Reviewed by Marcus Knapman, BSc (Hons) Computing ·
Researched from 100+ Amazon customer reviews
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Condensation on the windows by seven in the morning. A musty whiff when you open the wardrobe. That faint black speckling creeping into the corner of the bathroom ceiling that you keep meaning to deal with. If you live in a British house between October and March, you'll know the drill, and you'll also know that a proper electric dehumidifier costs a fair bit to buy and a fair bit more to run.
That's the gap the ANSIO Dehumidifier Disposable Pack of 10 is aiming at. Ten sealed tubs of moisture-absorbing crystals for £9.95, which works out at roughly a pound each. No plug, no noise, no electricity bill, no tank to empty at midnight.
I haven't had these sitting in my own damp cupboard. What I've done is go through the spec sheet and the way these crystal tubs behave in practice, and the picture is fairly clear. They're a small-room, low-effort solution. They won't dry out a house, and anyone expecting that will be disappointed. But for wardrobes, caravans, garages and the odd problem corner, a tenner for ten tubs is hard to argue with. My bottom line: sensible, cheap and limited, in roughly that order.
The principle here is simple. Each tub holds hydrophilic crystals, which is a fancy way of saying they attract and hold onto water vapour. According to the spec sheet, they can absorb up to three times their own weight in water. As they do, they turn into liquid in the base of the tub, which is how you know they're working.
There's no motor, no compressor, no heating element. Nothing to break, nothing to plug in. That also means nothing to fail halfway through winter, which is a point in its favour that rarely gets mentioned.
You pop off the plastic lid, peel back the foil wrapper, then put the lid back on. That's it. The one thing to watch is the white safety sheet underneath, which must stay in place. It's tempting to rip it out thinking it's packaging. Don't. It's there to keep the crystals contained and the liquid where it should be.
Then you stand the tub on a flat surface, keep it upright, and leave it alone. ANSIO says the first drop of water should appear within one to three weeks depending on how humid the room is. That's a slower payoff than a plug-in unit, which starts filling its tank the same afternoon, so patience is required.
The product listing mentions kitchens, bathrooms, living rooms, bedrooms, basements, caravans, boats and garages. In my view that's a bit optimistic. Think about it sensibly: a single tub is not going to transform a large living room with a persistent damp problem. It's a localised tool.
Where I think they genuinely suit the job is anywhere small, enclosed and prone to going stale. A caravan sitting through a wet winter. The boot of a boat. A garage with boxes of books you'd rather not turn into compost. A wardrobe, a cupboard under the stairs, a spare room that never quite gets warm. They're also pitched as condensation absorbers for windows, so a tub on a sill is a reasonable shot at taming those morning puddles.
With ten in a pack, the sensible approach is to scatter them across several small trouble spots rather than clustering them in one room and hoping for the best.
This is where the maths gets more interesting. Disposable means disposable. Once the crystals are spent, the tub is done, and you're buying more. At roughly a pound per tub it's cheap to start with, but if you're running several through a damp winter, replacements add up. Compare that with a plug-in dehumidifier, which costs more upfront but can run for years.
So the honest framing is this: these are brilliant for low-commitment, short-term or seasonal jobs, and less compelling as your only line of defence against a serious damp issue. If you've got mould spreading across walls, you've likely got a ventilation or building problem that crystals won't fix, and that's worth a proper look rather than another pack of tubs.
One of the more important practical points is the leakage warning. The tub has to sit flat and upright at all times. Knock it over once the water has collected and you'll have a puddle on your shelf, which is exactly the sort of thing you were trying to avoid in the first place.
That makes placement a genuine consideration. Think twice about putting one on a wobbly shelf, a narrow windowsill that gets bumped, or anywhere a pet or toddler could tip it. The listing is clear that it should be kept away from children, and I'd say the same about pets. The liquid isn't something you want sloshing about.
At £9.95 for ten, this is firmly at the budget end of the category, and there's no pretence otherwise. The packaging is functional, the design is plain, and you're paying for crystals and a tub rather than a brand experience. For a product whose only job is to sit quietly in a corner and soak up moisture, that's entirely fine.
There's no Amazon rating available to lean on here, so I can't point to a pile of verified buyer scores. That's worth being upfront about. What I can say is that the approach is a well-established one, the specification is straightforward, and the cost of being wrong is about the price of a sandwich and a coffee.
Used sensibly, in the right small spaces, with realistic expectations, the ANSIO Dehumidifier Disposable Pack of 10 is a low-risk way to take the edge off a damp winter. Used as a cure-all, it'll let you down.
A sensible, low-cost fix for small, stuffy, damp-prone spaces like wardrobes, caravans and garages, and good value as a starter pack. If you've got widespread mould or a large room that streams with condensation, skip these and look at an electric dehumidifier or fix the underlying ventilation problem.
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