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I tried one in my garage and ended up returning it. They work well IF you have plenty of air flow OUT of the garage. Otherwise they just build the humidity to the point they don't really work. They need dry air. They still build humidity to the point your tools will rust. I just use fans now. The guy down the street is a HVAC tech. He set his garage up with AC. If you can afford it, that would be my recommendation. The coolers do work, I just didn't like my tools rusting or cooler maintenance because of the hard water where I live.
If you can just get cross ventilation that helps a bunch but I know what it is to have it so hot and not a lot of air. I am in my garage with the doors open at 61 degrees and it feels so nice to be able to do that as it has been just cold and wet enough that you freeze you fingers (you thought I was going to say *** didn't you?)
For what its worth, my dad runs one of the portable stand alone air conditioners with the flexible venting in his 32' x32' shop in the summer, it vents out the wall through dryer vent he installed. It drains a fairly significant amount of condensation, he used to fill a 5 gallon pail every couple days until he rain the drain directly outside. It takes a while to recover when you have the big door open too long, but on the other hand if you haven't been out in the shop for a couple days it is almost too cool. I think he's into it for less than $400, maybe less than $300. I can't remember.
I tried one in my garage and ended up returning it. They work well IF you have plenty of air flow OUT of the garage. Otherwise they just build the humidity to the point they don't really work. They need dry air. They still build humidity to the point your tools will rust. I just use fans now. The guy down the street is a HVAC tech. He set his garage up with AC. If you can afford it, that would be my recommendation. The coolers do work, I just didn't like my tools rusting or cooler maintenance because of the hard water where I live.
Good advice. At work we run the biggest roll around that NAPA sells plus two roof swamp coolers. If you don't leave the doors open a few inches off the ground it can get pretty muggy in there. Our heat is dry so they work pretty well. We would prefer a HVAC unit if it was feasible.
B
Last edited by Oldb; Mar 6, 2019 at 10:24 PM.
Reason: left out "at work"
I would think that a window mount air conditioner would be a reasonable alternative. If no window, build it into an outside wall. Most garages have an outside wall. I run a dehumidifier in my barn. The water drains via a tube outside. The dehumidifier plus a concrete slab at ground temperature works for me.
My garage is a standard attached two car about 24'x24' in size with a wooden garage door and I've added some fiberglass batt insulation above the ceiling. I use a window mounted AC unit to take the edge off the Florida summer. We moved about three years ago and I had a leftover window shaker that I had used in my master bedroom at the previous house. It was on the small side at 5000btu but it worked well enough to drop the humidity and cool the space. It did take a couple hours to notice a difference but I could supplement it by opening the house door for a bit. I recently traded it to a co-worker for a 13,000 btu unit that barely fits in my window opening and should improve things a lot. I have an old furnace fan that sits on the floor to help move air around also. No real complaints on cooling but I could use more space.
