Smart Home integration of boat winterization, & DIY DampRid

[trayson]

I like to have fun with smart home stuff. I've got my kitchen/familyroom/master-bedroom lights on smart switches, as well as my switch for my gas fireplace. I have a wifi thermostat and have my 2 garage door openers integrated into my smarthome and a sensor in the master bedroom to tell me if the garage doors are open. This year I put my outdoor christmas lights and the christmas tree on smart switches and setup time schedules on the app to tell them when to turn off/on. I can also voice control most all my devices with the various google home devices (we have 4 of them, LOL). So I figured that it'd be fun to add some smarthome integration to my boat's winterization.

I bought a Sonoff Wifi Smart temperature/humidity switch off Amazon for $30 and then bought a 3 prong extension cord for $5 that I cut in two pieces to wire up the input and output of the switch.



I finally got it all wired up and paired with the app today. I typically run a few fans under my boat cover and I just left them powered up and running. I also put a desk lamp with a 65 watt incandescent bulb in the boat to generate some heat. I setup the smart switch so that it turns on the light if the temp gets below 37 degrees, and it shuts off the light if the temp is above 46 degrees. I can have it send me alerts when the switch turns on and off. I can also look at the app at any given time and see the temp and humidity in my boat.

So, for $35, it's a fun little gadget that I can use to monitor what's going on with my boat.



I also made my own "damp rid" for my boat's winterization. The main ingredient in Damp Rid and Dry-z-air is Calcuim Chloride. That's also what they use for Ice Melt that you'd sprinkle on driveways and sidewalks. It's a lot cheaper to buy it in this form. I made a couple of my own catch containers by slicing the top off a 1 gallon jug and putting a bunch of slits in the inverted cone that's holding the calcuim chloride. Worked great last winter. You can see one of the jugs I made in the top picture.

[oldsmobiledriver]

That’s pretty sweet! Minus my heater being mounted under the glove box, which you could add a tee to blow air through the lines, you could take the boat out all year around on nice days and not have to fully winterize! Love it!


If you mess with the King's Queen, you better watch your Ace Jack!
#Tomcat

[trayson]

That’s pretty sweet! Minus my heater being mounted under the glove box, which you could add a tee to blow air through the lines, you could take the boat out all year around on nice days and not have to fully winterize! Love it!


If you mess with the King's Queen, you better watch your Ace Jack!
#Tomcat

I probably wouldn't rely on a light bulb for the heat source if I wasn't gonna fully winterize, but the same concept could be applied to a space heater. the switch can do up to 16 amps on the circuit.

[Broke Pilot]

And here I am, still learning how to work an iPhone... lol
That's pretty slick. I like the temp switch idea. My brother is into all that
electronic witchcraft, maybe he can rig me something up.
I keep meaning to grab a picture, I got a gun safe heating rod to put under the motor with the hatches closed. This would be perfect to control it with.

[MJHSupra]

Cool idea on the homemade Damp-Rid and boat switch.

How does the home-made Damp-Rid work? Meaning, at the end of the season do you see a good amount of moisture in the bottom of the bucket?

On the store-bought product, I’m surprised how much that little bucket removes.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[trayson]

Cool idea on the homemade Damp-Rid and boat switch.

How does the home-made Damp-Rid work? Meaning, at the end of the season do you see a good amount of moisture in the bottom of the bucket?

On the store-bought product, I’m surprised how much that little bucket removes.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Exactly. the bucket under the crystals will have a bunch of water collected it in as it takes it out of the air.

Like this: