Russell Hobbs RHDH2002 20 Litre Dehumidifier Review

Russell Hobbs is one of the UK's most recognised small-appliance brands, and the RHDH2002 applies that mass-market, value-focused approach to dehumidifiers: a 20L/day compressor unit built to compete on capacity and price rather than smart features. It's aimed at the same buyer as the Meaco Arete Two 20L and Pro Breeze 20L OmniDry — someone dealing with rising damp, condensation on windows or slow-drying laundry in a larger room — but at a noticeably lower cost.

The trade-off for that price is refinement rather than raw performance: the RHDH2002 extracts a genuinely useful 20 litres a day and includes a smart timer and laundry mode, but it runs louder than the quieter, more expensive compressor units on this site, and its 1-year standard warranty is shorter than Meaco's 5-year cover. For a kitchen, utility room, hallway or living room where noise matters less than in a bedroom, that trade-off is easy to justify.

Russell Hobbs doesn't try to compete on quietness or smart features here — the RHDH2002 is a value play, and it's priced accordingly against the Meaco and Pro Breeze 20L units covered elsewhere on this site. For a household mainly worried about the running cost of buying and operating a dehumidifier, rather than app control or whisper-quiet operation, that positioning makes sense.

That value positioning has made the RHDH2002 a regular feature in UK appliance reviews aimed at budget-conscious buyers, and it's one of the reasons it appears so often in searches alongside "cheap dehumidifier" and "dehumidifier deals" rather than premium comparison terms — Russell Hobbs is competing on getting the fundamentals right at a lower price point, not on innovation.

For drying laundry indoors, Russell Hobbs' laundry-drying boost mode is the fastest way to use this unit — position it next to a clothes airer in a room with the door closed, and expect a similar drying time to the pricier 20L compressor models, since extraction rate is the main factor, not brand.

For damp and mould control in a larger room — living room, kitchen-diner or open landing — the RHDH2002's 20L/day rating and 50m² coverage make it a solid match. Because of its noise level, it's better suited to daytime use in these rooms than as an overnight bedroom dehumidifier; if you want to run something overnight, one of the quieter 12L models further up this page is a better fit for a bedroom specifically.

Connect the included 600mm drainage hose if you want to leave it running unattended for more than a day at a time — the 3-litre tank is larger than most rivals, but at full extraction in a genuinely damp room it can still fill within 24 hours.

If you're torn between this and a quieter, pricier 20L alternative, think about where in the house it'll actually live: a kitchen, utility room or hallway rarely needs whisper-quiet performance, and that's where the RHDH2002's noise level matters least while its lower price and larger 3-litre tank work in its favour.

For rising damp or penetrating damp affecting a ground-floor room, remember that a dehumidifier — this one included — treats the symptom (excess moisture in the air) rather than the underlying cause. If damp is coming from a structural issue like a failed damp-proof course or a leak, running the RHDH2002 will help keep the room more comfortable and slow mould growth, but it won't fix the source, and a builder or damp specialist is the next call.