I tried out this UK-designed smart dehumidifier – it dried my laundry in hours and tackled humidity in my home with ease

This Ebac 4850e 21 Litre Dehumidifier review puts the latest of Ebac’s smart control dehumidifiers through its paces with laundry to dry, condensation to combat and humidity levels to keep in check.

It’s one of four in the 4000 series, with the only difference being the extraction rate. The one I have is 21L, but there’s also 18L, 15L and 12L.

Enlisting the help of one of the best dehumidifiers can help to keep a happy, healthy home. Get a good one, and you could find that it’ll save you money on your energy bills as the tumble dryer is made redundant, and there’s less mould on the window sills as moisture in the air is efficiently removed.

To see if the Ebac 4850e 21 Litre Dehumidifier, RRP £399 at Argos is indeed a good one, I tried it out for two weeks in the utility room to dry laundry and in a couple of bedrooms with condensation on the bay window walls. To do this, I followed the Ideal Home dehumidifier testing process, taking note of how it can affect humidity levels and how easy it is to use day-to-day.

In a nutshell

The Ebac 4850e 21 Litre Dehumidifier is one of a series of dehumidifiers from Ebac that offer the latest in smart control. I found that it was smart to look at, and it behaved smartly too.

Measuring H54 x W34 x D26.5cm, it can be backed up against a wall or placed in the middle of a room, and not be too obtrusive. It has an integrated handle at the top and a cable tidy at the back, so it can be easily stowed when not in use, also. The control panel is neat and clear, and consists of four buttons: power, timer, fan speed and mode. And the bucket is discreetly hidden behind a door which can be easily removed when it’s full of water.

To get the most from this dehumidifier is to connect to WiFi. Using the SmartLife app is really easy, and I found that controlling the unit remotely was helpful and monitoring humidity levels was insightful.

The model I tested is suitable for homes with up to five bedrooms and/or five people. This is the largest model available in the Ebac 4000 series.

What I feel the Ebac 4850e lacks is a child lock and a dedicated nighttime mode. My inquisitive 12-month-old liked to press the control deck buttons, and it is just a little too loud to be comfortably running through the night. A set of castors would also be handy, as standard, to help manoeuvre the unit around, although these are available for an extra cost if you feel strongly about it.

Ebac 4850e 21 Litre Dehumidifier review

Specifications

• Type: Compressor
• Extraction rate: 21L/day (other rates available)
• Water tank capacity: 3.5L
• Max room size recommended: 180m²
• Noise level: 42dB - 52dB
• Power: 190W
• Dimensions: H54 x W34 x D26.5cm
• Weight: 13kg
• Portable: Yes
• Automatic humidity sensor: Yes
• Continuous drain option: Yes (available separately)
• Laundry mode: Yes
• Wi-Fi connectivity: Yes
• Timer: Yes
• Operating temperature: 3°C - 35°C

How I tested

Jennifer Oksien

I tested the Ebac 4850e 21 Litre Dehumidifier for two weeks in my 3-bed family home, where it was activated to dry laundry, combat condensation, and monitor humidity levels. It was positioned in the utility room to start with, and later carried through into the dining room and up the stairs with all modes given a thorough working. I controlled it with the set of controls on the unit and the SmartLife app on my iPhone.

Unboxing

The Ebac 4850e 21 Litre Dehumidifier is delivered in a single branded cardboard box, which, fortunately, has a cut-out handle on either side to help carry. It weighs 13kg; with caution, I lifted the dehumidifier up the stairs in its box so that I could set it up in one of the bedrooms.

You can easily take this dehumidifier out of its box thanks to the integrated handle positioned on the top. It wasn’t wedged in with any polystyrene. Instead, a perfectly carved cardboard piece was worn as a hat on the unit to secure it while in transit, while a plastic bag covered it underneath for some protection from scratches.

The water tank was tapped shut inside the unit so the only other item that I found in the box was an instruction manual.

Assembly and set up

With no assembly required (hurrah!), the Ebac 4850e 21 Litre Dehumidifier is ready to use from the get-go. Every setting can be accessed with one touch of a button on the display, but to get the most from this dehumidifier, I’d say to connect to the SmartLife app.

