Dehumidifier help please...

[RNC725]

I've been given the West Marine Dehumidifier and plan to use it. We keep our boat in the water year round, temps do drop down in the teens a few times in the winter. I also have a small space heater that I keep near the engine which kicks on at 38 degrees.

1. Do these humidifiers work? How well?
2. Where should I place it, it does get warm, so on the couchm quarter-berth, the cabin sole, table?

All thoughts, suggestions, reviews and advice are welcome. We live in central Georgia and keep her in freshwater.

[Faster]

We've been running a dehumidifier on the boat for several seasons now.. we tried on of the small ones like those available at WM but it proved unreliable and not so effective here on the Wet Coast.

Now we use a midsized Sears model, about a 15 litre (4 gal) reservoir. It's a bit bulky but works very well, we keep it at 50% and paper is crisp at all times. We move it to the car for daysails and home for summer trips. In winter we do keep a bit of heat on because these types of deH's should not be allowed to freeze up (they are just chillers, after all) At 38 F you may find yourself on the edge of effectiveness with the smaller ones. We keep our cabin at about 10-12 C in the colder times.

Many of these deH's can be set up to drain into a sink rather than collect the water in a tank.. in that case leaving it on the galley counter may work well. We find that the reservoir fills quickly initially, but once the boat's environment stabilizes the collected moisture tapers off.

When it's not really cold the waste heat from the device is enough to keep things from getting too cold (that may not be true of the little ones)

[MarkSailor]

I have been using a counter-top model dehumidifier for the last six months in a very humid environment. I have set it up to drain into the sink. Because it is sitting on a formica counter-top, heat has never been an issue. In theory, wherever you put the de-humidifier the air should be equally humid or dry, so the only location issue would be heat or leaks. Since I started using the dehumidifier my bilge is dry between sails, and the boat seems less musty. I would heartily recommend using a dehumidifier if you have a/c power to run it while you are away from the boat.

[CarolynShearlock]

The biggest issue that I know of with dehumidifiers is getting one that will re-start on its own after a power failure. Most won't -- so someone has to go to the boat and turn it back on. The one that friends had that WOULD re-start is, of course, no longer being made -- but there are probably others that do.

[stevensuf]

yeah most wont restart after a power failure, pain in the a%%