight to it, but it was very easy to pull out of the box, even with the dust cover on it.

First impressions

The Meaco DD8L pro desiccant dehumidifier has all the hallmarks of a workhorse of a machine. And that's exactly what I needed for a large double bay garage with a concrete floor.

It has a decent 2 litre water collection tank, as well as having the option for continuous drainage, handy in a space that doesn't see regular footfall.

What's a nice touch with this particular dehumidifier is that it looks slick, with a dark top to it, so no dirty fingermarks show on areas where someone might be pressing buttons. It is fairly bulky owing to its 58cm x 36cm x 23cm dimensions, but this is to be expected if the machine is to be powerful enough to control humidity in larger spaces.

A smart-looking machine is of course ideal in a posh garage beside a fancy car. It might have been fun to be able to customise it in red to match the vehicle but, sadly, I don't think any dehumidifier offers this option.

What is cool about this particular machine though, is that it can be wall-mounted with the bracket designed by Meaco for this machine, making it ideal for space-saving in smaller garages. There's also a cable tidy on the back of the machine to hide away any unsightly wires when not in use. And, if you do decide to leave it on the floor, you can also buy separate castors on the Meaco website to be able to easily wheel it about.

Ease of use

Any dehumidifier will need to be left for 48 hours after delivery before attempting to turn it on. With compressor models this is to make sure compressor oil and refrigerant settles, much like a fridge, while desiccant dehumidifiers have a rotating desiccant wheel inside that also needs time to settle to avoid damage on start-up. You can read more this and how dehumidifiers work in our explainer on the topic.

Once I had waited, I plugged the Meaco DD8L pro desiccant dehumidifier in and pressed the "on" symbol. This was easy to find, to the bottom left of the control panel.

Immediately, the dehumidifier whirred into action, displaying the humidity reading of the room on the screen. Without having to adjust any settings, there was a clear indication of '55%RH' as the target room humidity setting it was aiming towards.

Despite a desiccant dehumidifier being ideal for colder spaces, I initially plugged in this dehumidifier inside the house so I could get a feel for the controls, before putting it into position beside the super car in the garage.

Overall, having used dehumidifiers before, I found this dehumidifier very easy to start up and use. It was literally one button to press after being connected to an electric source, before it started up and got to work instantly.

Using the control panel

The Meaco DD8L pro desiccant dehumidifier is impressively easy to operate, but does still have wide functionality. If you want a simple start, all you need to do is press the 'on' button after plugging it in and it will roar into action, with a target humidity reading of 55%RH, which is what you would usually want for normal humidity in a house.

Meanwhile, if you wanted to use this dehumidifier for laundry, you can easily press the T-shirt button to crank up the humidity setting to 35%RH which will whip more moisture from the air.

For my purposes in the garage, I found the ability to toggle between power settings very useful. I was able to set it at a low wattage with a slow fan speed to use minimal electricity. This was ideal for leaving the dehumidifier permanently on, controlling the humidity of the space at all times. Once its target humidity is reached – or the water tank is full – the dehumidifier also has an automatic shut off.

I loved that this dehumidifier had a germ and bacteria extraction setting too. While the new build garage doesn't have any damp or mould, I can see this being useful in older spaces. I have a damp wall in my house, and I often worry about airborne mould spores and bacteria around that space. Knowing my dehumidifier is removing these is added piece of mind.

Here's an overview of what all the different buttons on the DD8L do:

• On/off button. Turns the dehumidifier on or off. You'll find when you turn the dehumidifier off, it asks you to wait before unplugging the machine so it can cool down. This is little annoying, but I guess a helpful feature to avoid unintended damage.
• Large waterdrop button. Operate smart humidity mode by pressing this button once and automatically targeting a humidity setting of 55%RH. Pressing this button multiple times meanwhile will change the humidity to any required level.
• Small triple waterdrop button. Allows you to select the power of the dehumidifier and its fan speed. Select one drop for low fan speed and 200 watts of power, two drops for medium fan speed and 400 watts of power, and three drops for high speed fan and high power of 600 watts.
• T-shirt button. Pressing this button will activate smart laundry mode, giving the dehumidifier a target humidity setting of 35%RH. Press the smart humidity button (the large waterdrop) to stop laundry mode.
• Half-moon button. Press this button to activate night mode and child lock. This makes the dehumidifier much quieter by reducing the fan speed, fixing the louvre open, stopping the buttons from beeping and turning the lights off the display. Press the button twice to exit night mode.
• Clock button. You can switch a timer on with this button to make the dehumidifier start up at a specific time, or make it stop at a specific time.
• ++ and - symbol button. This is the ioniser and should be turned on when you want the dehumidifier to extract germs and bacteria from the air, as well as mould spores, odours and, apparently, ticks (yes really, apparently ticks become airborne and 'fly' through the air using static electricity to suck your blood). When this is on, it will show this same icon on the control panel.
• Louvre button. Operate the louvre on the top of the machine to either a fixed open position, or moving across a narrow, medium or wide position. The angle of the louvre will then display on the control panel.

