Sprint motor noise solved

[Jeanette Morgan]

A few months ago I posted that our Sprint motors were rather noisey, however, a short time later, because of other things we were storing in our wooden bike shed which felt rather damp, we invested in a dehumidifyer which we run overnight on the low economy electric rate. I'm convinced that this has had a good effect on the motor of the bikes as they have been almost silent for a while now. We live next to the sea so the dehumidifyer collects a fair bit of water so maybe the motor was damp before which caused it to be noisey.

Just thought I'd post this in case it is of help to anyone else.

Kind regards
Jeanette

 

[john]

Those things do use a lot of leccy. Make sure your shed is not too draughty or you will just be drying the outside, or make it more draughty and don't bother with the dehumidifier.

I dry wood which contains many gallons of water simply by putting it in a shed with no walls!

 

[Jeanette Morgan]

Thanks John,

It is a substantially built shed, bit like a chalet rather than a shed. There are no drafts, nor windows, just air vents at a very high level, it is in a very sheltered position built onto the side of our concrete garage. We use the dehumidifyer just for a few hours in the off peak time at night and have not really noticed a hike in the electric bill. We originally did this because some photographs we had in the shed were beginning to deteriorate, however, they are now fine. The effect on the bikes was a bonus. Dampness is a problem in Cornwall in general and as we live a few yards from the sea we are pleased to have found a way to counteract it.

Jeanette

 

[prState]

I wonder if a large plastic tarp would help? Or a large plastic bag that seals (if you could find one). I wouldn't want to make the process harder than running a dehumidifyer though.

 

[Jeremy]

I can completely sympathise with the damp problem, having lived in Cornwall for a good number of years. You learn to live with the fact that the air is always damp; you can't even leave a salt cellar out, as the salt will always be clogged up (unless you put a few grains of rice in it every week or two).

In some other parts of the country a good flow of air will keep things dry, but I suspect that in Jeanette's case this might not help much at all and may make things worse. I rather think that the dehumidifier running in a sealed building might be the most effective, if not the cheapest, way of keeping things dry. I kept a car in one of these once: Welcome to Carcoon Storage Systems the future of car storage and protection It was pretty effective, but I suspect it might still have presented a problem in the dampest Cornwall weather.

Even after having been away from Cornwall for the past 16 years, I still find myself pleasantly surprised that the tools in my shed don't go rusty any more!

Jeremy