Do Dehumidifiers Work in Garages?

Garages are a crucial part of any house that is not only a space for vehicles and tools but also holds different hardware. It is used as storage space for ladders, paint, and other hardware. As a result, owners of houses can sleep peacefully knowing that their cars and hardware are safe. But the fact is unlike the inside of any house, garages suffer from humidity more due to proper ventilation. This high humidity attracts all sorts of pests, mold, and mildew, which lead to rust and corrode your expensive cars and other instruments.

In that case, using a dehumidifier in your garage is an excellent way to control the high humidity. This appliance helps remove excess humidity that causes mold, rusting, and mildew. Read this context to know more about using a dehumidifier in the garage.

Why You May Need a Dehumidifier in Your Garage

Garages contain high humidity due to a lack of proper ventilation systems. This is because garage walls are not well-ventilated for security reasons. As a result, high humidity promotes the growth of airborne allergens like mold spores and dust mites. Besides, excess moisture in the air of your garage leads to condensation. When this moisture contracts with a cold object, it turns into water droplets and lays the groundwork for potentially serious issues. These water droplets can cause damage to your garage foundation as well as tools, vehicles, and storage. Besides, high humidity and condensation lead to sweating floors that are extremely slippery and annoying. To get rid of this worse situation, using a dehumidifier will help you control your garage’s moisture level. According to garage dehumidifier reviews, a dehumidifier is the most efficient method to deal with high humidity to prevent condensation and mold. This will help keep moisture levels under control, so mold spores do not grow.

When Do You Need a Dehumidifier in Your Garage?

Before purchasing a dehumidifier, you should know whether you need one for your garage. Below we have demonstrated some signs that will help you know that you need a dehumidifier.

Mold and Musty Odors

Check every corner of your garage to determine whether new mold growths are popping up. Usually, mold grows in corners and near windows, where condensation accumulates. If you find something dark spot or fungal that is different in color in your garage, it means molds are growing. Besides, musty odors are another sign of mold growth.

Water Damage and Excessive Condensation

When your garage accumulates high moisture from the air, it will lead to condensation. Condensation can boost the growth of mold and fungus. Also, excessive water in your garage creates wet and leaky places everywhere. Your vehicles can also be damaged by high condensation that can be pretty expensive to replace.

Allergy Flare-Ups

Allergies make it impossible to spend time in the garage for anyone. This could indicate insect breeding or the presence of mold and mildew. Using a dehumidifier in your garage, you can control the moisture level so that mold and mildew don’t grow due to humidity.

Rotting Wood

Insects, especially termites, are usually attracted to wet, perishable wood due to excess moisture in the air. If you find any wood in your garage that is turning color and starting to crack, the humidity level of your garage is high. That means you need to control the moisture level immediately.

Do Dehumidifiers Work in Garages?

Dehumidifiers are a crucial device in every home to control moisture levels. It helps to keep the air inside your home dry and comfortable. This appliance is a good solution when controlling high humidity in the garage. The garage is a well-sealed room, and often regulating temperature is not very good. This is because garages are usually designed without windows, other outlets. For that, garages do not naturally promote proper ventilation. In that case, using a dehumidifier will help you control the garage’s moisture. It helps transform wet air into dry, warm, and water-free air.

Reasons for High Moisture in a Garage

A garage is usually designed to store vehicles as well as different types of hardware. It was not designed for human habitation. For that, garages don’t keep any windows for proper airflow. As a result, the air inside the garage becomes humid. When the humidity level becomes high, moisture builds up on walls and floors over time. If humidity is not mitigated on time, the built moisture can lead to serious damage to vehicles along with wood flooring and drywall. If you find your garage has condensation on the floor, standing water on the floor, or evidence of mold in walls or ceilings, it means your garage humidity is high.

Will a Dehumidifier Work in a Cold Garage?

A dehumidifier is an excellent device to prevent excess humidity inside your garage. It assists in controlling the growth of fungi, mold, and corrosion. But all dehumidifiers do not work properly efficiently, especially if the garage is cold.  When you use the right dehumidifier, it will undoubtedly help control your garage’s humidity level. But if you pick the wrong one, you will just be racking up on electricity without reducing the control humidity level. Every garage dehumidifier has its own minimum operating temperature. If you use a dehumidifier under the temperature range in a cold garage, it will consequently freeze the coils.

Different Types of Garage Dehumidifiers

A garage is usually a large and open nature place, so all dehumidifiers will not work properly in that place. You will find different types of dehumidifiers specially designed for use in the garage. This section shows the two most common types of dehumidifiers in garages.

Ventilator Style Dehumidifiers

Typically, a heat pump-style dehumidifier only removes moist air from your garage. But a ventilator-style dehumidifier focuses on exchanging your indoor garage air with fresh air. This type of dehumidifier is usually mounted on the garage wall and uses fans to draw air for expelling outside. Ventilator-style dehumidifiers have the same effect, like opening the garage door to let in the fresh air.

Desiccant Dehumidifiers

This type of dehumidifier uses a chemical product like silica gel to make the air moisture-free. Although some desiccant dehumidifiers are equipped with fans, most don’t require electricity. Desiccant dehumidifiers absorb moisture from air until the chemical product becomes saturated. When the product is saturated, you either have to recharge or replace it.

How Do Garage Dehumidifiers Work?

Garage dehumidifiers are heat pump-style appliances. They use the refrigeration cycle principle as an air conditioner. Basically, the garage dehumidifier has a fan to draw air into the appliance from your garage indoor. Then a washable filter collects dirt, dust, and debris from the air when the drawn air passes through the dehumidifier. Besides, the drawn air flows over the extremely cold evaporator coils. As a result, when any warm and moist air contacts them, it instantly condenses, and the coils retain depositing moisture. As a result, water droplets start flowing into a collection pan from the coils. Afterward, the water drains into a collection tank or is ejected via a drain hose by an internal pump.

How to Choose the Suitable Dehumidifier for Garage

There are several types of dehumidifiers you will find on both online and offline markets. But not all of them properly work in your garage. For your convenience, below, we have illustrated how you can pick the right garage dehumidifier.

Coverage Area

Before buying a dehumidifier, make sure it will offer adequate coverage for the size of your garage. A small dehumidifier will work efficiently in a small room with lower humidity levels. But for a larger room with high humidity, you will need a powerful dehumidifier.

Drainage

Every dehumidifier has a collection tank where the water is accumulated. Usually, garage humidifiers have a one or two-gallon capacity in the water tank which means you have to empty the tank many times a day. Having a large water tank or continuous drainage option is good for any garage.

Low-Temperature Operation

Sometimes garages are uninsulated, like the outside temperature during the winter. Unfortunately, markets are flooded with different dehumidifiers that cannot function at low temperatures. Choosing one that can run at low temperatures like 33 degrees Fahrenheit would be wise.

Energy Efficiency

Garage dehumidifiers function on the same principle as air conditioners. That means they can actually use quite a lot of energy to operate. Choosing energy-efficient dehumidifiers will ensure it will not be costly to run. Before getting one, check the energy star certification to know whether the dehumidifier operates efficiently.

Conclusion

After reading this context, you might have understood whether dehumidifiers really work or not. Typically, dehumidifiers are great devices to control the humidity level of your garage. This will help you to prolong the life of everything you store in your garage. Keeping your garage humidity under control also helps prevent damp conditions that cause mold. There are numerous more causes why you should have a dehumidifier for your garage. However, not all dehumidifiers will work perfectly in places with no proper ventilation, like in garages. For that, you have to choose the right one following the mentioned things discussed above.