1. Specifications
2. Design
3. Ease of use
4. Performance
5. Energy use
6. Noise levels
7. Portability
8. Maintenance
9. How it rates online
10. Verdict
Our Duux Bora Smart 20L Dehumidifier review puts the brand's Wi-Fi compatible model through its paces to see how it compares to the best dehumidifiers the Ideal Home team has tested.
Able to extract 20L of moisture from the air per day, the Duux Bora features a generous 4L water tank, an automatic humidity sensor to make simple work of managing your home's humidity, a built-in carbon filter that promises to remove odours as well as dampness, and Wi-Fi connectivity so that you can operate the appliance remotely via the Smart App, or connect to Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant for voice-activated control.
I’ve now tested multiple dehumidifiers using the Ideal Home dehumidifier testing process, and I was eager to see how this Smart dehumidifier would perform as there still aren't that many dehumidifiers on the market that offer Wi-Fi connectivity.
To thoroughly test its performance, I used the Duux Bora Smart 20L Dehumidifier in several rooms throughout my damp-prone Victorian terrace, including the rooms with the highest levels of excess humidity, such as my home office, the kitchen and our main bedroom. Despite its lack of a dedicated laundry mode, I also ran it when I was drying several loads of wet washing to see if it could speed up my indoor laundry drying times. Here's what I found.
Duux Bora Smart 20L Dehumidifier review
Specifications
- Type: Compressor
- Extraction rate: 20L/day
- Water tank capacity: 4L
- Max room size recommended: 40m²
- Noise level: 36dB – 42dB
- Power: 400W
- Dimensions: H51 x W32 x D23.5cm
- Weight: 15kg
- Portable?: Yes
- Automatic humidity sensor: Yes
- Continuous drain option: Yes
- Laundry mode: No
- Wi-Fi connectivity: Yes
- Timer: Yes
How I tested
Unboxing
The first thing I noticed about the Duux Bora Smart 20L dehumidifier was its weight. At 15kg, this dehumidifier is heavy, and manouevring it indoors without there being any cut-out hand holds on the outer box was a struggle.
However, getting it out of the box wasn’t such an ordeal. Once the heavy-duty plastic transit straps were cut away, the top of the box just lifted off allowing easy access to the dehumidifier. The Duux Bora also ships with its wheels already fitted, so once you’ve dragged the box inside, moving it around suddenly becomes a lot easier.
There wasn't too much excess waste when it came to the Duux packaging. The base of the packaging is a thick polystyrene block, which can’t be recycled. The only other non-recyclable parts were two thin plastic bags that protected the plug and housed the instruction manual. Everything else could be placed with our normal household recycling.
The box's contents include the Duux Bora Smart Dehumidifier unit, a drainage hose for if you want to run the dehumidifier in continuous mode, and the instruction booklet.
Assembly & set up
The Duux Bora Smart dehumidifier itself doesn’t require any complicated assembly or set-up. There's just the carbon filter that needs to be inserted into the back of the machine. This slots into the filter compartment, and as a bonus, there’s a handy reminder of which way up it needs to go printed on the top of the filter. A couple of pieces of tape also need to be removed around the water tank area.
However, as it's a compressor dehumidifier, you do need to leave the appliance to sit for a couple of hours before use. This is to allow the refrigerant that may have moved during transit to settle.
If you’d like to use the dehumidifier in continuous mode, then the plastic hose can be attached to the back of the unit. There’s a cap that covers the hole, so be sure to keep this safe when you remove it.
And, if you want to make the most of the dehumidifier's Smart features, then there's the Duux App that can be downloaded and installed. You can also pair the Duux Bora Smart dehumidifier with your Google Assistant or Amazon Echo device if you prefer to use voice-activated controls.
Design
The Duux Bora is a neat and compact dehumidifier that measures a reasonable H51 x W32 x D23.5cm, so it won’t take up too much space in your home.
Its all-white cube design means it’ll fit into almost any room without standing out too much, and hidden wheels on the base of the dehumidifier help with manoevrability, as does a handle on the top of the unit that folds down around the display panel. However, at 15kg, you may still not want to move this dehumidifier too often.
The display panel is set on top of the unit and features three small LED lights and a central LED display showing the current humidity level. The display panel is well-positioned, easy to access, and the lights shouldn’t cause too much of a distraction – although, there’s also a night setting if you plan on running it overnight.
The water tank sits at the front of the appliance and, given the high extraction rate of this dehumidifier, thankfully it can hold a generous 4 litres of water. There's a handy viewing window to the front of the water tank so you can keep an eye on how full it is, but this dehumidifier also features an automatic shut-off function, so it won't overflow if the tank gets to capacity without you noticing.
Ease of use
The Duux Bora Smart Dehumidifier is super simple to use via the on-board controls.
You can run it in either automatic or continuous mode. Auto mode uses the built-in humidity sensor to regulate the humidity in the air according to your desired humidity level, whilst the continuous mode keeps extracting moisture from the air... continuously! In continuous mode there's the choice of two fan speeds – low and high – whereas in auto mode the fan speed is controlled according to how hard the dehumidifier needs to work to extract moisture and achieve your desired humidity level.
