Cabin - drain down, de-humidifier, tube heater or Webasto heater?

[Freeloader]

I bought my current boat, a Sessa C30, last autumn from a dealer in Lincoln and had it shipped down to Poole in the spring. Whilst it was wintered in Lincoln, everything had been winterised and / or drained down to deal with the frequent severe frosts, although there was a tube heater in the engine bay that appeared to keep the engines above freezing.

However, now that my boat is in Poole, I would like to keep the boat in service through the winter and want to avoid complete winterisation if possible. Hopefully, the tube heater should keep the engine bay warm enough as the south coast is nowhere near as cold as Lincoln in the depths of winter. However, I am unsure as what to do with the cabin and the fresh water system. The options would seem to be:

1. Simply drain down the fresh water system each time I leave the boat and leave it at that.
2. Drain down the fresh water system and install a de-humidifier to help keep damp at bay.
3. Install a tube heater in the cabin to, hopefully, deal with freezing conditions and damp.
4. Leave the Webasto heater permanently set on a low (5*C) setting, again to deal with both frosts and damp.

The latter option would seem to be the simplest option and, as the unit is in the engine bay, it would perhaps provide a little additional heat there too. However, I have been told that diesel heaters like to be worked hard to avoid coking up and don't really like being run on tick-over for long periods (as may the be case here). Also, would it be prudent to leave the Webasto switched on when I'm not aboard?

I would, therefore, be grateful to hear what other boat owners do with their boats over winter and for any advice that you can offer.

 

[mlines]

Hi

I guess you have shorepower available?

We run a de-humidifier (Meaco) and put "Bounce" (The tumble drier sheets - this was a USA forum recommendation and is a great tip) around the cockpit and cabin. This leaves it beautifully dry and sweet smelling all winter.

from talking to others, just using a heater promotes mould as it likes the warmth, you have to remove the dampness itself either through a de-humidifier or through maintaining an air flow.

As a dehumifier produces a low level of heat and as the boat is sat in salt water at sea level then the chances of it freezing are low. I would drain down the fresh water and use a de-humidifier and that would be it. I am building myself a remote monitor to alarm me when shore power/batteries fail as this would mean the de-humidifier would have also failed.

All overkill I am sure for our boat (which you know) but worked well last year.

Martin

 

[KevB]

I have a fan heater and dehumidifier on the same timer and set for an hour a day. Also have a couple of those dehumidifier crystal boxes which seem to do a good job of collecting moisture.

Just taken delivery today of a new Desiccant dehumidifier which are supposed to work better at lower temperatures than old refrigeration coil types, so may do away with the fan heater this year.

 

[mlines]

Be careful with the Dessicant de-humidifiers (e.g. Meaco - Like I have), they need a "run down cycle" before they switch off otherwise it wrecks the desiccant. We leave ours on all the time and rely on the humidistat to turn it off and on, not a timer. (or make sure it has a timer in it)

 

[KevB]

Be careful with the Dessicant de-humidifiers (e.g. Meaco - Like I have), they need a "run down cycle" before they switch off otherwise it wrecks the desiccant. We leave ours on all the time and rely on the humidistat to turn it off and on, not a timer. (or make sure it has a timer in it)

Thanks for the tip.

Kevin.

 

[rosssavage]

Use my boat all year.

I have a desiccant dehumidifier running all the time, but on a reasonably low setting.

Two tube heaters under the engines, and another in the lazerette between the water pump / calorifer and domestic battery box. You don't want your batteries to freeze, it wrecks them.

Always leave all cupboard / doors / internal storage hatches open to let the air move around.

I've never bothered draining anything down, but I'm southern UK and tube heater protected. No problems in ten winters so far...

 

[A_8]

There is really no need to heat the batteries, just keep them charged and they will be fine way, way down in temperature. A fully charged lead-acid battery won't freeze until like crazy cold.

