Hi All,
Been thinking about various ways to take care of my car during the winter, seeing as it's my daily driver (& especially with all the salt about). A couple of people have suggested running dehumidifiers in the garage to help dry out the car / prevent condensation.

Does anyone do this at the moment? If so, can anyone recommend a good dehumidifier to buy?

Had a look at the search but nothing really relevant seemed to come up!

Cheers

 

What is the specific concern? Condensation in the car??

I drive mine all weathers, stick it in the garage, and leave it

 

Nah, just prolonging the life of the bodywork, exhaust, etc.
After tucking the car away just before Christmas I only had the chance to give it a quick one-over with the hose (no comments!!! So it's been sitting in there slightly damp ever since. With the amount of salt it must've picked up in the preceding weeks I reckoned it might help prevent corrosion from moisture staying where it shouldn't, if I was able to dry things out properly.

 

Just type it in Google then!

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=gar...yUK%7CcountryGB

 

I think P 1 (Clicky) does. If so, he's the only one I know of who does it with the S (or he might still have an old MG he does it with IIRC)

 

Never heard of anyone trying to dehumidify a garage - seems a bit pointless to me as most garages aren't sealed, are they - bit like trying to dehumidify the planet? Cars put/stored in big inflated plastic bags and dehumidified would be a different matter, but that's a tad inconvenient for a daily driver, especially one that wasn't built in Italy

I would have thought the best thing would be to Zymol it and let the protective finish do the rest. My car is 8+ years old, is driven all year round, is garaged and doesn't have any rust yet

 

Absolutely.

 

The best way to avoid condensation is warmth and ventilation, and insulation as appropriate. I guess that most integral garages should have sufficient of these factors so a not to be detrimental to the car. A prefabricated or other structure away from the house may not achieve the same properties so drylining or other insulation would help to increase the ambient temperature and therefore reduce the liklihood of condensation.

 

Dont think modern cars really need it. As said above a good protective wax plus grease up the bushes and seals.

Mind you a de-humidifier is good for producing distilled water

 

Better to chill it down a bit.
After all it won't rust below freezing

Worst thing to do with a car that's been in freezing conditions is park it in a nice warm garage. The ice melts and the corrosion starts...