This dehumidifier also offers a night mode. This gives you the ability to run the fans on the lowest speed setting and dims the lights on the display panel.
The control panel is totally smooth and operated via touch sensitive buttons. The buttons are well placed, but I found their responsiveness could be finicky. I found I needed to give them quite a hard push to select the setting I wanted or it didn't register my selection. However, there's not really many settings to toggle between, so you likely won’t find yourself constantly fiddling with the control panel.
However, I did encounter some issues when trying to pair this Smart dehumidifier with my Wi-Fi. I have several appliances I regularly use with my Amazon Alexa and Google hub, but trying to connect the Duux Bora was so frustrating that I nearly gave up, and it took me hours to get it sorted.
The problem I hit was that there seem to be two versions of the Duux App. I downloaded the first App, which I was directed to after scanning the QR code in the instruction manual, selected the Duux Bora, filled in my Wi-Fi details and waited.
The unit tries to connect to the Wi-Fi within three minutes each time. If it times out, you’re shown a screen that gives tips on what could possibly be going wrong. This dehumidifier only runs on the 2.4 GHz channel. So if you have 5Ghz or, like my router, it runs on dual channels, it simply will not connect. It’s also very fussy about the encryption and authentication type your router may run on. You need to ensure that it’s set to WPA2-PSK and use the AES authentication.
Even after changing all my router settings, I still couldn’t get it to connect. The App does suggest downloading the new Duux App if your product's serial number starts with a '22', but since the unit I was testing didn’t, I held off doing that. After trying multiple times, and even taking the dehumidifier to my mother's house to see if her internet would connect, it still wouldn’t work.
However, I finally downloaded the new App, and despite the serial number not starting with 22, the Duux Bora was listed, and thankfully the connection was instant.
Sadly, aside from the trouble I had connecting to the Wi-Fi in the first place, I wasn't sure it was really worth the effort when I finally accessed the App. It only seemed to work when I was in close vicinity to the dehumidifier, and the only real benefit was that it was easier to set a specific target humidity level for use with the dehumidifier's automatic mode, as you could scroll through the options more easily.
Beyond that, in my experience the dehumidifer constantly dropped its connection with the App, and if you don’t use it for a while then you then have to set the dehumidifier up again in the App.
However, once connected, the Wi-Fi remained connected. That meant I could set the dehumidifier up with both my Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, and surprisingly, that went without incident. The voice commands worked really well, and it was mostly responsive, unlike the App.
Performance
The Duux Bora Smart Dehumidifier can extract up to 20L of moisture from the air per day, which makes it a pretty high capacity machine. I tested it out in my damp-prone Victorian terrace in South Wales where it definitely had its work cut out for it, and found it performed well.
The Bora features a built-in hygrostat that means you can operate it in automatic mode as well as continuous. When you switch on the automatic feature the default humidity level is set at 50%, although you can adjust this. My home was sitting at around 85% humidity when I first plugged it in, so it definitely had some work to do, and in around six hours it had condensed 4 litres of water from the air. The house also felt much drier and warmer in general whilst it was running, so much so that I turned my central heating off.
When the water tank is full, the dehumidifier emits ten loud beeps, and the LED light will illuminate in red with FL showing on the display until it’s emptied. The compressor and fan will automatically stop running once the water tank is full, so you don’t have to worry about it overflowing.
The Bora also features a 24-hour timer that you can set in hourly increments. However, the one thing it doesn't have is a Laundry mode, although that doesn't mean it can't still help to speed up indoor laundry drying times and remove the excess moisture caused by wet washing.
I tested its abilities when drying several loads of washing – including thin tops and thick towels – to see how well it worked, and I have to say I was impressed. I set the humidity level to 35%, closed the door to the room where my wet washing was drying on the clothes horse and left it to do its work.
Even on the thicker items such as towels, I found it helped dry the clothes within 24 hours – faster than normal in my draughty laundry room where wet washing can easily hang around for days at at time without the heating on. The results weren't as fast as with some of the other dehumidifiers I’ve tested that feature dedicated laundry modes – such as the De’Longhi Tasciugo AriaDry Multi Dehumidifier – but it dried the clothes a lot quicker than if they’d been left to just air dry.
Unlike many dehumidifiers, the Duux Bora also has a built-in carbon filter which promises to reduce pollutants in the air, such as bacteria, and tackle any nasty odours caused by dampness, smoke, cooking smells or pet odours. This filter sits at the back of the machine where the air is sucked in and is a very welcome addition because whilst the dehumidifier does a great job of drying the air, this carbon filter also makes the air it pushes back out into the room feel fresh and clean.
I found the carbon filter made a real difference when I had the dehumidifier running in the kitchen, doing a great job of extracting cooking smells as well as the moisture from boiling pans. The carbon filter also did a great job when I was using the appliance in my laundry room as the room didn’t smell like damp washing at any point, instead it smelt fresh and clean. The filter needs replacing every year, but it’s a small cost considering how clean it leaves the air feeling.
