MeacoDry Arete Two 20L dehumidifier: is it worth it in the UK?

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Verdict

Buy the MeacoDry Arete Two if you have a genuine damp problem — condensation on the windows, a musty bedroom, laundry that never dries in a British winter, or mould you keep painting over. It is the quietest, most efficient 20L compressor dehumidifier most UK households can buy, it doubles as a HEPA air purifier, and it carries a five-year warranty that the cheaper brands do not. Skip it if your only issue is "the air feels a bit damp sometimes": open a window, run a fan, and spend nothing. A dehumidifier is a big, heavy, power-hungry box you have to find a home for 50 weeks of the year — for the average flat it is a solution to a problem you may not actually have.

Who it's for

• Buy it if: you have persistent condensation, a room that smells of damp, asthma or allergy concerns that a HEPA purifier would help, or you dry clothes indoors and are tired of the musty fallout. The Arete Two's laundry mode genuinely takes hours off drying time and is far cheaper than a tumble dryer per load.
• Skip it if: your damp is occasional. A tenner's worth of ventilation and a decent fan solve "a bit muggy" for free, and you avoid a 20kg appliance parked in the corner.
• Skip it if: the room is cold and unheated — garages, unheated conservatories, outbuildings. Compressor dehumidifiers lose efficiency below about 15°C; a desiccant unit (Meaco's own DD range) is the right tool there, not this one.
• Skip it if: you have no space. At roughly 42 × 28 × 62 cm and ~20 kg, it is a piece of furniture, not a gadget you tuck in a cupboard.

Key specifications

What stands out

• It is the quiet one, and that matters. Reviews place it at 38–50 dB depending on fan speed. In laundry or smart mode at low/medium it is a background hum you can sleep through — a real difference from the 55–60 dB units that dominate the cheaper shelf. For something you might run overnight, the gap is the whole point.
• Five-year warranty. Most dehumidifiers in this price band give two years. Meaco's five on the Arete is a genuine signal of build confidence and removes a chunk of the "will it die in year three" risk that hangs over appliances you run constantly.
• The laundry mode earns its keep. Multiple testers dried a load in a fraction of the usual time and removed 90%+ of the "wet washing" smell. Against tumble-dryer running costs this can pay back a fair slice of the purchase over a winter.
• It purifies as it dries. The HEPA H13 filter is a genuine bonus for allergy and asthma households — you are not just pulling water out of the air, you are pulling particulates too. That is two jobs for one socket.
• The "Two" actually adds something. Unlike a bare relabel, the Arete Two adds Wi-Fi/app and voice control plus refined styling over the Arete One, so you are not paying for a name change alone.

Where it falls short

• It is a big, heavy box to store. The honest frugal take: ~20 kg and over half a metre tall. For 50 weeks of the year it is furniture you must place, and in a small flat that placement is a real cost. If you only need it for three damp weeks, that is a lot of appliance for occasional use.
• It heats the room. A compressor dehumidifier dumps its waste heat back into the space. In summer that is unwelcome; the Telegraph and others note it "gives off a fair amount of heat" — fine in January, annoying in July.
• Weak in the cold. Below ~15°C compressor units lose extraction badly. If your problem is an unheated garage, van, or outbuilding, this is the wrong machine — you want a desiccant (Meaco DD) instead.
• Draining and emptying is a chore. The 4.8 L tank fills fast in laundry mode and you either empty it often or run a hose to a drain. The hose kit and the non-motorised louvre draw the usual "for the price, why not?" complaints.
• Reported sensor and reliability niggles. Owner reports on Reddit mention humidity-sensor drift on new units and, occasionally, control-board faults (beeping/jumping settings). Most were covered under warranty, but "buy it and forget it" is not guaranteed — keep your proof of purchase.
• It is not cheap up front. A 20L Meaco sits well above the £150 no-name 20L units. You are paying for quiet, the filter and the warranty — worthwhile if you run it daily, less so if you run it twice a year.

Alternatives worth considering

• The Meaco Arete One 20L (B093TK2M7F) — the previous generation. Almost the same machine minus the app/voice, often meaningfully cheaper second-hand or refurbished. The most buy-less move if you do not care about Wi-Fi. Check current price on Amazon.
• Dreo 20L Smart WiFi (B0FP5J147H) — a budget 20L with app control at roughly half the Meaco's price. Lower on quiet and long-term proof, but a sane pick if you only need occasional drying and want to spend less. Check current price on Amazon.
• Meaco DD desiccant range — if your damp is in a cold, unheated space, a desiccant dehumidifier is the correct tool and the Arete Two is not. Spend where the problem actually is.
• Refurbished or used Arete — Meaco's reputation means second-hand units hold up; a refurb with remaining warranty is the most frugal route of all. Our buy-less reasoning on refurbished kit applies here too.

Bottom line

The MeacoDry Arete Two is the dehumidifier to buy if you have decided you need one — quiet, efficient, filtered, and backed for five years when the £150 units are not. But "best dehumidifier" is a narrow crown, and for a UK reader the real question is whether you need a dehumidifier at all. If damp wrecks your walls, your sleep or your laundry, this earns its corner and you will not regret the quiet. If your problem is "the air feels a bit close," windows and a fan win, and the Arete becomes an expensive thing to find a home for. Treat it as a fix for confirmed damp, not a general household need — and if you do buy, get the Arete specifically (the One second-hand is fine), not a cheaper 20L that looks the same in the thumbnail but runs louder and dies sooner. Check the live price and read the owner reviews before you commit:

View the MeacoDry Arete Two 20L on Amazon UK →

Basis of review: this is not a hands-on test — no unit was bought or lived with. The verdict is built from Meaco's published UK specifications, independent lab and editorial testing (Ideal Home and Yachting Monthly measured 38–50 dB and noted warm-room strengths; Good Housekeeping scored the Arete range 87/100 and flagged the laundry benefit; John Lewis cites ~6p/hour running cost), and aggregated public owner feedback from Reddit and Amazon UK. No price is stated because Amazon Associates rules forbid displaying scraped prices; use the link above for the current figure.