Where I live we have very humid winters and springs. Humidity often ranges around 80 - 100% with lots of fog during these seasons.
Of course the humid outside air will enter the garages eventually as well .
Rust can start at a relative humidity level of 50% - mold and mildew can start growing on the interior at about 60% humidity. Humidity under 50% will dry out plastic, leather and rubber...
Corrosion is not good for a car - it will also attack electric connectors and switches and eat your sheet metal from the inside where it is not protected...

To protect my cars and those who have rented space in my garage, I decided to use dehumidifiers to keep humidity low inside the garages.
Without using them I would have about 75 - 80% humidity during winter storage. As our winters are very long the cars would have to suffer for about 7 months a year.

For the new garage I now got a new dehumidifier.
I invested in a really big and powerful one which even works at very low temperatures. It drains the condensation into a built in tank and I collect this pure water in a bigger container. This pure water is excellent for washing cars, as there are no minerals inside which could leave stains on the paint.

It automatically controls relative humidity and keeps it around 50% all year round. At very humid days the dehumidifier comes on for about 4-5 hours during a day - keeping energy costs at a reasonable level...
So I know that all cars inside the garage are safe and will stay "fresh" during hibernation.
I can really recommend these dehumidifiers for your garage as well - grab a hygrometer and check whats going on in your garage!

The new dehumidifier in the garage. I´m using the FRAL Superdryer 62 - which is a heavy duty professional unit with the right power for the size of my garage.

Tags:Garage, Dehumidifier