Hi all,
I thought I would do a little update on this now that I have tried various scenarios and products to work out what is the best combination to create the optimum conditions for my pride and joy.
The first thing I did was to buy a cheap but accurate digital humidity meter from eBay (£6) and find out what I am dealing with. It turns out that the humidity in the garage without intervention is anything from 85-95%. Initially this had me quite worried, but if you take a step back and consider that the humidity according to Accuweather is 80-90% every time I look, the readings in my underground garage aren’t that surprising.
Now for the different solutions I have tried:
Carcoon only – this was not good, after a few days of running with brand new filters the inside humidity would reach 100% whilst still under 90% outside of the bubble. Obviously this was not good for the car, so I next tried introducing a dehumidifier into the garage.
Carcoon + Dehumidifier – this combination did not surprise, and by running at a target humidity of 60%, it was achieved in the garage BUT it was still staying slightly higher inside the Carcoon. I was not happy with how much I was having to ‘work’ the unit and in turn bump up our electricity bill so the carcoon was sold.
Car covered + Dehumidifier – 60-70% humidity easily achieved, and car storage good but still quite a lot of energy consumption. One more option to try…
Cair-O-Port + Dehumidifer (inside port) – After spotting a bargain on eBay I had to give it a go. As this product is supported by a frame you can drive in and out, access the car from the side panels, and most importantly, at no point does the coarse plastic cover have to touch the car. In terms of humidity control I was shocked. With the unit sealed, not inflated (fans are off as I have to buy a new transformer) and the dehumidifier running inside, the humidity went down to 35% within an hour of running on full wack, something which I could never achieve in the garage no matter how long I ran the unit for in the open garage. This is excessively dry and I worry it might result in dried out interior and perished rubbers, so I have switched to a target of 60%. To maintain this I don’t think the unit has kicked in yet and it definitely hasn’t collected a noticeable amount of water.
I’m that happy with this result that I am tempted to not run the fans at all, though as the transformer is on order (£5 off eBay instead of the £37 Cair-O-Port wanted), I will give it a go and report back. My gut feel is that it will blow in the moist air from outside the sealed area and the dehumidifier will have to start working harder again. I actually believe there isn’t much to gain by constant circulation given the bags that are on the market as a ‘seal and forget solutions’ for long term storage, any thoughts appreciated?
I hope that summary is useful to someone looking at storage options with winter fast approaching. For me, the products which combine a sealed unit and an integrated frame win hands down.
