Lancia Motor Club

Thinking of investing in a dehumidifier for the garage. Trying to improve the environment as, unfortunately, its where the car spends most of it's time.

Anyone got any thoughts or recommendations on this or any other steps taken to keep their car cosy?

Cheers

Andy

Hi Andy

I fitted an industrial one (forget the firm but they were in Maldon Essex) some eleven years ago as I suspected the porous noncavity brick wall would encourage endemic tin worm!

Dehumidifiers dont keep places cosy just dry(ish). It worked fine for all the ten years till I moved elsewhere.

The only problem I had (possibly due to living in the country) was that the drain pipe was seen as a good nesting place for insects so on three occasions I found on a rare trip into the garage the floor flooded as it couldnt drain! Not the desired result.

I guess if you are worried about humidity you could check your prevailing levels - some one will know but I think steel rusts when it is above 60or70%???? All I can say is that with mine set to a medium setting it would always come on if it started to rain heavily outside.

Tim

Tim

Hi Tim,
 I had similar worries as "Fay" lives in a concrete unheated lockup about 5 miles from home.

When we first came back down here from herefordshire I had to put her in storage costing me £90 a month as I didn't have a garage as she would have had to live on the street, something I wasn't keen to do.
I bought an Airchamber from Hamiltons 7 years ago and she lives in there with 2 x 12v fans creating a through flow.
"Fay" has survived very well in this environment and sometimes when I go to see her during the winter when it is damp,  often there is moisture on the outside of the airchamber, but inside she's nice a dry.

Couple of points against.
Although it has a fibreglass rod frame these are not thick enough to completely support it and it flops to one side or the other, not a bad problem but it can be annoying.
The latest version that Hamilton sell has a tubular frame that unlike the fibreglass rods are on the outside, and the chamber hangs to the tubular frame like the inner tent in a frame tent, only downside is that it is slightly bigger overall.

2nd Point is that as there isn't any power at the garage so I had to buy 2 x 85amp leisure batteries, and while one is running the fans, the second is on charge, once a week I go and change the batteries over and repeat the process.
If you have power available it isn't a problem as the fans are powered by their own transformer.
If using batteries they must be leisure batteries as they can take being completely discharged & be recharged with no damage.

Brian
8227 8)

Hi Andy

I'd certainly recommend a dehumidifier, using one has made a great difference to my garage. It is a concrete section type, un-heated
located at the bottom of our (longish) garden, I've had mine for years but before that the cars would be covered everywhere ,including the engine bay in condensation when we had a mild day after a cold spell.

Now I never get any and if you have to put the cars away wet it soon dries them out. In particularly damp weather I have to empty
it every couple of days !

I bought mine at a classic car show from a company called 'Dry-it Out' ,they regularly advertise in Classic and Sportscar magazine.
They should be able to advise size/ power for your garage.

By the way Andy were you at the 'Stone Italian Day' last year? I think we met and we were comparing notes on Monza red Evo 2's!

Regards

Steve

Andy

I remember it was a calorex fit and forget (so no emptying) save for the drain blockage!

http://www.calorex.com/Product_range/Industrial%20-%20Commercial%20Dehumidification/classic_car_storage.htm

I also used a more domestic one with a bucket in another garage to effect and found that you could also plumb this on in too!

Tim

I use a Ruby Dry as recommeded in Auto Express Tests.

It works very well in unheated concrete garage - have also insulated the steel door and this dryer actually heats up the room - well above freezing - it's around minus 2 outside and 11 deg C inside - use it on min power setting and empty about 5 litres every 3 days.

Thanks guys for all the replies... I think I will look into it some more. I particularly hate putting the car away wet but my insurance dictates that it is garaged overnight...

Steve - yes it was me at Stone, I had a great first full year with the car in 2008 and look to do lots more in 2009.

Can I take that since my car does not appear to suffer from condensation in the garage (mine is part of the house, and appears to be dry and largely weatherproof, though well ventilated, and also accomodates the central heating boiler) I don't have a big problem with humidity?

From my experience that's a pretty fair assumption, main thing though is putting it away dry, or as near dry as you can get.
Best combination I ever had was a Car port open on 3 sides, great for letting the car dry off in the breeze, then a warm garage once it was dry.

Brian
8227 8)

Don't forget that if you have an ill fitting garage door, most of the water you will be collecting, will be from the outside atmosphere!