 

[Seastoke]

ye tube heater in engine bay meaco deumid and we have one of those unit u can txt to switch fan heater on when u r on the way it also givges you the temp and it sends u a txt when power is lost best bit of kit for winter it was about £50 qwid

 

[rubberduck]

We have an oil filled rad we put in saloon & another in engine room, both have a thermostat set to about 12 deg. Boat is as dry & sweet smelling as the day she was new. Have a built in kick-space fan heater in saloon but not sure about leaving it on unattended long term.

 

[P4Paul]

I installed a 'winter circuit' on Hunros to make life easy.

In the engine bay is an additional shore power connection which feeds thermostaticaly controlled sockets in the saloon for the tube heaters and a timer socket for the dehumidifier, it also feeds a pair of thermostatically controlled sockets in the engine bay for the tube heaters there.

A bit overkill maybe but makes life really easy when arriving/leaving on dark evenings.

 

[lynall]

Meaco desiccant dehumidifiers are excellent, been using ours for roughly 3 years with zero issues, boat in the water all year around.
Nothing drained or heated just the meaco.

 

[Freeloader]

Thank you all for the helpful replies to my query - I have been following the responses here and under the "When to put on the heaters" tread with interest!

You have convinced me about the benefits of a dehumidifier and I have now ordered a Meaco DD8L dessicant-type, as recommended. However, whilst I understand that general heating of the cabin might be counter-productive with regard to mould etc, I think it would still be a good idea to have some frost protection. I can simply leave the Webasto on a 5*C setting but is this a good idea or should I get a separate electric heater, such as an oil filled radiator?

Thanks again!

 

[mlines]

The dehumidifier puts out a reasonable amount of heat (between 300 and 600 watts) so I would not think you would need cabin heat. Perhaps a tube in the engine bay to keep the temperature there up.

 

[Freeloader]

Having read through the instructions for the dehumidifier, though, it suggests that there probably won't be much moisture to remove at temperatures approaching freezing, so I assume that the heat output will likely drop off at just the point that it might be useful. I've got a tube heater for the engine bay, so that should be okay, but I just wanted to keep the water system (and toilet) from freezing up in the cabin without having to drain everything down each time I leave the boat.

 

[KevB]

Tried our new Meaco DD8L out over the weekend and very happy with it. Very easy to use, light, compact and quiet compared to my old one.

Fair bit of heat given out so I don't think I'll be bothering with the fan heater anymore and according to their bumf only .03 - .07p to run per day.
Had it on whilst we were away from the boat on Saturday and it had collected about half a litre of water.
Also like the idea that it goes into standby once it's reached the set level of humidity then checks ever half hour to see if it needs to run again.

 

[Croftie]

Tried our new Meaco DD8L out over the weekend and very happy with it. Very easy to use, light, compact and quiet compared to my old one.

Fair bit of heat given out so I don't think I'll be bothering with the fan heater anymore and according to their bumf only .03 - .07p to run per day.

Seems a bit low unless you are using solar power.......
According to their web site: "Running costs from 5.02p/hour based on 15.2p/kWh"

 

[KevB]

Seems a bit low unless you are using solar power.......
According to their web site: "Running costs from 5.02p/hour based on 15.2p/kWh"

Sorry... I meant per hour. Doh!!

 

[Freeloader]

So... the new Meaco DDl8 has arrived and I've given it a trial run at home. Even in a warm, apparently dry living room it seems to suck a fair bit of moisture out of the air and it puts out quite a bit of heat too. However, I had it runing on the 'Normal' humidity setting and the maximum fan speed - is this what I ought to leave it on for marine use or should I set the humidity / fan speed higher / lower? Also, is there any point in switching on the ioniser?

 

[mlines]

We use ours on the minimum settings, but then you know the size of the cabin/cockpit we use it in.

The literature suggests that on the higher settings it will maintain a 4/5 bedroom house at the correct humidity.

 

[KevB]

We set ours to minimum and not bothering with the ioniser.