Water Everywhere...

[DaleB]

Originally Posted by scsmith

Tools? Just imagine what your camshaft looks like.

Boy, you're just a little ray of sunshine, aintcha? But the OP has a Rotax, so it's not as big of a problem as it could be.

[BillL]

Originally Posted by rv7charlie

I know it wasn't funny to you, but it's pretty funny to anyone living in the deep south to hear someone complaining about that. :-)

Humidity above 80% is almost the norm down here, and 30 degree daily temp swings are common. Everything metal in my hangar is wet almost every morning, except in the coldest and hottest weather. I have a tractor parked inside the hangar, and there are large puddles of water under both rear tires every morning (lots of chilled mass in the water in the back tires, so they 'sweat' like a tall glass of iced tea).

Like Dale said....

We had the deep freeze with -20/25F then 4 days later it was 50F. I'm pretty sure the air came from Mississippi (maybe Alabama). Thanks, we needed it.

Lucky I heated the hangar as soon as it began warming outside.

[TShort]

We have the same problem here in Indy in the uninsulated steel T-hangars.

A buddy at the airport has a polished Hummel (OSH ultralight champion from a few years back) that was getting water spots.

He put a big ceiling fan in the hangar to circulate air; this week when we had all the temp swings there wasn't a drop on the airplane.

My hangars in the same building were wet.

Might be something to try, cheap solution.

[Pilot135pd]

Same thing happened to me a few days ago when the cold front came through and humidity was very high.

I just turned on a floor fan pointing at my plane and opened one of the hangar doors. In less than 30 minutes of air movement the plane was dry and everything around it too.

[spatsch]

I wish I had a heated hanger... . Without that I keep a floor fan running all fall and in particular spring. That seems to prevent any noticeable water condensation.

Cheap fan lasts about 3 years before the bearings go.

Also wouldn?t put any covers on in the hanger. They just keep the moister longer at the airplane.... .

[tgmillso]

If you have one, DON'T open the door. As rocketbob pointed out hot air can hold more grams of water per cubic meter than cold air, so when you get a hot stream of air blowing in from the south, it's carrying a boatload of water. When it passes by a cold object, the air in the vacinity of that cold soaked object cools down and the air no longer has the energy to hold all water it currently has, so it essentially "rains" on the objets. This is no different to what happens when warm moist air gets blown up the side of a mountain, cools with elevation, then forms clouds and rains at the top.

The best way to stop it is to not open the door until the internal temperature of the hangar is above the dew point temperature of the air outside. Instead let the hangar warm through conduction with the outside, or start a heater inside if you want to accelerate the process. I spend 3 years building with no corrosion on anything, because if these types of conditions occurred I would keep the door closed. This year some builders were using the hangar with my plane and tools parked in it. They would open the door at about 8am in the spring. Everything in the hangar was cool, the air was warm and moist because the sun had been on the grass for two hours, so as soon as they opened the door, boom, corrosion on my steel tools. No, scsmith, my engine isn't corroded as it is sealed and has a circulating air drier, but it was amazing how quickly my steel tools corroded.
If you haven't got a hangar door, then life is a little tougher. I guess just seal the plane in every exposed cavity as best you can.

Tom.
RV-7 and some some rusty tools.

[Ron B.]

I'm not telling anyone what to do but just what has worked for me. My hangar is usually heated and well insulated so as of yet I have had no problems with it (15 years). I have another insulated building , wood structure 30 X 40 with 10 ft. ceiling and no heat that I keep a tractor and associated equipment in. I had the same problem discussed here. I installed a wind driven roof fan and opened up the ceiling hatch allowing the fan to draw air from the eave vents into the building and up and out at the opposite end of the building.
I would estimate it improved inside condensation by 75%. I feel that the air temperature inside the building stays closer to the outside air temperature. Drawing the air from the attic so to say, probably draws in warmer air (heated from the black roof) which allows the air traveling through to absorb some moisture. I do see condensation on occasion but no where near what it use to be.