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Are dehumidifiers any good?

craiginuk

craiginuk

Member
Just noticed that since I've sealed up my garage a bit better and added some double glazed doors, the humidity level seems to have increased to around 80%. Not sure what it was before and maybe the increase is in my head but either way it's not good. Any suggestions for a reasonably priced dehumidifier that won't cost the earth to run? And are they worth it?
 
Craig,

The garage is such a small "room" by dehumidifier standards that even the smallest units will keep the humidity low. Try Amazon and see which units get 4-5 stars. You'll probably be looking at £120.

Again the small size of the garage means the unit will not run as much as much as if you used it in a house. But i couldn't put a figure on running cost.

When i moved house my car went from being kept in a cold garage at outside humidity where it required rust treatment every one to two years to a garage under someone's flat. Under the flat my garage is nicely heated thanks to the conduction through their floor. I'd say the car only needs to have bodywork treated every five years now. So, yes in my opinion a low humidity garage is worth the likely cost you are facing of running the unit

Paul
 
Cheers for that Paul, I've had a look and found one that will hopefully do the trick. Will be interesting to see what a difference it makes.
 
They do work. I used to use a desiccant one in my old house, not a properly sealed garage but fairly clean and painted and the thing was only on each evening then emptied in the morning when the 2 litre tank was full. Just enough really to take the edge off the humidity around the car, it worked well enough that I didn't get any rust on the brake disks of my race car through whole winters of storage.

This is a reminder to do something similar in our new house, first job though is you must paint the floor right up to the damp course on the walls. I made sure I did this in our place before moving everything into the garage. B&Q do garage door sealing kits which seem to get good reviews but I haven't tried it yet but will need to get round to it.
 
Desiccant vs refrigerator type dehumidifier's, that a good point Neil.
In summary desiccant uses more electricity, but does work down to lower air temperatures than refrigerant. I've seen 18°C quoted as the lowest figure recommended for refrigerant. Below 18°C the refrig unit spends more time de-icing itself and so becomes less effective at reducing humidity.
 
I have also had an EBAC dehumidifier in my garage for the last 2 years.

https://www.ebac.com/dehumidifiers/shop/6200-25-litre-silver-and-steel-dehumidifier-df655ss-gb

Mine is a big garage so wanted a larger unit and it is excellent at removing moisture from the air.

Recently I have added 4 x Haverland 1200 Electric wall mounted Radiators with the thermostats set at 12 degrees and I have found that the dehumidifier is now only taking out a very small amount of water as expected but I still keep it running.

 
Interesting thread. Leads me to ask what is the best way to go about sealing up a draughty garage and to what degree does it need to be sealed to make heaters and de-humidifiers viable?

My double garage has ill fitting wooden doors and is open at the eaves so I would assume it is basically at the same temperature and humidity as the outside all year round. This would then leave me to believe that without sealing it up first, any form of heating or drying would have no effect whatsoever.

I was thinking about going around with door seal kits and the like and fitting proper soffits to the eaves but presumably there needs to be a small degree of ventilation to prevent condensation? Any building surveyors that can advise?
 
Looking at your location your probably alright as when its really cold the air is much dryer. Here we have a problem in that for many months it may be about 10 deg C and raining cats and dogs outside, much as it was around Christmas. The resulting humidity has been reeking havoc on our daily drivers with blocked scuttle drains, locked on hand brake and having to mop the moisture of the inside of the windscreen in the morning. That and everyone has a cold. I really don't like the UK climate.
 
I haven't been able to get the location to update since I got back from Sweden. I'm actually now in Saffron Walden! So it's the steady damp 10 degrees that's circulating around my garage that I'm worried about!

I'm due a B&Q trip so I think I will take a look at what they've got in the way of door seals and pick up some timber for soffit boards.
 
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