Last Updated on October 24, 2026 by Umar Farooq
Can a dehumidifier replace a tumble dryer? For washing hung on an airer in a closed room, yes, provided you can wait several hours; for towels, a quick turnaround and a soft, uncreased finish, no. It is a different job, not a quieter version of the same one.
A tumble dryer cooks the water out of your clothes. A dehumidifier does nothing to your clothes at all: it just makes the room so thirsty that the clothes dry on their own, slowly and without any drama. Whether that is a replacement depends on what you were using the dryer for.
Can a dehumidifier replace a tumble dryer? Only the damp-air half of the job
A tumble dryer heats the load, tumbles it, and moves the wet air out or into a tank. A dehumidifier does only the last part, in a way: it pulls water out of the room’s air so the washing keeps giving up more of its own. If your dryer habit is really “get this wet load dry by morning”, a dehumidifier in a shut room with the washing spaced out can do it. If your dryer habit is “get these towels fluffy before work”, it cannot, because nothing is tumbling and nothing is heating the fabric.
My one strong opinion: a dehumidifier replaces the washing-on-the-radiators habit, not the dryer. Wet clothes draped over radiators in an open room are what put the water on your walls and windows. A closed room and a dehumidifier is a real upgrade on that; as a swap for a good dryer it costs you speed and finish.
What it takes the place of, and what it never will
| Job | Dehumidifier and airer | Tumble dryer |
|---|---|---|
| Everyday cottons, shirts, T-shirts | Good, if spaced out and left for hours | Quick |
| Towels and bedding | Works, but they dry stiff and slow | Soft, done in one cycle |
| Heavy items (jeans, hoodies, duvets) | Slow, and needs turning | Fine, if the drum is big enough |
| Creases | Whatever shape you hung it in | Tumbling shakes many of them out |
| Drying in a hurry | Not the tool | The tool |
Which? points out that dehumidifiers help clothes dry faster than air drying and avoid the heat that shrinks or damages fabric, though they are louder than a heated airer. Expert Reviews, comparing the two directly, puts a dehumidifier at roughly 4 to 6 hours for a load against 30 to 40 minutes for a small dryer load.
Where the dryer still wins: towels, creases and a deadline
Three things a dehumidifier cannot fake.
Towels. Air-dried towels are stiff because nothing beats the pile up. A dehumidifier makes them dry sooner than they would otherwise, not softer.
Speed on a big load. Which? quotes 14 to 40 minutes per kilo of laundry for a tumble dryer. A bedsheet and two pairs of jeans in a dehumidified room is an evening-to-morning affair.
Volume. The room can only hold as much washing as air can move between. Overload the airer and the middle layers stay wet; Energy Star flags laundry drying as a high-load condition that may call for a larger unit.
If you wash a big family load every day, keep the dryer, or run both: the dryer for towels and bedding, the dehumidifier for everything else.
The sums: dehumidifier against dryer, labelled as mine
These depend on your tariff and machines, and I have not measured either. Which? gives an average of 6p an hour for the Best Buy dehumidifiers it tested, in a range of 2p to 13p. Expert Reviews, at a 24.86p per kWh price cap, reckons about £1.32 for a full 9 kg vented dryer load and about 53p for a heat pump dryer.
My sums, assuming a six-hour session against those dryer figures:
- Dehumidifier at the 6p average: 6 x 6p = 36p.
- Dehumidifier at the 13p top of the range: 6 x 13p = 78p.
So a dehumidifier looks cheaper than a vented dryer and roughly level with a heat pump one. The prices come from different dates, so treat that as direction only, and a 10-hour run in a cold room erodes it. Heated airer costs are in our heated airer guide.
Set the room up so the swap actually works
- Close the door. A dehumidifier dries the air it can reach. Shut the room and it concentrates on the washing instead of the whole house. See drying clothes indoors without mould for why the room also needs an exit for the damp.
- Space the washing. Hang items with a hand’s width between them and put heavy pieces on the outside, where the air arrives first.
- Spin it harder first. Every bit of water the washing machine takes out is water the dehumidifier does not have to.
- Use laundry mode if you have it. Check your manual for what it changes on your unit; what laundry mode actually changes is covered separately.
- Give the room a vent. A shut room with a running machine gets stuffy and warm. Crack a window briefly when the load is dry, or leave a small gap if the outside air is drier than the inside.
Machine sizing and placement are in the guide to a dehumidifier for drying clothes.
Replace the dryer only if the washing has a room and a day to itself
My conclusion is practical. A dehumidifier can replace a tumble dryer if you have one room you can shut, an airer or two, and no need for dry clothes inside six hours. It cannot replace one if towels, bedding or a deadline are the main reason you bought it. For most households the sensible answer is neither or both: use the dryer sparingly for towels and emergencies, and let a dehumidifier and a closed door handle everything else.
If the dryer you already own is vented or a condenser, also glance at where its water goes: tumble dryer condensation and venting shows why keeping it is not automatically the dry option either.
FAQ
Can I get rid of my tumble dryer if I buy a dehumidifier?
Only if you can live with slower drying and stiffer towels. A dehumidifier does not tumble or heat, so it dries an airer’s worth of washing in hours rather than minutes. Many people keep the dryer for towels and bedding.
Is a dehumidifier cheaper than a tumble dryer?
Usually cheaper than a vented or condenser dryer, and close to a heat pump dryer, going by the Which? and Expert Reviews figures above. It depends on the tariff and how many hours you need to run it, so work it out from your own machine’s wattage.
Do clothes dry as well with a dehumidifier as in a tumble dryer?
They dry, but they do not come out the same. There is no heat or tumbling, so clothes keep their creases and towels feel firmer. In exchange, there is no heat to shrink or wear fabrics.
How long do clothes take to dry with a dehumidifier?
Expert Reviews puts it at around 4 to 6 hours for a load. Heavy fabrics, a crowded airer or a cold room will take longer.
Do I still need to ventilate if I use a dehumidifier for washing?
Yes, a little. A closed room with a running machine can feel stuffy, and the machine needs somewhere sensible to send the last of the damp. Open a window briefly once the washing is dry.
