Get ready for this year’s Aussie summer with an ION610!
Isn’t that weird? Aussie summers used to be hot and dry, with the constant threat of bushfires. But with the La Niña weather pattern, all of a sudden we’re bracing ourselves for very very wet days to come. And knowing that, the best way to prepare for a prolonged period of rain, is to get yourself a dehumidifier!
I was already sold on the idea by a mate, he’d been fighting a losing battle in his apartment with mould, until they bought themselves a top of the range dehumidifier. And according to him, their dehumidifier has been a game changer in their battle with mould. So, it got me thinking as well, earlier in the year we had a spell of around 2 weeks when it was constantly wet. As a result, our carpets started to feel sticky under foot, the paintwork on our walls were starting to bubble with rising damp, and everything just smelt a little bit funky. And days later when we were going about our regular lives, we were finding mould on items of clothing and even my wallet which was safely stowed away in a desk side table was ruined and had to be thrown away. So, playing on these fears of a repeat of last season, I started to plant the seed in my wife’s mind that we too needed a dehumidifier.
I started to do some light research, just trying to understand which were the reputable brands, and I was stunned to find how large and heavy these things were! A web-site which gave you some simple ‘things to consider’ when purchasing one, and it mentioned the need for a dehumidifier with wheels, so it would be easier to move around from room to room. Like, how heavy and how large are these things!?
So, my criteria were: it had to be small enough and portable enough. My second criteria was that it didn’t have to be the most powerful (I didn’t need it to extract 25 litres of water a day) or it had to have a large storage tank. And the third criteria, I wanted it to be flat topped, as when we weren’t using it I wanted to be able to balance some stuff on top of it (as where I planned to store it, was a storage nook which my wife had been using to store her PJs). Ooops).
So armed with our 3 criteria we went to Bing Lee, as we had been doing a heap of online shopping recently and we were a little tired of the anxiety which comes with waiting for the arrival of our online purchases.
And it was clear that Bing Lee was also prepared for a damp summer season, as there was an island in the middle of their store with stacks and stacks of dehumidifiers- of the cheaper variety from those usual brands which make cheap white goods. And after checking them out, none of them grabbed our attention.
But off to the side was a dehumidifier from a brand name which we weren’t familiar with (Ionmax), it was also the most expensive and it was also the smallest. But because of its small size it appealed to us, and the price point was also appealing. As I’m of the belief, that when something is more expensive, it ought to be better quality? Right?
So, with little deliberation we ended up buying the Ionmax ION610 desiccant dehumidifier for $429. **Note: Turns out that Ionmax is an Australian brand, produced by Andatech who is based in Victoria.
And here are my honest opinions after having it for the last couple of months.
Simple to use
At first I wanted a device which had a companion app, so I could monitor it and start and stop it remotely. But honestly you really don’t need all those features. The ION610 is plug and play, literally have it plugged into the power socket, and press the on/off button and it’s off and running. You can choose the target level of humidity you want to aim for and depending on what you choose the fan speed speeds up or slows down to help achieve the desired level. You can set a sleep timer and you can adjust the rotating direction of the vents. But if you want to keep it simple, just have the settings to default, press the on/off switch, and it runs on the lowest fan speed and stays on for 2 hours before automatically switching off. Simple!
Light weight and portable
It has a handle which you flip up, and with one hand you can easily carry it like a carry-on suitcase from room to room. And the power cable is long enough that you’ll always reach a PowerPoint, while having the device in the exact location you want it in.
Does the job
Yeah, not really understanding the science or the mechanics behind how a dehumidifier actually works, so there was a slight sense of scepticism on my part in whether or not this thing actually works. But all doubt was erased after the first use, only after an hour the 1.2L storage tank had collected up a good 100ml of liquid. And one morning I did a test dry of hanging laundry, and the side which was closest to the dehumidifier was almost completely dry after an hour, compared to the other side which wasn’t receiving the fanning, those items of clothing were still just as damp as if they had just come out of the laundry. So after these two small tests I was sold on its effectiveness to do the job and do it well!
Freshens up and warms the air
And a feature of the ION610, is its ability to ionise the air, I still don’t really know what that means, but when you come back into a room which the dehumidifier has been running for a while, you can smell the difference! The room just smells fresher and a little bit fragrant. And as the air which blows back out of the dehumidifier is warm, so in winter it acts as a very low level heater, just to make the room temp less frigid.
Flat top
And to meet our third and final criteria, it does have a flat top so when you’re not using it you can balance an item or two on-top of it, to maximise your storage space in small apartments!
The only negatives I have in regard to the ION610, is the fact that the noise it makes when it’s on, it’s relatively loud. So, it’s not something you’d want on while you’re in the same room as it. We usually have it on when we know we’re not going to spend time in that room. I’d describe the noise levels to be between a hair blow drier and a loud bladed fan, but let’s just say it’s not quiet either. That’s my one and only negative thus far.
So how have we been using it to date?
Ventilating our on-suite- After showers in our on-suite bathroom, we have the dehumidifier turned on for a couple of hours. Our on-suite doesn’t have good ventilation, so the steam always hangs around for ages, but the dehumidifier clears that up quick smart! While our new nightly ritual also ensures that our bedroom doesn’t build up with humidity during these wet evenings.
Drying the laundry- We hang up our laundry indoors, so having the dehumidifier pointed in its direction has halved the amount of time it takes to completely dry laundry indoors.
Prevention of mould- And when it rains hard for a day or two, our carpets get damp, and the walls start to sweat. So, these days when we get those types of rainy days, I position the dehumidifier to blow on these trouble areas, and after 2 hours the tank has collected a decent amount of water and that water is now no longer in our carpets and hanging around on our walls!
So, if you want to be prepared for our upcoming wet Aussie summer, check out the Ionmax ION610, just click HERE for more information. Here’s to a dry summer!
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