Garage Dehumidifier Recommendations-Suggestions for a Permeant Installation

[Haasman]

I live in a relatively high average humidity area for two thirds of the year. Summers are quite dry.

I have been running portable dehumidifier, and excellent one if anyone is interested: Frigidaire FAD704DWD Energy Star 70-pint Dehumidifier

My objective is to find a small fixed installed unit. Since the weather sealing is quite good in my garage I simply want to cut out the highs in the moist times of year. AND I don't want to overly dry the air since that can also do damage to leather and other materials of these great cars.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Phil Planck]

Try to find one that remembers it's settings if there is a power loss. Mine will not restart until I manually do it.

[sithot]

Interesting timing. I've gotten quotes from two different HVAC firms to do my building.
The only one, thus far, who has addressed a real dehumidifier setup came in at $16,000. It was a centrally ducted system (no runs) using a heat pump in conjunction with a dehumidifier. The jury is out although I know this contractor is familiar with climate/humidity control as one of his customers has a pretty substantial car collection that he built a system for.

I also got a quote from a firm that sells industrial style dehumidifiers. They suggested using 4 of these which looks like over-kill.
http://ebacusa.com/downloads/brochures/WM150.pdf They are about $2,100 each.

Link for commercial style units.
https://www.google.com/search?q=Wall...difier&imgrc=_

Good luck.

[RSTarga]

Air Conditioners are the best dehumidifiers.
Get a wall mounted split unit for your garage.

[Haasman]

Maybe an AC unit does make the most sense ....

[RSTarga]

Just make sure to undersize it to maximize dehumidification

[tomh]

As an HVAC contractor myself. I would recommend you speak with your local Contractor about what we call Mini Split systems, these are as the name suggests split systems with an exterior condenser in either straight cooling or a heat pump tied to the indoor unit which can be either a wall or ceiling mounted cassette. They are available in single head (cassette) or multi head where you can use multiple heads in larger spaces or spaces that might be divided.
You also now have these same types systems in what is known as VRF or variable refrigerant flow which allows the system to either heat or cool in different areas of the space at the same time.
As different climate conditions exist your building conditions and what level of conditioning you are trying to achieve needs to be run by either a qualified HVAC contractor at the least but if your collection is of the size and value that indoor temps and humidity levels are critical I WOULD spend the $s and talk with a Mechanical Engineer to size your system.
Good luck with this!
Oh and I have a single head 9000 BTU mini split in 960 sq. ft. Where I maintain 60 in the winter, 82 at 48%RH. Located in Eastern Nebraska!

[Richardnew]

Here's an article I wrote about collector car storage.

A/C is the way to go.

State-of-the-Art-Ducted-Heating-System.jpg

Stability is the big deal. In a perfect world your garage should never be above 70-degrees. Humidity should be between 40% and 50%. If you get blow 40% you could dry out the leather.

eb5512136b2cb1d085115cdf9123d807.gif

You should also monitor all of this. Do a search on Amazon.com.

Richard Newton

[62S-R-S]

Adventures in garage moisture in my case involved the famous 'sump pump' that often sits in the corner... It can be the worst thing when a storm hits. Odd thing was seeing it pump > over a gal per 6 sec intervals. Spring of '08 brought sudden hard rain and power out...soon power came back, with clear blue skies and sun ! Downstairs a state of shock occurred at the small lake that formed.

Most sumps deal with small amounts of water, and pose no real threat. I decided to remove and trench down the side of the garage, finishing 12 ft out to the yard downhill. A bigger project was excavating the hill facing the home to the footer, to install an 'exterior drain' to channel water to the street. Most homes are now built with it.

The Dehumidifier system in place - Sears and Roebuck '71 model.

Just don't overlook the lake scenario. . . . .which can test your will to survive.

[tomh]

Richard,
I can completely agree with your humidity level statement, but what you said about the Temperature never being above 70 degrees in a perfect world is a bit of a stretch. That temperature is cooler in the summer than what design temperatures are for your house, office, church, or all most any other space other than a food storage enviroment. There are a number of high end car storage spaces around this part of the world and I have never seen any under 75 degrees in the summer when it is 95 to 100 and 75% relative humidity outdoors with no issues involving the cars.
The perfect world scenario just is not reality in most cases and if you have a Boss that comes out to the man cave and it is 70 degrees in there I for one would be looking to put a new sofa sleeper next to the 911!
I like the duct sox in the photo, nice product and is very quiet!