I always take a deep breath when setting up anything “techy”, purely because I lack much patience and just want things to “work” straight off the bat.

So I followed the instructions (after reading through them first) and it took fewer than 60 seconds to start monitoring and controlling this dehumidifier on the app. Top tip: have your WiFi password to hand, and don’t rush the set-up.

Unlike some other smart dehumidifiers, like the Meaco Arete, this dehumidifier can not be hooked up with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, so voice control isn’t an option.

You can plan ahead and set schedules in the app when you’d like to use it, though. For example, every day between 09:05 and 10:05, the Ebac 4850e was scheduled to work.

This meant that every day I didn’t have to remember to turn on the unit to control the humidity levels in our daughters’ bedroom. Within minutes, I could see a decline in humidity and an increase in temperature.

Design

Dehumidifiers aren’t the sleekest of household appliances, but the Ebac 4850e 21 Litre Dehumidifier is the best-looking from the brand’s collection. At the front of the unit is the extractor and bucket; on the top is an LCD screen and control buttons; and the filter is around the back.

There are four models in the Ebac 4000 range, with the only difference being the extraction rate. Like all the units in the range, it has a 3.5L bucket and has the option for continuous drainage (sold separately).

It measures H54 x W34 x D26.5cm, which is slim enough to fit against any wall, and weighs 12kg, so it can be carried around relatively easily using the integrated handle. It also has a neat cable tidy around the back, underneath the filter, to make for easy stowing when not in use.

What this design really lacks is a set of wheels to help manoeuvre it around the room. These can be bought separately for £15.99 (from Ebac), but compared with other dehumidifiers that I’ve tested, this is a bit of a sticking point for me.

Ease of use

After standing the dehumidifier upright for the recommended minimum of two hours before switching on, I put the Ebac 4850e 21 Litre Dehumidifier to the test.

It can be used with or without the SmartLife app, but to get the most from it and to have the freedom to control it remotely, I opted to download it.

To connect to WiFi, I turned to page 12 in the User Manual and followed the instructions for app registration. You’ll need to connect to WiFi, then download the Smart Life app from the App Store of iPhone or Google Play store, so there’s a bit of a process.

It took fewer than 60 seconds for me to be up and running on the app. I then had full access to the control interface, which gave me the same features as on the unit control panel, and more.

From within the app, I can view the current humidity and temperature, switch between modes (Laundry, Smart, Target and Boost), view History and switch between the fan speeds.

I also found it incredibly useful to schedule when the unit is activated and deactivated; every day at 09:05 - 10:05, it was running without fail. With app control, you can also benefit from receiving alerts when a schedule is complete, the water tank is full, or the filter needs to be cleaned.

Whereas on the control panel, I could switch between modes and fan speeds, set a timer and set the desired humidity level by pushing some buttons.

There are a couple of features that it lacks, however. Nighttime mode is one that would be useful so that it can comfortably run through the night without disturbing our sleep. Also, a child lock would be helpful if, like me, you have a curious child following you around who likes pressing buttons.

Performance

I tested the Ebac 4850e 21 Litre Dehumidifier in a few different spaces in my home, including the utility room, dining room and a couple of bedrooms in an attempt to see what it is capable of.

It has four different modes: SMART, LAUNDRY, BOOST and TARGET and two different speed settings: high and low.

In laundry mode, when the unit is set to operate at the highest fan speed, it took nine hours for our lighter garments, such as underwear and t-shirts, to feel dry. My pair of jeans was still very damp, as were my 12-month-old's tracksuit bottoms. Comparatively, the tumble dryer would have these items wardrobe-dry in 3 hours 15 minutes, but it would cost us 18p more, and the clothes would be more wrinkled.

For comparison, I also tried to dry laundry in Smart mode. I found that it took a couple more hours to dry laundry in this mode, so Laundry mode is definitely the mode to deploy if you need to dry off a load of washing indoors.

Aside from drying laundry in the utility room, the Ebac 4850e 21 Litre Dehumidifier also made its way into the dining room and two of the three bedrooms. These spaces have an issue with condensation, so I wanted to monitor the humidity levels and address them if they were too high.

