A good dehumidifier can banish damp and mold and help maintain a comfortable temperature in your home.

You should buy a dehumidifier. It will almost certainly improve your home environment. Pulling moisture from the air helps banish condensation and mold, making it cheaper and easier to regulate the temperature in your house or apartment. There’s a reason the chatter about dehumidifiers has grown so loud and sales are soaring; it’s because they work.

Whether you’ve seen a persuasive Reddit thread, a life hack on TikTok, or an expert guide to the best dehumidifiers, the hype is real. I live in Scotland, where it’s dark and damp for months every year. We even have a word for the weather: dreich (which means dreary and bleak). We also have a mix of poorly ventilated and poorly insulated homes that we heat twice a day. The result is windows soaked with condensation and black mold galore.

I’ve been using a dehumidifier for the last year ...