Dehumidifiers for a garage

[skotl]

Hi folks. First post here - I was pointed in the direction of this forum by another member and the most recent post in this forum ("Venting a garage") touched a nerve with me.

My garage is in deepest, darkest Scotland and, although the temperature extremes don't match those in North America, they do make for five months of 23 to 41 temperatures with high humidity.
The net result is that the paperwork that I foolishly store in the garage (manuals, receipts, etc) goes moldy and any steel rusts.

And so to the question; do folks in similar climates commonly install dehumidifiers?
I'm not looking to spend a ton of money on this, but I'd expect that a unit that can vent to an external drip would be best?
I'd equally assume that a cheap home unit with a tank could be easily converted to having an external drip, but that they wouldn't appreciate being left running for months at a time?

Any other advice for dehumidifiers in a garage would be gratefully appreciated! Meanwhile, I'm off to browse the rest of the forum

 

[Algoma56]

I use an older model dehumidifier in my garage, mainly in the spring when the frost leaves the surrounding ground, and it is extremely wet in the garage. I just dump the drip tray when necessary, BUT the drain that drips into the tray, is a garden hose type thread, so I could attach a garden hose to mine and run it through an opening to the outside for a permanent drain.
Check your prospective purchases out for the same fitting.

 

[skotl]

Thanks, Algoma

 

[yeldogt]

The home units work -- as long as they are not asked to do too much. I own a small house in the city -- the basement is only about 12' x 25'. In the summer and fall we get higher humidity .. as well as some moisture when in the rainy season. I installed a home unit with the tank to hose conversion. It sits on a pedestal high enough so the water can flow to a drain. The unit has enough capacity for a small closed space that does not get too cold ... I also don't need to get it down too muck under 60%

In my larger studio a home unit will just not work, running 24/7 it can't keep up and they tend to freeze when run continuously .... the home units are expensive to run relative to the humidity they remove .. so running that much makes the better units the way to go with my expensive electricity. I set this unit to just under 50%.

In the USA they sell a small unit (Santa Fe) that is fantastic-- the fan is powerful enough to circulate the air in a larger space and it has the ability to remove a lot of moisture without freezing. The dehumidifier has to not only remove moisture from the air but also dry everything in the room and the walls ... and this can take a couple of days running nonstop when first set up.

The key is to keep the space closed up as much as possible when the outside air is humid.

 

[Retrosmith]

I've been running a Frigidaire FAD704DWD 70-pint Dehumidifier since March. It has an external drip but I'm using the internal bucket and emptying from time to time.

It has had a significant impact on the relative humidity in my garage. This is from earlier this year.