Small/tiny cabin dehumidifer

[mjfink]

Wondering if anyone has any experience with something like the Eva-Dry 500, or something like that to keep the moisture down in the cabin of a covered boat? My boat is lift stored in FL, so there's plenty of moisture around! However, it's a small boat (Sundancer 260) and I don't really want a large compressor style unit onboard. My boat has AC, but I can't run that because the boat's up in the air and has no water source.

Any suggestions/recommendations?

BTW, this is only for when I'm away from the boat, when we're on it, we just run the AC.

 

[Fireman431]

Re: Small/tiny cabin dehumidifer

Instead of a powered dehumidifyer, look into the plastic tubs of dehumidifying pellets. Less chance of electrical shorts or fire.

 

[soggy_feet]

Re: Small/tiny cabin dehumidifer

Instead of a powered dehumidifyer, look into the plastic tubs of dehumidifying pellets. Less chance of electrical shorts or fire.

Agreed.

And if a bag of desiccant starts an electrical fire, the humidity was the least of your problems...

 

[mjfink]

Re: Small/tiny cabin dehumidifer

Thanks guys, that's exactly the kind of feedback I was looking for. So you'd suggest just getting a jug or 2 of the "DampRid" type products and putting them in the boat? They collect moisture under the crystals right? Should I just put the bucket right into my sink and pop a hole in the bottom of the bucket to allow them to drain?

 

[DuckHunterJon]

Re: Small/tiny cabin dehumidifer

Not sure how the DampRid product works, but most of the dessicant's that I've used (smaller scale, dehumidifying gun cabinets), the silica gel absorbs water (no water to drain out). To dry them, you spread them out on a cookie sheet and baked them at a low temp in the oven till dry.

 

[shrew]

Re: Small/tiny cabin dehumidifer

DampRid and other type products are great. In your case, the larger the container the better and don't be afraid to use a few in different places. Get the kind that are refillable and buy the damprid stuff in bulk. You'll need to visit the boat and empty and refill the containers. Try to get some venting under the tarp so air can flow and if you have power a small fan would be even better to keep the air moving. If you don't have access to power, then look at the Caframo battery operated. They will run on 4 D batt's and will run for a very long time. You'll need to swap the batteries out every couple of weeks as well. If you're just running fans and money wasn't an object then a solar panel to charge the 12V batteries and run some 12v Caframo fans. They use very little power and a solar panel make be able to keep up. That is going to be costly and a hard sell to mount a panel at the storage facility.

Just a few ideas.

 

[Slide]

Re: Small/tiny cabin dehumidifer

Decissant bags are great. My buddy works for a playing card manufacturer and can get them whenever he wants, we throw 3-4 of the big ones in various areas of the 23' Maxum cuddy before we wrap her up for the winter and it stays dry as a bone.