do dehumidifers work inside cars around 2-5 degrees celcius?

londonTiger

I had a water leak bottle leak in my car. Have about 500ml-1L of water in the car now. Luckkily the mats have absorbed quite a lot of the water and took them out and dried them out but there's still some left on the carpet.

I bought a cheap dehumidfier from asda. it's not an electric one. It uses refil tablets that capture moisture and drip it into a reservoir.

product here: http://direct.asda.com/UniBond-Humidity-Absorber/001232718,default,pd.html

Reviews are good and people are using it for large rooms inside their homes but I'm using it in my car and it's had no effect so far. Maybe there is some damp trapped in the tablet but there's non in the resevoir after 24 hours+ of using it.

I'm wondering whether or not it's too cold in the car and therefore it doesn't get hot enough to evaporate the water to trap it. Or I'm being too impatient and need to ride it out.

Will heating up the car improve the process. Also what would be cheaper for me to do? Run a mains powered heater using an extension from my house or use the cars heater?

Thanks.

wba31

I cant comment on your dehumidifier, but on times i have moisture in the car, i put newspaper (a few sheets) in the footwells (make sure you change it regularly!) and a trick my parents did with their old caravan is to put a bowl with a load of salt in it, and you will find after 24 hours or so that any moisture in the air will appear as water in the bowl of salt...

Strider590

Humidity and heat go hand in hand, as air warms its capacity to hold water increases, thus making it easier to remove.

WestonDave

The cars heater works by diverting radiator water through a coil under the dashboard, so if anything, using it only helps cool the engine better, and you use electricity being generated in the car to run the fans (OK so this might use fractionally more petrol but its impact to run a fan is miniscule). So my advice (which is what I do when the car seems to mist up after lots of wet coats etc have been in it) is to turn the heating up full blast, and when the car starts to feel hotter than is comfortable, open the windows a bit (leaving the heater on). That way you evaporate the water in the car, and swap the damp air for fresh air from outside.

steve-L

londonTiger wrote: »

I had a water leak bottle leak in my car. Have about 500ml-1L of water in the car now. Luckkily the mats have absorbed quite a lot of the water and took them out and dried them out but there's still some left on the carpet.


I'm wondering whether or not it's too cold in the car and therefore it doesn't get hot enough to evaporate the water to trap it. Or I'm being too impatient and need to ride it out.

Will heating up the car improve the process. Also what would be cheaper for me to do? Run a mains powered heater using an extension from my house or use the cars heater?

Thanks.

Use the heat DURING and AFTER a long run.... don't heat separately. As said above.... let it heat above comfortable and then open the windows especially on a dry day....

Incidentally, I once had the same happen and nothing bad happened it will dry out over time....

londonTiger

ok thanks for the replies everyone.

I managed to do it in a roundabout way. the deumidifier has some droplets in the reservvoir, i guess most of the water collected is inside the tablet itself (as its a little damp), it needs to hit a certain critical mass before it drips water into the reservoir.

I have a long 30m extension so I just heat up the car using a fan heater and left 3cm ventilation on a window on the opposite wide of the car. I think it did the trick.

I also bought so cat litter, filled it inside an old sock and left it on top of the damp spot, and it soaked up the water really good too.

londonTiger

steve-L wrote: »

Use the heat DURING and AFTER a long run.... don't heat separately. As said above.... let it heat above comfortable and then open the windows especially on a dry day....

Incidentally, I once had the same happen and nothing bad happened it will dry out over time....

so what does that mean, the heater matrix just heats up regardless of whether you want heat or not? it's just that when you use the heater function it blows air into the cabin through the heater matrix?

Crabman

londonTiger wrote: »

so what does that mean, the heater matrix just heats up regardless of whether you want heat or not? it's just that when you use the heater function it blows air into the cabin through the heater matrix?

When you turn the temperature dial to hot, it allows (hot) water from the engine coolant system to enter the matrix. If there is air blowing through the matrix (the fan or passive air flow if the vehicle is moving) this translates to hot air blowing out of the vents.

If you think of the radiator at the front end of the vehicle, the matrix is effectively a smaller version of that.

forgotmyname

If you leave that in a sealed car for a week or 4 it will remove moisture.

But overnight it will do very very little. Probably just collect the condensation from the side of the tub.

But you will need to empty it before you drive. The solution is very very corrosive. I have several in the caravan whilst stored for the winter.

I used the collected liquid as a weedkiller for the pathways. Works a treat.

reeac

Crabman wrote: »

When you turn the temperature dial to hot, it allows (hot) water from the engine coolant system to enter the matrix. If there is air blowing through the matrix (the fan or passive air flow if the vehicle is moving) this translates to hot air blowing out of the vents.

If you think of the radiator at the front end of the vehicle, the matrix is effectively a smaller version of that.

That used to be the case until about the 1960s but since then the usual syatem is that the hot water flows through the heater matrix all the time and the heater on/off control just diverts air either through or to bypass the matrix. The test is whether, once the engine is warmed up with the heater off [i.e. to "cold"], you get instant hot air when you turn the heater on. With old-style water valve heaters there was a distinct lag before you got any hot air

Crabman

reeac wrote: »

That used to be the case until about the 1960s but since then the usual syatem is that the hot water flows through the heater matrix all the time and the heater on/off control just diverts air either through or to bypass the matrix. The test is whether, once the engine is warmed up with the heater off [i.e. to "cold"], you get instant hot air when you turn the heater on. With old-style water valve heaters there was a distinct lag before you got any hot air

Didn't know that (originally got the info from the Haynes manual ), so when a matrix has failed and is leaking, will it eventually drain the entire volume of the coolant system into the vehicle cabin until it's replaced?

Advice in those circumstances used to be to turn the heater control to cold to stop water flowing through the matrix.