Stink Fish Pot, I hope you find them and I hope they work for you. In answer to your question, no, I just used the product previously and thought it might be useful for you, too. I don’t get a kickback and TSD probably doesn’t, either. If they do, I’m sure someone will chime in to say so.
Re my experience with the product, I live in a wet area and was frequently putting wet clothes away in a walk-in closet. I noticed a slight mildew problem in the closet as a result and used the dehumidifiers to collect up the excess moisture. They worked well for me and I no longer have mildew. My application is different to yours and they don’t collect tons of water in my situation, but I replace them every 2-3 months just to keep them fresh. There is always some water in the collection area.
This looks to be about the same thing as what Aspenglow suggested but just wanted to let you know that I used this product in my car with good results: No Damp Dehumidifier | West Marine. Something like this should be easy to find at any marine supply store.
Or you could try your nearest Dollar store. Some seem to have them, and they look very similar to these ones that I get two for £1, and which work pretty well.
Decided that this was important enough to bump, since I believe I figured out the cause if the moisture in my car, and since solving THAT PROBLEM, I don’t have any inside moisture any longer. Since a number of folks in this thread had the same problem I had, I thought I’d share what I found.
My driver’s side window regulator was making a bad, clicking noise. In my particular car, this is a known problem, and a number of DIY’s exist out there walk you through a pretty easy fix if you are comfortable with working on your car.
In any event, once I pulled my door panel away from the door itself, I exposed a number of things I needed to move out of the way to check to see if the window regulator was actually the problem (it was). The first thing I noticed was my air bag. Once I removed that, there is a thin piece of black foam called a “vapor barrier” that covers the entire interior of the door. This, if sealed properly, will keep the car sealed from the outside moisture, which can come in via the window, or the drain holes at the bottom of the window. It is moisture/condensation, not flooding. My vapor barrier was never sealed at the bottom, and it looked like it had been that way for a long time (it either came from the factory this way, or it was not replaced properly by the dealer from a recall I had on my airbag.)
In any event, once I figured this out, I sealed it and have had zero problems since. I don’t know if this will solve everyone’s problem, obviously, but it sure made sense when I realized what was going on there.
There is a very sticky, black material that must be heated to make it pliable… Once heated, you can press the vapor barrier into the black gasket-like material and it will seal the large opening in the door panel in place. No more interior water vapor!
In my experience mechanics rarely replace or re-seal the vapour barrier in doors after cutting through it to repair the internal mechanism. If you are lucky they will use duct tape, but more often, nothing at all.
Manufacturers wouldn’t fit it if it wasn’t needed - they want to shave every penny they can off production costs and it is something most owners will never even be aware of.
That said - running the A/C every morning in winter to clear the windscreen is good practice.
Turning on the A/C with temperature set to hot is also a good idea if you have cold, wet people in a car, as it dries much better than just the heater.
I was going to say you’d have to ask whoever bought my station wagon. See, there was this goat and a vet-administered IV just prior to loading said caprine in said car and, well, over a year later, my non-air conditioned car became very aromatic and the windows still fogged up in warm weather.
Today was the first day I had to scrape my windshield because of the cold temps.
Last year, I had to scrape the inside of my car’s windshiled, and wipe everything down with a towel. This morning, nothing!
Amazing what an intact vapor barrier will actually do if it is installed as designed.
I had no idea it wasn’t installed properly until I got inside my door. And to be honest, I would have never thought about it without actually seeing it.
Since I never was inside the door before, I know I didn’t mess it up, and based on the way the strip looked, I’d guess it was either not sealed by the factory, or if the dealer did some recall work in the door (I think there was an airbag recall, but not sure if it was the driver’s side door), they put a new strip of sealant on and forgot to push the vapor barrier down. It was correctly sealed on three sides, but the bottom was completely open, and the sealant was perfect.
I am positive this wasn’t a problem when I first bought the car (and I bought it new), so I would bet my money on a mechanic forgetting. But I’ll never know for sure.