Using the DD8L pro with a phone

I was looking forward to testing this dehumidifier on the Meaco app as it wasn't something I had done before. There wasn't much in the instruction manual about doing this, but a google-search found this YouTube video explaining how to set the dehumidifier up on the Meaco app.

After registering on the app, I went on to "add device". Both your dehumidifier and your phone need to be on the same WiFi network for this to be successful, and you need to know your WiFi password (a bit of a faff but I eventually found it). If this doesn't work, you can also follow the instructions to add the machine manually, but you'll still need to know your WiFi password.

I found using the dehumidifier with the app useful, mainly as it flagged when the water tank was empty, meaning I didn't need to keep checking in person. The app also tracked the humidity level in the garage, which allowed me to see how much work the dehumidifier was putting in to maintain the climate.

Overall the app was useful, but not essential, which probably is exactly what it should be.

Emptying the water collector

I've been using dehumidifiers a while and usually the removal of the water tank is a bit cumbersome, heavy to lift and fiddly to put back in. Generally you find access to the water tank is from the front, but the DD8L has a water tank that you pull out from the side.

This side-opening tank turned out to be much less cumbersome, and it even had a handle for carrying the tank to a sink for emptying. I was pretty impressed actually, perhaps because I've found them so annoying to handle in the past.

Like many desiccant units, this dehumidifier's water tank was on the smaller side, but I didn't find this a problem. I could still leave the dehumidifier for several days before needing to empty it – and the longer I used it in the space, the less attention it needed.

When the water tank is full, a full cup symbol appeared on the control panel and the dehumidifier switched itself off automatically.

Switching to continuous drainage mode

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Unlike other machines, the continuous drainage on this machine is very easily accessible at the back, with its own removable rubber cover. This was perfect for use in a garage as there was no fiddling around trying to access it.

The spout, called the 'right angle adapter', meanwhile was hidden away in the water tank (ideal for not accidentally losing it) and slid easily into place. As with other Meaco dehumidifiers, it was annoying that no continuous drainage hose was included, although a piece of normal garden hose is apparently the right size for slotting onto the spout. You could also argue that sourcing one yourself means you can get the right length too.

It is worth noting that continuous drainage is gravity fed, so you do need a drain at the same level or below the machine for this to be workable, as well as a suitable outfall (drain, sink etc).

How did the dessicant dehumidifer perform?

This particular dehumidifier is absolutely perfect for use in a garage. Not only does this model perform efficiently in colder temperatures (as you would expect with a desiccant dehumidifier), but its adjustable power settings really tailor this machine for your space.

This gives users the choice to save on dehumidifier running costs by selecting a low watt setting, or cranking it up to max power for more needy spaces, and even whacking on the germ exterminator too.

But the DD8L Pro Desiccant dehumidifier, which is now available on Amazon, offers so much more; features that might not be useful inside a home, but are super useful in a garage or outbuilding. You can add wheels to move it around a large space, or a wall mount to increase useable floor space. Meanwhile, stick a hose on it and you've got yourself a secure, permanent drainage system.

Add to that the ability to control the dehumidifier remotely on your phone, or your Google Home Hub or Alexa, and you can give yourself a setup that rarely needs any input, saving you valuable time and effort.

While the Meaco DD8L pro desiccant dehumidifier is on the pricey end of the cost spectrum (desiccant dehumidifiers often are), I'd argue that for all the functionality it offers, this unit is well-worth the investment.

So, was the Meaco DD8L pro desiccant dehumidifier the perfect companion for the super car? Absolutely. Not only does this machine look cool next to the car, it is giving the garage (and the car) a steady 55%RH climate at all times. My partner is also more than happy to volunteer to look after it, which I take as a clear sign that the DD8L pro is doing an excellent job at giving his car the perfect storage climate while it is tucked up over winter.

If you are considering buying a dehumidifier for your home, don't make the dehumidifier mistake of skimping on your model. When it comes to budget vs premium dehumidifier, you'll end up getting a lot more value for money by investing in a unit that is powerful enough for the job.