Dehumidifier in Keezer ?

[SEndorf]

I have a 14.8 Cubic foot keezer, temp controlled at 38 F. Sits in the garage and with this humidity lately it's soaking wet inside. Water literally drips from the lid.
I found this compact dehumidifier that is rated down to 31 F.
I know all dehumidifiers exhaust a small amount of heat. I'm wondering if the heat output is negligible and would not interfere with the cooling.
Anyone with experience?

 

[3 Dawg Night]

I have one of these in my mini-fridge fermentation chamber. It requires no electricity (therefore producing no heat) while it's working. Once it's saturated, you plug it in and it heats to recharge itself in a couple of hours. I would think you'd need several for a keezer, especially with the amount of moisture you're dealing with. Of course, you could buy nine of them for the price of the one you linked.

If it were me, I'd try the cheaper solution first. Then again, that's probably why I always end up with two of everything: what I buy to be cheap, and what I should have bought in the first place.

 

[AzOr]

I have one of these that I used to run in an old camper I had.
Eva Dehumidifier
It's sorta in the middle of the two above solutions. It worked great for my camper and since I no longer own the camper, I'm gonna move it to my keezer. I also have the "rechargeable" eva humidifiers that I keep in my camping gear bins. They work great but ime, not in an area that gets a lot of humidity.

I just got my keezer back from using it as a backup covid freezer. I'm also thinking of placing a small fan in there as well. We'll see how just the petite dehumidifier works in there.

 

[SEndorf]

If it were me, I'd try the cheaper solution first. Then again, that's probably why I always end up with two of everything: what I buy to be cheap, and what I should have bought in the first place.

We think alike.
You have the Eva-Dry 500. I currently have the Eva-Dry 1100, which needs to be plugged in. It's not working and ices up at 38 F. Most dehumidifiers will not work under around 41-42 F
The one I linked will fit on my hump and attach a drain hose.

 

[SEndorf]

Thanks AzOr. I just posted when you did. You have the same model I have. It ices up and doesn't work in my Keezer !

 

[Mtrhdltd]

I use silica gel in my kegerator and it works great. Just bake in the oven to refresh. I've never had dripping water without it though.

 

[AzOr]

Thanks AzOr. I just posted when you did. You have the same model I have. It ices up and doesn't work in my Keezer !

Thanks for info. I had no idea that it would ice over. It’s main duty has been trying to dry out an old smelly camper (which it did well).

 

[day_trippr]

I have a 14.8 Cubic foot keezer, temp controlled at 38 F. Sits in the garage and with this humidity lately it's soaking wet inside. Water literally drips from the lid. I found this compact dehumidifier that is rated down to 31 F.
I know all dehumidifiers exhaust a small amount of heat. I'm wondering if the heat output is negligible and would not interfere with the cooling.
Anyone with experience?

I have no experience with powered dehumidifiers inside keezers or kegerators, but that particular unit consumes up to 470 watts at full speed, and 280 watts at slow speed - HUGE numbers for something sitting inside a cabinet. I would expect that to cause excessive compressor cycling. For perspective, the reptile heat bulbs I use in my ferm chambers are only 40 watts and can hold them into the 80s°F even in winter.

fwiw, I use a pair of EVA Dry 500s inside my keezer with 40mm fans attached to drive air into them. They can pull almost a cup of water out over time and are reasonably effective with the fans (without the fans they are pretty much non-functional, imo)...

Cheers!

 

[SEndorf]

I have no experience with powered dehumidifiers inside keezers or kegerators, but that particular unit consumes up to 470 watts at full speed, and 280 watts at slow speed - HUGE numbers for something sitting inside a cabinet. I would expect that to cause excessive compressor cycling.

Thanks for the response D T .
If you could dumb that down for this old coot... do I take that to mean the high wattage would create too much heat, and in turn create excessive compressor cycling?

 

[day_trippr]

Don't sell yourself short - you got it perfectly
Yes, that's a lot of heat output, even at the low setting. It's definitely going to cause a compressor to cycle more frequently. Whether it would be excessive is the open question...

Cheers!

 

[SEndorf]

The amount of moisture in the keezer requires some type of resolution. I'm inclined to try it and monitor the compressor activity. It's admittedly a splurge, but I've done nothing and spent nothing during these last 5 months of isolation, so I'm trying to justify this purchase....

 

[day_trippr]

There are smaller Peltier-driven dehumidifiers available, fwiw. The smallest line-powered EVA Dry model only yaks up 23 watts worth of BTUs.
That said, I don't know how well any of these work in the cold, so it'll be interesting to see how you make out...

Cheers!

 

[SEndorf]

It seems the problem with any power driven dehumidifier, is that the majority of them don't work under 42 F.
This one caught my eye at 33 F. Perhaps another solution would be to ramp my temp controller up from 38F to 43 F.
Ugh... I hate warm beer...….

 

[Maxkling]

I live in one of the most humid places, I have battled this before.

The seal was the biggest issue.

Honestly if I had it set that low the condensation would actually stay “frozen” around the top. My biggest issue was at the 60-70 range. I tried damp rid, fans, everything. I found that I would check it every few days anyways, so I kept a towel close by and gave it a quick wipe down. Once I got a good seal (45 lb weight on top) and just left it alone it wasn’t bad. At one point I kept a towel in the bottom to absorb all the moisture. Now all it needs is a quick wipe down every now and the.

 

[RedEagle]

I use the EvaDry-500 in my 7cu ft Keezer with no issues. Recharge it about once a month.

 

[Brewbuzzard]

I think the problem is the lid gasket. I had the same problem with my old stand up freezer. I replaced the door gasket and problem solved. If no moist air can enter there is nothing to condense. IMO

 

[Redpappy]

I have a 5.2 QFT keezer with a 8” collar. I use the EvaDry 333 with it. Seems to keep it dry. I pull it out about every 3 weeks, to dry it out.

 

[Curtis K.]

SEndorf, I have one of those upright dehumidifiers linked in your first post, but we in NorCal haven't made it into our wet and humid season since I got it - we are still dry and on fire.

I got it to use in my keezer because of the low temp usability - it uses a desiccant like the rechargeable units and has its own built-in heater. You can add a drain hose, which I plan to drop out the drain hole in my keezer (I think I have some hose that will fit perfect and seal the drain tight too).

I have had it running in the spare bathroom where we hang-dry clothes with the window closed due to smoke from the fires. It works well, but does put out a lot of heat. I makes odd mechanical noise when it is drying out (and I think tumbling) the desiccant that made me think I had a faulty unit at first. I think it will be worth using in my keezer despite the heat output.

I too have one of the ones like in AzOr's post - it works great in a closet, but not in my keezer...

 

[LTBrewer]

I second the lid gasket. Are you battling moisture in or outside of the freezer? Even a 10-15 differential on the lid/gasket is going to condense moisture when it's 65+ humidity. I'm not battling your whole problem but in Fl I have 90% humidity almost daily all summer. I bought a good size humidifier to dry out the house in the winter when the central AC is not running, and in the summer, I put it out in the garage. When I'm done going in and out for the day, I'll turn it on for an hour or so at night to suck about a gallon of water out of the air. I've got some more insulation to do, and might not be the most efficient set up, but at least my tools aren't rusting just sitting there anymore. I think I would try to get some of the moisture out of the surrounding area, and then try a couple of those eva driers inside the box, as well as finding and taking care of heat leaks. Go around your box with a laser thermometer, you'll find them.

 

[SEndorf]

Thanks for all the replies.
I think I'll try some non-electric eva dryers first, and see about shoring up that gasket.