As a guide, mould spores – which are in the air all around us – need a high relative humidity of 65%-75% and above to grow; something that happens when they are given enough moisture, nutrients (dust or dirt) and time.

In our daughters’ bedroom, there is a bay window with no insulation, so there is a buildup of condensation on the bay window walls where warm air from the inside meets the cold air from the outside. This then increases the chances of mould growth (yuck!). Before the dehumidifier kicked in at the scheduled time of 09:05, the humidity level was circa 75%. One hour later, this was reduced to 55%. The humidity levels start to climb as soon as the dehumidifier is switched off so it can make an instant difference.

The dining room has large floor-to-ceiling bay windows that often get condensation and some pooling of water droplets on the window frames. It’s a bit of a nightmare with a curious crawler who likes to play with the rag while I’m trying to frantically wipe the windows dry. The Ebac 4850e reduced the humidity levels in this space from 66% to 52%.

As much as I’d like to keep running the dehumidifier through the night to help prevent any condensation from forming at all, it is just a little too loud. It doesn’t have a dedicated nighttime mode, and the lowest fan speed is equivalent to a quiet whisper, which is distracting when trying to drift off to sleep.

Energy use

When you're looking to buy a new appliance, it's important to take into account how much energy it uses because it may not be financially viable. The cost of running a dehumidifier largely depends on its wattage; the higher the wattage is, the more energy it uses.

With the current energy price cap for October 2025 at 26p per kWh, I've calculated that it costs around 5p per hour to operate the Ebac 4850e. This is considerably less than the cost per hour of our tumble dryer, which I've calculated costs 21p per hour.

Experts suggest that homeowners should leave their dehumidifier running for around 4-12 hours per day, so I left ours running until I went to bed. It took 9 hours to dry some laundry in the “laundry” mode, which cost 45p in total. To dry this load in the tumble dryer, it would have cost 63p, based on a 3-hour program.

Ebac advertises that it costs 45p per day to run this model of dehumidifier, so this is a reassuring finding. However, 9 hours is a long time to dry laundry, bearing in mind that my jeans and my sons’ trousers were still damp. It’s also not unusual for me to do two 10kg loads of washing. A quicker drying time with the tumble drier would be preferred if I need to wash and dry clothing on the same day, or if I’m limited by drying space on the washing line, but when there are no time constraints, then I’d gladly welcome the 18p saving.

Noise levels

While the Ebac 4850e 21 Litre Dehumidifier is quiet, it doesn’t go unnoticed. I can hear it in another room down the hall. On the lowest fan speed, it has a noise level of 42dB, whereas on the higher fan speed, it’s 52dB. The noise at the high fan speed is equivalent to the noise in Boost Mode.

These noise levels are equivalent to a quiet home or quiet street so it isn’t especially loud, you may just choose to have the TV on or some music playing to drown out the sound.

Portability

The Ebac 4850e 21 Litre Dehumidifier is relatively easy to move around the home. Yes, at 12kg it is heavy, and the size of it makes it bulky, but the handle and integrated cable tidy make it just about doable.

What would make it even easier to move the unit around the room is to have it on a set of four castors. These can be bought separately for £15.99 direct from Ebac. It would be a good option to consider to save your back, too.

Maintenance

I tested the Ebac 4850e 21 Litre Dehumidifier in the 21L capacity, which means that it can extract up to 21L of moisture per day. In this size, the water tank is 3.5L, and I found that I only had to empty it every other day.

When the water tank is full, the Ebac will automatically switch to standby mode and, if connected, you’ll receive a notification through the app. A small red water tank symbol will be displayed on the unit control panel. To empty, just pull down the cover at the front and lift up the water tank by the handle. A neat safety function is that should the water tank be lifted while in operation, this Ebac dehumidifier will automatically turn off.

Alternatively, the Ebac 4850e 21 Litre Dehumidifier does offer a continuous drainage option, but you’ll need to buy the drainage kit for £10.99 from the Ebac site. Personally, I find it more flexible and less intrusive to empty a dehumidifier myself. If you want to use a dehumidifier in one spot in the house all the time, then hooking it up to empty itself would be a sensible option.

