Tube heaters

[yotter]

Thing about a dehumidifier is that it can freeze up (it works by refrigerating air to make the water condense). So it's a lot better if you can use a low heater to keep the air above about 5 degrees. The dehumidifier on its own won't heat the air enough through the winter.

And yes, my old dehumidifier (Dimplex, many years old) DID catch fire last year. I don't know why: some electrical fault (see pic). Fortunately it did this while we were still at the boat (I lowered it into the water on its flex to put it out). I note that among the usual list of warnings and disclaimers on the new one it warns "Not to be used in boats".

But I still love dehumidifiers, and they keep the yacht (and empty holiday houses) in excellent condition.


View attachment 126991

Looks a bit of a mess, good to hear that you were onboard and managed to prevent disaster. The earlier post was from a dessicant type, which does warm the air. They have no compressor, just work through magic I think, but cannot freeze up.

 

[asteven221]

I put a tube heater right in front of the dehumidifier, which is on a thermostat set to come on at 2C. The idea being to to stop the water in the dehumidifier freezing before it switches on. There are several tube heaters strategically placed throughout the boat each on thermostats. Over many years this has worked perfectly. The thought of the dehumidifier catching fire is a scary prospect I have to admit!!

 

[Barnacle Bill]

Looks a bit of a mess, good to hear that you were onboard and managed to prevent disaster.

Yes it was very lucky. My son and I were waiting for our lift, after delivering the boat back from the yard, he called me and said "Dad, the humidifier just went bang. I unplugged it." I went back on board and had a look, there was a whiff of smoke coming out so I lifted it onto the pontoon: and within a couple of minutes there were flames coming out of it. That was when I doused it in the water. I opened it up and took that picture later to see where the fire had started.

If our lift had been on time it would have happened on the boat after we'd left!