Best Dehumidifier for Dust Mite Allergy | Buying Guide

Sometime in the 1950's, scientists first started using the term “micro-climate” to put forward the idea that there’s an entire array of local climate conditions that can differ greatly but be separated by just a few feet. That idea later got expanded to cover the human body and areas in the house, among other things.

For example, the armpits have their own micro-climate and so do does the area in the kitchen sink or under the bed.

At a Glance: Our Top Picks of Dehumidifiers for Dust Mite Allergies

The problem arises when the micro-climate goes unchecked for so long that it starts favoring certain pests, which then colonize it and start spreading trouble.

For armpits, these would be bacteria that produce body odor; for the kitchen sink, it’s mold that creates the gunk and for the area under the bed it could very well be – dust mites.

Controlling the micro-climate

When dust mites colonize a micro-climate in your house, they rapidly spread everywhere they can, looking for warm, humid places with lots of fabric to lay their eggs in.

Unless you’re a hypochondriac, by the time you start feeling the symptoms, your house is probably already teeming with the buggers.

To head them off at the pass, you should look into getting a dehumidifier to curb their spread and then systematically eradicate them from one micro-climate at a time, focusing on clearing out their eggs from fabric.

Read on to understand how a dehumidifier works, dust mites spread, the allergic symptoms they create and how to choose the best dehumidifier for dust mite allergy.

Why does humidity matter?

In a regular household, there is a constant circulation of water as it evaporates, gets carried by the air movement, condenses, pools together and then evaporates again.

We most often don’t even realize that’s what’s going on unless we pay close attention to this cycle that also occurs in nature.

Just like in nature, there is a circulation of water in the house environment that can go awry and cause us trouble. Each micro-climate inside the house can also have its own evaporation and condensation cycle, depending mostly on temperature.

To evaporate, the temperature needs to be high enough; to condense, the temperature needs to be low enough and the perfect conditions for this are where the warm and cold air meet.

You’ve probably seen the sweating window panes during the winter, which go to show that:

A device used to reduce humidity in a house micro-climate is called a dehumidifier, meaning it can be set at a specific spot, such as below the kitchen sink.

They are most commonly used to reduce humidity after a flood or when a water pipe bursts but can be used at any time to reduce the negative effects of increased humidity.

Dehumidifiers come in all shapes and sizes, ranging from bare bones to deluxe models with bells and whistles.

More elaborate models have a water hose that connects to the sewer network and automatically dumps collected water but simpler models have a bucket that has to be emptied manually.

Both simple and elaborate dehumidifiers work on the exact same principle, that being of condensation as we explained above.

The indoor air is sucked into the unit where it’s first heated and then let to run across a chilled surface, which generates condensation and lets the moisture drip into the bucket.

You should use a humidity sensor to find out the exact humidity in the micro-climate; the optimal range is 40-50% but you should go as low as you can in spots where you won’t spent much time.

Some dehumidifier models come with an in-built sensor, making it that much easier to figure out where the problem lies.

Can you kill dust mites by running a dehumidifier?

As the relative humidity increases, so does the dust mite population. At 75-85% relative humidity, the dust mite population gorges on any available food, but it’s at this stage that they are thwarted by another invader – mold.

As the relative humidity decreases, so does the dust mite activity and population.

Below 50% humidity and at 25 °C (77 °F), dust mites can survive for 5-11 days.

However, they have a protonymph stage that can bury itself within surfaces and go dormant, surviving for months at low humidity and against vacuuming, springing up when they feel ambient water vapor.

Dust mites are 70-75% water by weight and need ambient water vapor to survive; without this water, they can’t reproduce and die off.

Therefore, using a dehumidifier will inhibit the growth and reproduction of dust mites.

What is the ideal humidity to resolve dust mite allergy symptoms?

Allergic symptoms stemming from dust mite allergens will get exacerbated the more dust is floating in the air.

To resolve the allergic symptoms, the best option is to control relative humidity to 40-50%.

Humidity lower than 40% will tend to dry the air too much, making your skin flake and produce more dust.

On the other hand, a humidity higher than 50% will cause the mites to enter their feeding and breeding stage, exacerbating the symptoms.

Things to Consider when Buying a Dehumidifier for Your Dust Mite Allergy

Capacity refers to the maximum amount of moisture a dehumidifier will remove in 24 hours. For example, a 55 pint dehumidifier is rated to remove 55 pints of moisture from the air in a 24 hour period.

A dehumidifier for dust mite allergies should be powerful enough to quickly cycle through the available air as soon as possible.

When dust mites get exposed to moisture for mere 3 hours a day, they start to feed, breed and die, creating pockets of dust mite allergens that can get kicked up and enter your lungs.

While your dehumidifier may be removing 55 pints of moisture in a day, the unit may only have a 30 pint storage tank, meaning you will need to manually empty the reservoir bucket in order to achieve the unit's maximum capacity.

Hence, while you can run your unit non-stop, it is only limited by it's storage tank size. 

Dust mites could be crawling all over your carpet, but as long as you have a strong dehumidifier to suck out the humidity, they won’t be triggering your allergic symptoms. For that, the unit should be able to run 24/7 or with minimal downtime.

You might also notice your dehumidifier blowing out hot air, which is normal, but too much heat being emitted may be a cause for concern. 

The dehumidifier should also be compact enough to fit small spaces, as needed. If you detect a higher humidity in one micro-climate in your house, you should have the option of putting the unit right where it’s needed; for that, a remote control can be real handy.

You could find a use for every humidity setting on a dehumidifier in the right circumstances. Having a wide range of humidity settings (such as auto-shut off, humidity gauges, and fan settings) is a useful feature.

BEST DEHUMIDIFIER FOR DUST MITE ALLERGY

#1 AlorAir Sentinel HD55

Bottom Line - Best Dehumidifier for Dust Mite Allergy