As for the rest of the unit, maintenance is minimal. The filter should be cleaned every month and replaced every four months to keep up the performance. It’s located at the rear of the unit, accessible by pulling the filter housing outwards, and can be cleaned with a soft furnishings attachment on the vacuum cleaner. An overall dust and wipe of the unit will keep it looking in top form.

Comparisons

Dehumidifiers come in shapes and sizes, not forgetting extraction rates and smart capabilities. Narrowing down the search by price is often the first port of call when comparing units.

The Ebac 4580e is the most expensive in the brand's 4000 series. For example, it's priced at £399, whereas the Ebac 4650e is £329, Ebac 4250e is £269, and Ebac 4150e is £219. It's also one of the more expensive dehumidifiers I have seen with a similar extraction rate. The MeacoDry Arete Two is another smart offering which has an extraction rate of 20L, runs at a mere 38dB and has a built-in air purifier, yet retails at £179. Similarly, the SmartAir Dry Zone has an extraction rate of 20L per day, a larger 5.5L water tank and excels at drying laundry all for £249.99.

If you have small children around the home, then you may want to look for a dehumidifier with a child lock feature. I also tested the DREO Smart Dehumidifier 512S recently, which has this feature, and I found it really helpful.

"Laundry mode" is helpful for when the weather turns or the seasons change, and you're looking at drying wet washing indoors. As with the Ebac 4580e, a number of other dehumidifiers have this mode, such as the SmartAir Dry Zone, MeacoDry Arete Two and EcoAir DD1 Simple MK3 Dehumidifier.

If you need a unit with a high extraction rate than the Ebac 4580e's 21L, then the Pro Breeze 30L High Capacity Smart Dehumidifier would be the better choice to target higher moisture levels. Just be mindful that this one doesn't come with a dedicated laundry mode, so although it may remove more moisture, it doesn't have a dedicated setting to tackle wet washing.

Ebac are one of a few companies that manufacture their dehumidifiers in the UK, which it does from its County Durham base in the North-East of England. Their closest rivals are Meaco, who manufacture and distribute from Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire. This comparably gives the ranges a lower carbon footprint.

How it rates online

Whilst the Ebac 4850e 21 Litre Dehumidifier is available to buy directly from the manufacturer (Ebac), B&Q and Argos, I can only find customer reviews from the latter.

From a total of 86 reviews, 95% of Argos customers would recommend the Ebac 4000. It’s highly praised for its efficiency in removing moisture, reducing condensation and being quiet in operation. Many also appreciate that it has smart features and is British-made.

Customers who do not recommend it share that they found it noisy, and the running costs are higher than they (Ebac) say they would be.

To summarise? I hear everything that customers are saying. I have found it noisier and more expensive than I was expecting, but it’s efficient in what it does, and I like the app.

Verdict

Should you buy the Ebac 4850e 21 Litre Dehumidifier? In short, yes. It is one of the smartest dehumidifiers on the market, and it performs incredibly well.

It started working straight off the bat. You don't necessarily need to connect it to WiFi, but to get the most from it, I would advise you to. I found it reassuring to watch the humidity levels decline on the graph in the SmartLife app, and I equally enjoyed controlling it remotely.

While it isn't the quietest or the cheapest to run or the most efficient that the team have tested, I feel that it is a solid all-rounder that delivers what it sets out to achieve.

If you require a lower extraction rate to tighten up the belt on energy bills, this dehumidifier is also available with an 18L, 15L or 12L extraction. The specifications are otherwise exactly the same as those of this model I've tested.

It will set you back £219 for the smallest 12L model, reaching £399 for the largest 21L model. This is one of the most premium prices, with a lot of competitors offering a dehumidifier for half this price. However, considering how effective it is with running costs at 5p per hour and the confidence I have in the robust design, it'll soon earn its keep.

The Ebac 400 range doesn't have a child lock feature or nighttime mode, and the design lacks castors as standard. If these things are important to you, then you may be better off looking at an alternative.