Meaco 20L Low Energy Dehumidifier/Air Purifier

The Meaco 20 L is a very well designed machine, easy to use and move around. Although it makes a sound while working, it is not noisy. As another reviewer says, the build quality is very high, and the water container is easy to remove and put back. I have not found the interface to be difficult at all. You set the desired humidity, and the machine remains on until the humidity reaches that level. Then it goes into standby. It wakes up every 30 minutes, tests the humidity and then goes to sleep again if the humidity is still low, or starts working if it has risen above the set level. The machine can also be used for air purification by using a HEPA filter and setting it to use the fan only. It comes with a free HEPA filter in the box. I received excellent advice from Solenco about which size unit to buy, and great support when I've had questions about settings. We have had no problems with the Meaco at all and are very satisfied with our purchase. We bought the Meaco in Feb 2019 to help control high humidity in our Pietermaritzburg house. In December 2018, the humidity inside was so high that we had mildew growing on our leather sofas and wooden furniture! Since getting the Meaco, this hasn't happened again. I highly recommend the machine and Solenco.

This is my second Meaco dehumidifier, having previously owned a DD8L which gave up after 3 years of hard work. On the whole I'm very happy with my purchase. The 20L has a much better perceived build quality with a bunch of features that I am really enjoying compared to the DD8L. The water tank is a hefty 6 litres meaning it can run for longer before needing to be emptied and when that time does come, the tank slides out effortlessly (versus the DD8L which you have to really wrestle with) and there's a nifty carry handle allowing you to take the tank away for emptying very easily. The unit comes pre-assembled with small castor wheels on its base so you can move the unit around really easily, which is good because it's a lot heavier than the DD8L due to its compressor system. Overall the 20L has a really beautiful look and feel - all the edges are rounded and clean and everything about it oozes luxury. My biggest and only complaint is that I found (and continue to find) the setup of the 20L to be very confusing and user unfriendly. To set the desired relative humidity, you are required to flick through a selection of values on the 3 digit LCD screen and then stop when you reach the one you want but it is never clear to me whether or not I got that bit right, especially because there are other values at the end of that list that again, are only selected by flicking through that list. There is no confirmation from the software that you have selected a particular value. It's literally just as confusing as it sounds. Then secondly, the 20L appears to jump between relative humidity readouts. It's frequently happened to us that it'll be in standby with a reading of 75 on the LCD, then switch itself on and instantly the reading drops to 55 or 56 which is roughly what I set the target humidity to (or at least, I think I did). The only thing I can think is that the 75 on the LCD reflects something other than the relative humidity? I really have no idea. Another related confusion is that I've found sometimes the 20L will be in standby for some time, then switch itself on and run for maybe 30 seconds, then go back into standby mode. It doesn't make any sense why it would do that - how can 30 seconds make any difference to the humidity? Ultimately all I can say is that right now I'm living in hope that the 20L is doing what I think it's supposed to be doing. One aspect I'm really enjoying is that the air produced by the 20L is not heated as it is in the case of the DD8L (due to the different dehumidification tech employed by the two units), so it's not constantly heating up our small apartment. For those of us living in hot climates, this is really a difference that I value versus the DD8L. If you live in a hot area, consider rather getting the 20L. Despite my complaints, I would buy the 20L again. It's a slick unit with excellent build quality, a nice big water tank and an overall pleasant experience (if you can ignore the horrible software/configuration aspect). I give it 4 stars: Minus 1 thanks to the confusing setup/operation elements.