Dehumidifiers - large(er) workshop

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Steve.Toscano
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Dehumidifiers - large(er) workshop

Post by Steve.Toscano » Mon Nov 06, 2017 12:08 am

So im about to get the keys to my new workshop and im thinking about dehumidifiers.
Before i talk to the suppliers and possibly get sold a unit too big (expensive) for my requirements i thought i'd ask here to see what you guys who have a larger space are useing? And how your units are copeing?

The main workshop space/room is approx 400 cubic metres, high ceiling, reasonably well sealed from the outside. Located in northern Sydney, so we dont get the extremes here.
I was originally thinking of building a dry room, but would rather avoid the inconvenience of having to store and do glue ups in a seperate space.

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Allen
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Re: Dehumidifiers - large(er) workshop

Post by Allen » Mon Nov 06, 2017 6:48 am

Dry room is the way I do it in Cairns.

I bring out items to work on items out in the workshop, but do glue ups in there. My dry room is 2.5m x 2.5 meters with a 7 foot ceiling. I store enough timber here to build instruments for several years in advance. The rest is stored in my home garage in the general enviroment.

The dry room is an easy space to control the humidity in. There would be no possible way to control it in my workshop without costing a fortune as it's a steel shed with 2 role up doors.

I use a Ausclimate dehumidifier after reading some very good reviews by serveral people. Some even members here. I had one warranty issue and they replaced right away. Service from them was excellent and I decided to buy another just as a spare for the day that this one dies so as not to put my building schedule off.
Allen R. McFarlen
https://www.brguitars.com
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Cairns, Australia

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kiwigeo
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Re: Dehumidifiers - large(er) workshop

Post by kiwigeo » Mon Nov 06, 2017 9:37 am

I was using a dehumidifier in my shop for a few years but after looking at a year's worth of outside humidity records that I could get away with running a small heater during the middle of winter and relying on the well insulated and sealed shop walls and roof to control humidity. The unit I was using was supplied by the outfit mentioned in Allen's post above...it was around a 30L/day unit. One thing to watch is dust build up in these units.....they need dismantling and a good clean out once a year, especially around the compressor fins and pipework.

Mitsubishi make some good large domestic units but for some reason they don't market them here. Theyre available in NZ so if youre tripping to NZ at any stage you could look at buying a second hand one and totting it back with you.
Martin

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Steve.Toscano
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Re: Dehumidifiers - large(er) workshop

Post by Steve.Toscano » Mon Nov 06, 2017 2:09 pm

Thanks gents, as above I strongly prefer not to build a dry room.
Up until now I've gotten away without such as I just store all my timber in my current workshop, the dehumidifier kicks in at 60% to bring down the extremes. When i know im going to do any cross grain glue ups i set the dehumidifier down to 45% the day prior just to be sure.
It rarely gets far above 60 - 65% around here for any longer then a day or 2. So the above method seems to work very well.

I dont think any of the Aus Climate units are going to move anywhere near the volume of air to bring 400 m3 down to ~45%, nor be able to handle the dust in the open workshop.

After some phone calls and research i think im going to get this guy: http://fral.com.au/product/fral-fdnf44- ... s-per-day/
Their sales rep reckons it will handle what i need, he actually talked me down from their larger unit.

I'll report back here how it goes in January.

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kiwigeo
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Re: Dehumidifiers - large(er) workshop

Post by kiwigeo » Mon Nov 06, 2017 5:01 pm

Steve, you're only dropping humidity by a small amount where you are. I really think the units that Allen and myself would handle the job despite your larger room volume. and for half the cost The unit you're looking at is designed for protecting equipment in the tropics where you've got really high humidity for long periods of the year. What's the power consumption of that unit?.....note that even the smaller units use a fair bit of power.
Martin

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