Carcoon for the Atom

[Anon]

As it is getting near winter now I have considered getting an indoor Carcoon Veloce : https://www.carcoon.com/carcoon-indoor-veloce with the hope it will keep the dust and moisture off the car. A dehumidifier is not an option and I know there are loads of threads on this - I just could not be arsed with setting one up. My garage is new and as such it's not damp, but I live near lots of trees so leaves, pine needles and dust blow in because the garage has to breath it's not air tight. This is one reason to consider one.

So, has anyone bought a carccon or alternative brand? My question is does it act like a dehumidifier or does it just circulate ambient air around inside - this point is not clear to me. It will clearly keep the dust out as mentioned above.

Or am I talking rubbish because I have never owned a carcoon before!

cheers
Simon

[Italianpaul]

I have had one for a few years. It keeps the humidity level quite low and so avoids condensation when the temperature drops. I am similar to you with a lot of trees around me and it does its job. Costs pennies to run a day. I change the filters each year.
Get the framed version as the other is a pain to get on and off something like an Atom.

[Karl V]

Or am I talking rubbish because I have never owned a carcoon before!

As fun as this evening's EV discussion was to watch, let's not go out of our way to wind people up please.

[Anon]

I have had one for a few years. It keeps the humidity level quite low and so avoids condensation when the temperature drops. I am similar to you with a lot of trees around me and it does its job. Costs pennies to run a day. I change the filters each year.
Get the framed version as the other is a pain to get on and off something like an Atom.

Thanks. Which size did you go for? I assume it's the extra small Veloce you bought? 4m x 2m x1.7m.

[mention]Karl V[/mention] I think it's the other way around. A touch of bigotry me thinks, thought this was meant to be an open forum not to be singled out and attacked by people calling me "your rubbish" because I haven't owned a EV car! absurd thinking right there.

[Preseh]

Ah I'm curious about this - I was just going to get the indoor fleece cover from Ariel but it's probably not much more expensive to get one of these?

[Anon]

Ah I'm curious about this - I was just going to get the indoor fleece cover from Ariel but it's probably not much more expensive to get one of these?

It's about £450 for the carcoon and there are a couple benefits over a regular cover. It applies a regular flow of air throughout it's chamber. As mentioned earlier this keeps the moisture down during our damp winter months like Dec, Jan and Feb. You can apply the battery trickle charger if you want as well. You could if you were really fussy add a dehumidifier in there with your car. The problem with adding dehumidifiers to garages is that garages are generally not like houses in that they need to breath so there are plenty of gaps and I would suspect a dehumidifier in a garage will serve little benefit*

The Ariel cover is very nice and plush but depends on where you keep your car as to which would be a best fit.

Personally for me, just keeping the dust out would be a bonus and this is even in the summer months. This would save cleaning hours.

* this is based on my opinion and not based on fact as I have not tested this.

[Karl V]

I don't think garages have to breathe more than houses. If anything, I would say the opposite is true as people live in houses, which is why windows have vents and so on. Generally speaking, houses tend to be larger than garages too, so there's much more air to try and extract moisture from.

It is probably true that there are more 'gaps' in things like garage doors, but that's likely to be because people don't live in them and therefore why bother with the expense of sealing them properly, which makes sense.

If a garage is generally getting a bit damp during the winter months, it may be something to look into fixing because although the car may be wrapped up nicely, your tools, bikes, 1/2 empty bottles of sherry and mucky magazines will still suffer from the damp.

The Carcoon looks like a good solution, especially if the garage is huge and you just want the immediate car area catered for - or if the gaps are that large that it doesn't make commercial sense to get it sealed. But I wouldn't worry about a garage needing to breathe as a reason not to stop leaves blowing in to the garage. It'll never be airtight anyway...

I went dehumidifier route 'cos it also helps if the car is wet. And maybe that's a good reason to consider the Carcoon: you can have the Atom all tucked up and dry, even if the daily is put away wet or the kids are in and out with their bikes.

Too. Many. Options.

[Anon]

At the moment I don't put the daily in the garage if wet because it generates too much moisture. I know this may sound over the top but if you place a source of water anywhere it will evaporate and cause damp in it's immediate vicinity. So the carcoon, the thing I am not sure about is how good is it at getting rid of damp/water from a wet bike, car etc. You could as mentioned put a dehumidifier in with your car in the carcoon, this will no doubt help. Carcoon though are not clear on their pump and it's purpose of airflow. To me there is little point in blowing damp air around your car from it's ambient environment.

Oh and the breathe comment is garages don't have vents - never. So they need to breath by other means, normally via the garage door as there will be massive gaps, unlike a house that has vents purposely built.

[Karl V]

A bit off topic, but I have a noticed a huge difference since having the concrete floor tiled last Autumn.

Before then, water would be absorbed into the concrete and would take a couple of days to properly dry out, making it feel damp. With a tiled floor, the water now sits in puddles and can be easily mopped up. I'm assuming sealing a concrete floor would have a similar effect.

[Anon]

Not off topic at all Karl.

I have a concreate floor and the problem is it generates a lot of dust and as you said it sucks up water really badly. There are better ways to solve the problem than tiles though, actually much cheaper. I am looking at using some epoxy resin - you can get all sorts of patterns and it's pretty cheap to do, looks very cool as well.

*disclaimer though, I have never used epoxy resin only friends recommended it to me so it could be rubbish.

[Italianpaul]

Simon,

I went for the Small, it was initially for an MX5 and works perfectly. I have never put the car in wet but certainly damp.. If the car goes in damp, I just pop in a dehumidifier that is piped outside to get rid of the water for a day or two.
The carbon filters reduce the air entering the chamber to very low humidity.
I would get the largest one that comfortable fits inside your garage as you could always use it for another car should you ever get rid of you Atom. Like a Radical I think you mentioned some time ago.

[GraemeW]

Simon, depending on how your garage is built, the roof can generate dust. I have the black bituminous roof felt under the roof tiles, which has a layer of fine silica grit included.

It sheds this grit, and was still doing it after 20 years. I think most of the dust in my garage is from this and not the concrete screed. Trouble with the silica particles is they easily scratch car paint.

So I’ve brushed as much of the silica off as I could, and brushed some clear varnish on the felt. The dust has largely stopped now

[Fastlane]

This video by Harry Metcalfe is quite interesting regarding car storage. His main point is that keeping the temperature up makes the biggest difference and enables dehumidifiers to work much for effectively.

[Karl V]

All makes sense to me. Seal your garage. Make the spaces as small as possible (I.e. Carcoon if you have a hangar like the bloke in the video and only need to concentrate on a small area).

But... I'm going to disagree a bit with the temperature requirements. When I was investigating dehumidifiers, I learnt that there are 2 types of dehumidifier for a garage space: Refrigerant and Desiccant (https://www.breathingspace.co.uk/dehumidifier-guide-i25)

Yes, for a Refrigerant type, you absolutely need the air to be 'room temperature', but I opted for a Desiccant type which is designed to work at lower temperatures and it has worked flawlessly for a couple of years now in a 'non heated' garage space.

So without wanting to appear a humidity nerd... if anyone is considering a dehumidifier, do check which type is best for your man cave.

Obviously, having a man cave at room temperature brings many other benefits - like being able to strut about in your underwear - but don't feel you have to plumb in heating to get the humidity down.

Good video - very informative

[Atlarge]

Obviously, having a man cave at room temperature brings many other benefits - like being able to strut about in your underwear - but don't feel you have to plumb in heating to get the humidity down.

-You must be made of sterner stuff, I consider the unofficial underwear strutting temp. to be around 24C!