Best way to dry out a damp car?
Discussion
Electric fan heater, with the windows open about 1 inch. Be *careful* where you site the fan heater, you need at least 1 metre between the blown air and any seats/dash. Driver footwell with the seat pushed back, boot with the seats down are all good.
The dehumidifiers dont work terribly well in my experience. You need heat in this weather, and lots of airflow.
I used to drive a T-Top with the glass out all the time, and used to get rather wet on a regular basis !
The dehumidifiers dont work terribly well in my experience. You need heat in this weather, and lots of airflow.
I used to drive a T-Top with the glass out all the time, and used to get rather wet on a regular basis !
ExPat2B said:
Electric fan heater, with the windows open about 1 inch. Be *careful* where you site the fan heater, you need at least 1 metre between the blown air and any seats/dash. Driver footwell with the seat pushed back, boot with the seats down are all good.
The dehumidifiers dont work terribly well in my experience. You need heat in this weather, and lots of airflow.
I used to drive a T-Top with the glass out all the time, and used to get rather wet on a regular basis !
True for a dehumidifier to work it needs to be humid not wet, good on a hot day but not very good in this weather.The dehumidifiers dont work terribly well in my experience. You need heat in this weather, and lots of airflow.
I used to drive a T-Top with the glass out all the time, and used to get rather wet on a regular basis !
A fan heater and a dehumidifier at the same time would work wonders.
Orb the Impaler said:
Eddh said:
I have recently picked up a car that is rather damp on the inside as it had been stood for a while. Does anyone have any top tips for drying the car out?
Take it back to the TVR dealer that you got it from and ask them; they're experts 
Its a CRX 
ETA: (another one)
Edited by Eddh on Wednesday 11th February 16:05
Eddh said:
Orb the Impaler said:
Eddh said:
I have recently picked up a car that is rather damp on the inside as it had been stood for a while. Does anyone have any top tips for drying the car out?
Take it back to the TVR dealer that you got it from and ask them; they're experts Its a CRX ETA: (another one)
Edited by Eddh on Wednesday 11th February 16:05
reaper668 said:
I've used one of these before, pretty good, just remember to empty it out as it gets pretty full of water.
Hi - most people's experience of dehumidifiers is of the compressor / refrigerant type that are not effective in temperatures below around 15 degrees celsius. I doubt many people's garages are this warm in the winter - I know mine isn't. For cooler conditions go for a desiccant dehumidifier as they are effective irrespective of temperature. I have a Prem-I-Air DD122FW desiccant dehumidifier which is a 7 litre per day capacity. I leave it in the garage with the humidistat set on high and it regulates the humidity automatically. I leave the windows on my '91 merc 500sl slightly open when in the garage and the inside ot the car is kept completely dry. In addition, the beauty of the desiccant units is that they can get the humidity level down to 40% humidity which is below the rusting point of metal - the compressor units won't get the humidity lower tahn 50% which is around the rusting point of metal. I bought mine from aircon247.com and found the guys there really helpful and the dehumidifer arrived the next day. Incidentally the dehumidifier I have as been rated top out of five tested in December 2009 Practical Boat Owner maagazine which is reassuring - it draw twice as much moisture as the next best unit.
Here's what I just did,
Accidentally left window down overnight during a storm leaving the inside of my car completely soaked. After soaking up as much water as possible with towels I got a bag of silica cat litter from Waitrose, it's the easiest way I found to get a large bag of silica gel for £4. Fill a plastic tub up with the stuff and microwaved it on LOW POWER setting for 15 minutes to totally dry it out. I used a tub that was only just small enough to fit in the microwave, it doesn't have to be able to turn around. (Important: make sure you have microwave on low or it will probably burn and make a mess!). Then put it in your car overnight. After one night the car was much drier and the box of silca was noticeably heavier, having soaked up a lot of water. So I repeated the process and after the second attempt the inside of the car was completely bone dry. Considering it is December and cold and wet outside I thought this worked really well!
Accidentally left window down overnight during a storm leaving the inside of my car completely soaked. After soaking up as much water as possible with towels I got a bag of silica cat litter from Waitrose, it's the easiest way I found to get a large bag of silica gel for £4. Fill a plastic tub up with the stuff and microwaved it on LOW POWER setting for 15 minutes to totally dry it out. I used a tub that was only just small enough to fit in the microwave, it doesn't have to be able to turn around. (Important: make sure you have microwave on low or it will probably burn and make a mess!). Then put it in your car overnight. After one night the car was much drier and the box of silca was noticeably heavier, having soaked up a lot of water. So I repeated the process and after the second attempt the inside of the car was completely bone dry. Considering it is December and cold and wet outside I thought this worked really well!
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff