Several liveaboards have mentioned that the use of a dehumidifier over the winter months is a real godsend for reducing condensation on board. In addition to taking moisture out of the cabin, they also say it has the additional benefit of making the heating system more effective by not having to heat as much moisture thats in the air.

To be honest, we were sceptical at first but given the feedback we received from a number of liveaboards together with a number of posts on liveaboard forums we decided to bite the bullet and purchase one.

I must say we haven't looked back since and the unit has been running almost continuously when the hatches, portholes and cabin doors have been closed. Whilst this may sound a bit extreme, the unit constantly monitors the moisture levels and starts up at an appropriate speed as necessary.

There are a couple of types of dehumidifiers on the market ("Compressor" and "Desiccant") and we decided on the latter after some research and reading a PBO article Dehumidifier-Test, Dec-09.

The unit we purchased was the ECO DD122FW MK4 (was Meaco), an environmentally friendly unit that is quiet in operation and for us is removing between 3 and 5 litres of moisture per day (the unit is actually rated at upto 10 litres per day). For convenience we've decided to work with the inbuilt 2 litre water tank but you can attach a hose directly to the unit if required. The unit has many features but the most useful has certainly been the facility to restart after a power outage (a common occurrence down here when other yachties are switching on their quick boil electric kettles and 2+ KW heaters and tripping the supply!!!).

So to summarise a brilliant piece of kit that has made our environment extremely warm, dry and comfortable.

As a further testament, Caroline's sister and partner purchased one almost immediately after seeing ours for use in their flat and find it particularly useful on washing day.