Energy use
Naturally, with the cost of living and climate crisis, it's important to take into account the energy usage of any home appliance, and you'll likely be wondering how much a dehumidifier costs to run.
Running costs vary depending on the size, make and model of dehumidifier you opt for, and the Duux Bora Smart dehumidifier is fairly energy hungry, using 400W of power.
This means the Duux Bora Dehumidifier costs around 12p per hour to run based on electricity costing 29p per hour. So if you kept this dehumidifier running for 24 hours, it would cost £2.88 a day.
Noise levels
One of the things that I found let this dehumidifier down performance-wise were its noise levels. Regardless of whether the fans were set on low or high, I didn't find it a quiet machine.
Duux states that the noise levels sit between 36dB and 42dB, but the type of noise an appliance emits can sometimes be as bothersome as the volume, and I found I could continually hear the compressor rattling as it worked, especially when the fan speed was set to high.
For me, that meant this wasn't a dehumidifier I was happy to leave running in the background whilst I relaxed or worked because I found the noise too distracting.
It does come equipped with a night mode, but in practice I didn't find this did a lot to lessen the sound, although it does dim the LED display lights. I left the dehumidifier switched on downstairs overnight, and I could still hear it running, so even if you’re a deep sleeper, I think you might find this dehumidifier too loud to run in your bedroom overnight.
Portability
As I mentioned earlier in the review, this is a heavy machine. Whilst it’s fairly small and compact in stature, at 15kg, this isn’t a dehumidifier that you’ll want to move around too much.
That said, if you’re only manoeuvring it around on one level, then moving it is easy enough thanks to the built-in wheels on the base. There's also a folding carry handle that's attached to the top of the unit.
However, carrying it up and downstairs is no mean feat. I did move it a couple of times and found it quite cumbersome.
Maintenance
Thankfully, this dehumidifier is pretty easy to maintain. It’s worth just giving it wipe over with a soft cloth periodically to keep it clean.
The filter should be cleaned every two weeks. It can be removed from the frame and rinsed in cold or warm water. The carbon filter should also be changed once a year.
And the water tank is also easy to empty. It is a bit clunky to remove from the dehumidifier because you have to hold each side of the water tank and really tug it, and of course, with the dehumidifier on wheels, the appliance is prone to rolling back. However, once you have the water tank free it has a small carry handle and a lid that makes carrying it to the drain or sink without spillages much easier.
How does it rate online?
The Duux Bora Smart Dehumidifier rates pretty well online. Amazon customers have given it four out of five stars.
People who purchased this dehumidifier seem to love how quickly it extracts moisture from the air. They also praised how well it works to speed up indoor laundry drying times.
There are a few comments that mention how noisy it is, and some customers echo my experience with pairing the dehumidifier to their Wi-Fi, saying that they too found it difficult to connect.
Verdict
The Duux Bora dehumidifier is a powerful dehumidifier designed to manage the humidity in spaces up to 40m². Compact with a sleek design, it's able to condense 20 litres of water from the air per day, and with a generous 4 litre water tank this dehumidifier does a great job of extracting excess moisture.
The on-board controls are really easy to use, although I didn't personally rate the Smart App. However, once I'd got it connected, the Wi-Fi connectivity is a useful feature for those who want to pair this device with Alexa or Google Home to utilise voice-activated controls, and the good news is that you don’t really need to use the App to get the best out of this dehumidifier.
Noise is another downside to this dehumidifier, as is the lack of dedicated Laundry Drying mode if you want a dehumidifier that can help you to dry washing faster indoors. But, that said, the Bora still did a decent job of extracting moisture so that washing dried faster. It just wasn't quite on a par with models specifically designed around this feature, like the Pro Breeze 20L Premium Dehumidifier with Special Laundry Mode.
However, its automatic humidity sensor is a great feature, as is the inclusion of the carbon filter – something not that many dehumidifiers are fitted with. I found this made a huge difference to the overall air quality in my home, making the air feel fresh and clean and reducing cooking smells as well as extracting steam whilst I was cooking.
All in all, the Duux Bora couldn't quite knock the best-in-class MeacoDry Arete One Dehumidifier off its top spot as our top-rated dehumidifier overall. The 20L Arete One is quieter, has a built-in air purifier, a dedicated Laundry Drying mode, and is more energy efficient than the Duux Bora. However, it doesn't offer Wi-Fi connectivity, so if that's a dealbreaker for you then you might still want to consider the Duux Bora Smart 20L Dehumidifier.
The Pro Breeze 30L High Capacity Smart Dehumidifier is another Wi-Fi compatible alternative, and I found its connectivity and Smart App functionality superior to the Duux Bora. However, the Pro Breeze model, with its higher 30L per day extraction rate, is heavier to move, uses more energy to run, and doesn't come fitted with a carbon filter.
Ultimately, despite there being some niggles with its performance, if you want a dehumidifier that will work hard to reduce damp, mould, and condensation then the Duux Bora Smart Dehumidifier's 20L extraction rate, generous 4L water tank, hassle-free automatic humidity sensor, Wi-Fi connectivity that allows voice-activated control, and that bonus carbon filter make it a decent choice.
