Electronic Dehumidifiers

[Sanderling]

Anyone tried the little electronic dehumidifiers now sold by Nauticalia. I want to use one on my boat that I have left in France for the winter. However I am concerned that it might freeze up and then overheat. I had this happen to the last compressor driven dehumidifier that I used when the boat was in the Uk. Fortunately I was on hand every other day to check on it. I think a thermal switch had failed but I also had another similar model fail so I am quite worried about reliability?

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[waverider]

Funny thing you should mention it....I see that my local chandlery is flogging re chargable mini humidifiers for 20 quid! just wondered if they were any good also?


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[BlueMan]

Strangely enough I have just bought a smallish one from another UK supplier for £125. Am currently trying it out at home before the new boat is delivered next month. The key is to make sure you choose one that has hot gas defrost. That way it can defrost itself if it gets frozen up due to low ambient temperatures. Obviously you also want a continuous drain via a pipe but I am sure you already knew that. Seems to work a treat at home. In fact I am just about to buy a larger capacity unit for permanent home use. That won't need hot gas defrost as the house is always warm enough. Happy to provide details of potential retailers although you'll find them all through google like I did!

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[pvb]

Probably not your ideal choice...

The little dehumidifier offered by Nauticalia for £89 is a WindChaser product, widely available for about $60. It's called "electronic" because it uses a Peltier-effect solid-state cooling device, ie no compressor. The dehumidifying capability is tiny - only about 20cc an hour at 80% humidity and 30 deg C (conditions which won't exist in your boat in winter!). It's really intended for putting in wardrobes, etc. If you want to buy a dehumidifier, this probably isn't your best choice. But have you tried just leaving the boat with adequate ventilation? Works for most people.

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[abraxus]

THe smallest one that I've seen with a defrost capability and decent size output (10 litres a day), is the compact dehumidifier that B&Q are now selling for £79.99. It's a bigger than the Nauticalia one (about 18 inches high) but noticably smaller than others I've seen.

I've had it for a couple of weeks now and it seems to work well. Can't speak for how well the defrosting works as it hasn't got cold enough and I have heaters onboard set on thermostats.

Bill

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[Sanderling]

Re: Probably not your ideal choice...

Thanks for the advice. My biggest concern re compressor dehumidifiers is that they can go wrong. I have had two fail - one just stopped working altogther, there was a fault in a microprocessor unit. The second one however failed catastrophically insofar as the cpmpressor continued to freeze the evaporator elements and formed a solid lump of ice (about a 9" cube), the fan was still running and getting prettly warm when I arrived on the boat. My concern is that it could catch fire with the obvious consequences. As the boat is in France I will probably just leave a fan heater on a 750W setting with the thermstat set to around 10C. Incidentally the fan heater I have is a well built version intended for greenhouse use. It has a bi-metallic thermal cut out in the event that it overheats.

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[rwakeham]

Re: Probably not your ideal choice...

I was given one last year - not very good at all. Just froze itself up and never really collected any water.

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[steve28]

Acording to practical boat owner they are reviewing several in next months magazine, hope this might help.

steve

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