Does anyone use Silica Gel Dessicant Dehumidifiers-gctid434278

[Mileskb]

TerryW wrote:
What I was 'getting at' (I hope that makes sense in American as it is old-timer UK colloquial) is that when it is damp and misty the water sort of hangs in the air. Give it any excuse and it makes condensation on everything. But when you get rain the water has concentrated in clouds and there is less of it in the air around you.

Well that makes sense... and yes.. I "get it."

...and FWIW... Spent three weeks in the UK (London/Yorkshire) in the 80's and have a lifetime of great memories from that one short trip.

[TerryW]

Mileskb wrote:
Well that makes sense... and yes.. I "get it."

...and FWIW... Spent three weeks in the UK (London/Yorkshire) in the 80's and have a lifetime of great memories from that one short trip.

I've had some fantastic times in the states as well. Now the dog has gone to the kennel in the sky it is time to do another visit while the wife and I are still free. I used to work for Ford and went to Detroit a lot in those days. I've also been to Florida a few times and always had a lot of fun diving (St Petes and Crystal Springs) and boating. The people in the states are always friendly, polite and good natured. The wife and I have done a little cruising (on cruise boats that is) and much prefer the American boats to the stuffy british boats.

[nottingham88]

I've been storing boats around White Rock BC for the past 35 years and have experienced many different mixes of success and failure.

Last year our 2359 suffered badly- or should I say the owner did keeping things dry. Fully enclosed hard top with icicles hanging from inside the roof ?!?!

Its not practical to run a dehumidifier constantly and you'd need one with the heater to work properly in these temps. What does work is to ventilate well so that the temp inside does not exceed the outside temp. As such I have covered stem to stern with large tarp and left the sliding windows open about one inch or less.

When the inside of the boat warms from the sun the warm air contains more moisture (humidity) than it will carry when its cold. Hence the appearance of leaking windscreen etc. It's also important to start with no water in boat including bilges fwd and aft. Any moisture is attracted to the cold glass etc.

Moving air is the only real friend you have in these conditions and since the warmer damp air does rise it will exhaust to the outside if you let it. Every year I didn't allow adequate ventilation I paid the price of cleaning fuzzy stuff off any vinyl upholstery etc. If you can equalize the temp from inside to outside the problem dissappears.

You'd be surprised how well a small vent (window etc) and a small fan timed to run a couple of times a day works. Not only that it is very friendly for power consumption. The typical RV or Boat dryer is about 100 watts and is designed to create the air currents IF you don't block them. IMO space between canvas snaps is not adequate. Without ventilation you can empty your dry ease almost daily.

If you ventilate properly you can also use a large 5 gall bucket and a stocking full of dry-ease crystals and suspend that over a piece of wood hanging in the top of bucket. The smaller containers are meant to be attended to quite often - just be carefull what you do with the trapped water - it is VERY corrosive. A 5 gallon bucket will last for months if you use a few pounds of crystals and the price is right.

If you can't cover stem to stern to create that air space between boat and weather try just covering your cabin area in a secure way to avoid wind damage. Sometimes one thing doesn't work completely but combos do. Every boat is different.

I'm using tarp, fan, crystals with nose high and bilge plug out. Things are looking much better than last year so far. The more airtight you leave your boat the worse the problem with our typical PNW temp swings.

Whatever you do - don't give up - find the balance for your boat but do start with as dry a boat as is reasonably possible.

[Mileskb]

Thanks nottingham88

It seems like the sailboat folks have a bit of an advantage with the nice boom than runs the length of the boat to hang a tarp over. I have the WestMarine DryAir in the V-Birth now and it seems to be working but we'll have to have a nice sunny day to really see how well. The dry-ease crystal bucket is still in the v-birth but I don't really know how well it's doing. It has a little water in the bottom a couple times a week, but not much.

I'm thinking about one of those car solar window vents. After-all, the moisture is only really a problem if the sun is out, so that seems like a good match for the cockpit area. I totally agree that you would think the snap closures around the canvas are NOT very air tight... but surprisingly... they are. Not water tight... but they keep the air in... kinda funny how that works.

Keeping water out of the bilge is a religion with me. I have a shallow bilge and the 3/4" of water it takes to get to the bottom of the bilge pump is 5 quarts (I pump it into a bucket, the same amount every time, so I know). I have a piece of pvc tube attached to a little hand pump that I use the pump it dry most every visit. Just takes a minute, but it's annoying to do it. When it rains heavy there are little leaks in the canvas zippers and what blows under the snaps etc... It's really surprising how much water "circulates" through the boat into the bilge.. but I guess that's what it's there for.. Really wish I could find a bilge pump that would pump it dry but that's a different topic..

I'm gonna keep at the fight against condensation. The real key is that whatever I do needs to be as non-intrusive as possible because we still are using the boat. The reason it's at the marina is to make it as "jump on and go" as possible. It's takes about 10-15 minutes to warm the engine up which is plenty of time for safety checks and other prep, so my solution will fit into that timeline.

I did get a giggle about removing the bilge plug... don't think anyone would be happy with that solution and it certainly wouldn't leave anything dry

Thanks again...