Leading UK air treatment manufacturer Meaco announces a new dawn for dehumidifiers with the launch of MeacoDry Arete One – compressor dehumidifier/air purifier.
MeacoDry Arete One is the result of nearly five years of development involving gathering the feedback from over 2000 customers about what they liked and disliked about their Meaco dehumidifiers. Having obtained ideas and a deeper and clearer insight into how the typical British customer uses their dehumidifier, Arete One was created not from the viewpoint of what is cheapest to manufacture or what will be easiest to put together, but from what is best for the consumer, what will make the customer’s life easier and what will make living with a dehumidifier more of a pleasure.
Every detail of the dehumidifier has been meticulously thought through and re-examined, resulting in the MeacoDry Arete range, which will set a new standard for dehumidifiers. The first in the range to be launched is the Arete One, with a 20L and 25L capacity. Further models will be introduced in future months.
The launch coincides with an increased demand for dehumidifiers (sales of Meaco dehumidifiers topped 130,000 in 2020), due in part to lockdowns meaning more time spent at home, which has caused moisture and damp issues, plus people are increasingly aware of the benefits of clean air in the home.
Design features
Dehumidifiers should be seen and not heard.
With many people using their dehumidifier in or close to a bedroom Meaco customers wanted low noise levels. Arete One is the quietest 20L and 25L Meaco machines ever produced. At 40 and 41dB they are twice as quiet as the industry standard.
Clean, clean air
COVID-19 and the consumer’s increased awareness of the importance of clean air in the home has become a factor when buying dehumidifiers. Previously, Meaco introduced a HEPA filter to its dehumidifiers which proved a massive success. Arete improves on this with a larger filter, of better quality, due to a superior fan motor. The Arete One dehumidifier comes with a larger medical grade H13 HEPA filter that can easily be cleaned from the side without having to move the unit. Arete can be used to clean the air during dehumidification or as a stand-alone air purifier throughout the spring and summer months.
A Night Mode that really lets you sleep
Meaco customers were keen to have a product that allowed them to get a good night’s sleep. By selecting Night Mode on the Arete, every light is turned off, fan speed drops to the quiet low mode and there will be no bleeps or sudden noises to wake you. You can even check what the humidity is whilst in Night Mode without having to come out of the mode and with no noise being generated. Little fingers won’t accidentally take you out of this quiet mode because it takes two confirming touches to change the machine back to normal. This setting is not just for night-time but anytime when you want the dehumidifier to be as quiet as possible, perhaps in the conservatory or when you are sitting next to the machine and reading a book.
Stylish design
An interesting piece of feedback was that customers do not put their dehumidifier away when they are not using it, but leave it in the same spot all year. A dehumidifier is normally sold as a small home appliance, but as it is most likely to be used in the hallway or on the landing, so it becomes a piece of furniture rather than an appliance, in a fixed position. Arete has been stylishly designed in a way to help it blend in, and by fitting flat against a wall will take up less space. Feet hide its casters and ensure it is still easy to move when required.
Removing confusion in how to operate
Dehumidifiers are fairly straight forward appliances to use. But for most people, they do not have the time or the inclination to learn all the features and quirks of a dehumidifier. This results in confusion for many customers over even the simplest of dehumidifier functions. So, with Arete Meaco makes it easy: the machine still has an electric defrost system and will still change fan speed as the humidity in the room changes, it just does not bother the customer with this information. And less information means less to get confused about.
The control panel on Arete One is simple and clearly laid out. The buttons used the most often are large, the buttons less used are small. A simple but effective design technique that might be commonplace on something like a microwave but has previously not been seen on a dehumidifier. There are large buttons for Smart Humidity Control and Smart Laundry, either of which can be set by just pressing one button.
Emptying the water tank with no spillage
Users of dehumidifiers will have to regularly empty the water tank. To make this as easy as possible the Arete One has a large 4.8 litre tank which is more suited to the machines high extraction rate.
Arete has been designed to make removal of the tank easier, with two large slots left and right of the machine that fingers naturally drop into, giving the perfect purchase on the tank to smoothly pull it out. You can then place it flat on the floor and lift it by its colour coded handle. Pouring the water out has been made simpler by the introduction of two slots, one to the left and one to the right, so you can pour the water either way without having to twist awkwardly.
Continuous drainage
Meaco is committed to the environment and has already moved away from using polystyrene in its packaging for fans and humidifiers. In 2020, its policy of not including a hose with every dehumidifier sale saved 130,000 meters of unnecessary plastic, much of which would have ended up in landfills. As part of this continued drive to reduce plastic waste, Arete has been designed so it can be emptied using an ordinary garden hose, attached via an adapter, stored in the lid of the water tank.
In addition, a huge bonus will be the option of a built-in pump allowing continuous water drainage, important when the dehumidifier is used in a vacant property or garage, and there is no one to keep an eye on it. This is powered by the dehumidifier itself.
Established in 1991 specialising in monitoring and control equipment for museums and art galleries, Meaco soon expanded its air purification range to include award-winning cooling products, dehumidifiers, air purifiers, humidifiers and heaters, distributed in over twenty countries throughout Europe, USA and South Africa. Meaco’s products cater for the needs of home and industry, plus specialist areas including boating, caravanning and swimming pools. In 2020, according to data from Google Trends, Meaco was consistently the most searched for dehumidifier brand in Britain, with over 130,000 dehumidifier sales. The huge increase in interest from the public in air treatment products has seen turnover trebled in the past two years, and an expansion in the UK workforce.
