Dehumidifier or not?

Were I have good ventilation from cabin ,aft cabin the dorados work well , but the main cabin has poor ventilation and we use a small dehumidifier which works well over the years now.
 
I think that those of us in the yes camp should concede defeat to those who clearly know better despite probably never having tried it. They know best.

Do join us @pessimist, the placebo effect is wonderful.
 
So what do we all do on a swinging mooring...ventilation. it's all we've got. Unless anyone knows of one that works without power
 
billyfish said:
So what do we all do on a swinging mooring...ventilation. it's all we've got. Unless anyone knows of one that works without power
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Ventilation is the best thing to do if you don't have power. No problem. Carry on.
 
fearmhuir said:
What is the relevance of that? Will your compressor ones restart after the power is restored after being shut off without you pressing start again?
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I have to say mine does as it has a memory button. Turns itself off as well once its either full or at desired humidity level. Was £700 though
 
Thanks everyone. I take the point about ventilation -we did just that on the last boat and relied on hatch vents and dorades. This was successful up to a point but we still had mould in some lockers with restricted airflow. This boat has neither dorades or hatch vents and simply plugging in a dehumidifier seems the lazy man's (that's me) option.
 
Dehumidifier. Mine is ok without, but everything is just that bit fresher and drier with it running and it warms up quicker - it takes more time and energy to warm up air with a high humdity, when then tends to drop out as moisture when you leave the boat and it rapidly cools.
 
JumbleDuck said:
Where is the water your dehumidifier removes coming from?
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Speaking of my last boats with rooves, mainly the damp air that's in it from the last trip, but that's topped up by a little bit of ventilation around the main hatch and locker lids. There's also the standing water left from cleaning the galley and heads. But there's a teeny bit of planet dessication there.

I've just remembered one of the side benefits - you can rinse off salty oilies and leave them to dry on board.
 
JumbleDuck said:
Where is the water your dehumidifier removes coming from?
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Are boats airtight? Mine certainly isn't as it has some small fixed vents .
I agree plenty of ventilation is good and I am all in favour of opening windows at home , but I do so when the house is occupied as an open window may attract unwanted visitors.
Conditions such as last night and today ( heavy dew and a bit of a frost followed by a thaw and probably a frost again tonight ) seems to me perfect for moisture forming on surfaces whether outside or inside and in these conditions the interior of the boat might be damaged by the dew and the frost ?
 
fearmhuir said:
What is the relevance of that? Will your compressor ones restart after the power is restored after being shut off without you pressing start again?
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Mine will. Seago SmartDry II.

The difference between desiccant and condensation dehumidifiers in this regard is that cutting power to a desiccant dehumidifier can damage it, although I suspect that one would have to do this frequently to have serious effect. You're supposed to use the on-off switch on its own front panel, so that it's able to cycle itself down.

Compressor dehumidifiers don't suffer from this shortcoming,
 
I'm in the dehumidifier camp. I've got one in my pretty well sealed garage and it drops the humidity from around 75 percent in the winter to around 60 percent. Makes a big difference to corrosion.
In the boat the same this happens. If the dehumidifier is on everything is drier.
 
In the winter months I use a dehumidifier and close all vents/hatches, etc. If leaving the boat do as much to allow air to flow around anything that's stored on board as possible, e.g. leave locker doors open, cushions stood on their side. Insulating lockers also helps. I live on board full time and the amount of ventilation required would mean I'd be freezing cold all the time. Of course the boat is not hermetically sealed but the dehumidifier makes a huge difference to comfort. Dessicant type is the one to go for, Meaco or Ecoair. I have the smallest Ecoair model which I think would make a big difference on your boat no matter where you leave it, mine lives in the wheelhouse of a Colvic Watson 34 which has huge internal volume and it makes a noticeable difference throughout the boat...
 
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