Best humidifier for unheated garage workshop

[ivan]

True! the compressor type are cheaper to run, but only useful at indoor temps or a bit below. The dessicant type like the Meaco Zambesi work down to 1 deg centigrade. They also give out more heat than the compressor type, which is why they cost a bit more to run. I believe Meaco do both types.
Which? tested a number of dehumidifiers, and Meaco's did very well.

 

[Woodchip Wilbur]

Just to highlight what people are saying: There are two sorts of dehumidifier. The ones that work like a fridge cool the air to condense the water out of it. They would be a poor choice for an unheated workshop.
A dessicant dehumidifier passes the air through (as it were) some silica gel and then heats the gel to drive out the water collected. These work far better in a cold space and are the ones you should look at. I have one of those in a damp, unheated building and it removes around 5 litres of water a day. Be sure that it can drain outside!

 

[rs6mra]

How about storing a thicknesser like a Triton Tpt125.
I have no heating whatsoever in the shed and this will be it’s first winter.

 

[johnnyb]

I've worked drying flooded houses and used a dessicant years ago. dessicants are the dehums to use but the ones we used did not condense the water. they just blew it outside. so they had air going in and processed air coming out( very dry) the other side of the wheel was the regen side basically a fan heater blowing through the wheel this air ( hot and wet) was vented outside. the very dry air could be targeted. domestic stuff also has a cooling circuit to condense into liquid from the hot and wet regen.
I would not recomend just on running costs alone. put your tools in a box anything that's not constantly running. insulate your shed. one interesting thing about true dessicants is they are not bound by temp or rh. so in a sealed box other than the regen vent the humidity can reach extremely low levels(think death valley) but they are extremely limited removing large amounts of water. a compressor dehum in the correct conditions can remove huge amounts of water very quickly.
I ran one 15 years ago in my garage shop.( condensing dessicant) it worked well but it cost a fortune back then it expired after 3 years use. slow down the change of temp. wax every month. those little red things around sealed hand tools.anything that's not burning watts.

 

[johnnyb]

just using heat seems a more direct and simpler solution.ie defrosting a compressor coil at say 10c is using as much electric as running a small heater.
I don't reckon moisture is your enemy here it's condensation when outside warms and you cast stays cold. slow down that transition and your problem is gone. for free

 

[Sideways]

Updating this slightly old thread as we're still very much in winter but I now have several weeks use on the Ecoair dessicant that I bought in the autumn.
What I find myself doing is just running the machine on high for it's minimum 2hr timer setting if I'm in the garage and it's feeling damp. I'm happy to leave it on the timer after I leave so that the damp air that comes in through the door as I leave is reduced.
A few times a week at a cost of under 20p per 2hr session is not going to break the bank.
Earlier in winter, 2hrs would knock the humidity down from say 78% to 68%
In the last week, it is taking 90% down to 79% each time.
Because the DH puts out a little bit of heat and the drier air is less chilling, it makes the place a lot nicer to work in without putting on an electric fan heater.
I just decanted 2 litres of water from the tank today. It grabbed that in 2x 2hr sessions. 2 litres feels like a fair weight of water when you're trying not to spill it on the way to the sink.

The place feels a lot better because of the new drier. I'm glad I bought it.

 

[Cabinetman]

Updating this slightly old thread as we're still very much in winter but I now have several weeks use on the Ecoair dessicant that I bought in the autumn.
What I find myself doing is just running the machine on high for it's minimum 2hr timer setting if I'm in the garage and it's feeling damp. I'm happy to leave it on the timer after I leave so that the damp air that comes in through the door as I leave is reduced.
A few times a week at a cost of under 20p per 2hr session is not going to break the bank.
Earlier in winter, 2hrs would knock the humidity down from say 78% to 68%
In the last week, it is taking 90% down to 79% each time.
Because the DH puts out a little bit of heat and the drier air is less chilling, it makes the place a lot nicer to work in without putting on an electric fan heater.
I just decanted 2 litres of water from the tank today. It grabbed that in 2x 2hr sessions. 2 litres feels like a fair weight of water when you're trying not to spill it on the way to the sink.

The place feels a lot better because of the new drier. I'm glad I bought it.

I have the same machine I think and the amount of water it collects is quite an eye-opener, I use mine in a wardrobe type area full of firewood, when you look at a lump of wood and think that at 20% rh 1/5 of it is water and that just doesn’t burn well lol. So l try to get mine down to 10%, I think of it as my kiln. Ian

 

[Sideways]

Good idea !
I was gifted a used compressor type dehumidifier and have been using that in a broom cupboard in the house as an experimental laundry drying cupboard in place of the old school tumble dryer.
It is working well and I can run it for between 5 and 9 hours for the same cost as just 1 hour of the tumble dryer. That should save 1/2 to 2/3 of our drying costs.