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wrongway john

Well Known Member
We go to great lengths on preventing corrosion on our planes through various metal prep and primer systems, storing our planes in hangars, but I don?t believe there has been much of a discussion on dehumidifiers; at least on the search engines I have tried thus far. Some of the best stored airplanes are out in the desert. Since most of us don?t live there, I was thinking a dehumidifier of some sorts would be a great way to prevent corrosion for many decades.

I wouldn?t want to install a dehumidifier for the entire hangar, but an enclosed chamber that surrounds just the plane itself that is made out of probably foam, and using a much smaller unit in the process that wouldn?t require much on electricity.

Some have told me that a typical small window unit that has air conditioning and heat, would probably be just as effective of taking the moisture out, and they think would use about the same amount of electricity.

What do others suggest? Is it worth it or probably a waste of time? I have read that even the Sahara Desert has an average relative humidity of 25%. Ideally, if one can roughly adjust the humidity in the air, is there an optimum moisture range one would shoot for?
 
If you're sure you want dehumidification, there are quite a few portable units available (see Grainger, etc.). I have one for my house used in a back room where the old AC just doesn't remove moisture adequately. There are other portables set up to discharge into a duct.

If this is what you want, I'd recommend ducting the dry air into the cabin (fresh air inlet) and cowling rather than tenting. I'm thinking the entire cabin, rear fuselage and wings would be purged from the fresh air intake.

But another approach is to simple make sure the protected stuff is always above the dewpoint. For this, you could heat with a lamp or used forced air with an electric heating element.

As a point of reference, my -8 has lived within 20 miles of salt water for it's entire 9 yr, 10 mo yr life. I don't do anything special to protect it except hangar it. The corrosion has been tollerable. I would say the hassle of hooking up heated/DH air each time I moved it over that time would not be worth the amont of corrosion I've sustained.

2 cents
 
Bryan, that gives me a few things to think about. And it definitely makes sense to stay above the dewpoint. I would at least like to have it on during those times. I have moderate humidity where I’m at, but there are a couple of times a year where my concrete floor will sweat, and condensation is on the inside of my metal building even though it is insulated.

I took a quick look at Granger, the one dehumidifier it showed was discontinued that I seen on-line. Also, been reading reviews from some popular models. It seems the lower limit one sets them to is 35%. These are built primarily for people and their comfort zones, and would certainly do wonders, but I figure the humidity levels would be lower with just planes in mind. I would kind of like to have one that would be feed into a duct, I haven’t seen any of those yet, but barely started looking into this. The portable ones I have seen thus far can be bought for around $200.00.

I think I’ll probably go with one, but won’t be getting to serious about it until I’m well under way on my 4.
 
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