I recently moved into a damp, dark, and wooded area and had to deal with mildew. Although this dehumidifier is not very large, it worked well when I placed it in my clothes closet and ran it with the bedroom windows and doors closed. It quickly lowered the humidity from over 85% to around 50%, and the bucket would fill in about five hours on continuous mode. Eventually, I decided to move to a drier location as the battle with mildew became too much.