5 reasons NOT to use traditional drying methods in construction

#1 - It’s not what you do it’s the way that you do it

Traditional forms of drying rely on applying heat to the object or area to be dried to get the moisture to evaporate and then use a dehumidifier to extract that moisture from the air. To direct the air to the relevant part of the structure usually means using fans or fan heaters.

But that only gets the heat to the surface of the area to be heated. The heat has to penetrate the blocks or plaster to dry out the material thoroughly.

What is more, if you apply too much heat or apply the heat too quickly you can get cracking and plaster feathering.

How about if you could heat the water molecules in the structure directly using a safe form of radiation. The materials can dry from the inside out, and provided the room is ventilated there is normally no need for dehumidifiers. It is a safe and damage free drying process. That’s what the Infra-Lex Mobile Dri-IR? does.

#2 – Greener means cheaper

Going green and being eco-friendly are the buzz words in every industry. But heating up buildings to dry them out the traditional way takes a lot of energy and as we’ve seen above, traditional methods are not exactly laser-targeted.

That’s not very green!

The 110v Mobile Dri-IR? only requires 6.6A/725W of power and can complete the job in a fraction of the time. Typical running costs are ￡2.50 per day (@14.5p/kWh)

Less power consumed means greener builds. It also means cheaper builds!

#3 – Delays in drying out cause build schedule delays

We’ve already agreed that traditional drying methods take time. In winter months that time gets elongated. Every day longer delays the next phase of the build work.

Traditional drying techniques require an on-site presence so you get at best 8 hours drying time per day. And overnight, everything cools down so you start from scratch again the next day. That’s a huge loss of time and waste of energy

Infra-Lex Mobile Dri-IR? can be operated safely 24/7 with a vented door or window. As a result drying periods can be increased by up to 16 hours/day, and there’s no reheating at the start of each day. 24/7 operation was first successfully trialled by national house builder Redrow over the Christmas period in 2016/17 to get their build back on track.

This Increases the potential drying time available to the site project manager by up to 3X compared to traditional methods that can only be safely operated under supervision during a normal working day.

#4 Faster, cheaper drying is great but let’s not make a noise about it

Let’s face it, traditional methods of drying using fans, heaters and dehumidifiers are noisy. That’s part of the reason you can’t use this method 24/7.

Infra-Lex Mobile Dri-IR? however, is silent. So you can hear yourself thinking about all those time and cost savings.

#5 - Ease of use and operation

Serious drying out with traditional equipment means going large. Let’s face it, a fan heater from your local Curry’s isn’t going to hack it. So you probably have several pieces of heavy equipment to man-handle around the site.

They all have moving parts so could break down at any time. And the dehumidifiers have to either be emptied or have drain hoses installed. More things to worry about.

Infra-Lex Mobile Dri-IR? is light enough to be handled by one person with minimal training. It has no moving parts so it’s maintenance free.

It has a robust, durable stainless-steel construction and no accessible part of the unit gets hotter than 50°C.

It couldn’t be simpler or easier to use.

#6 – And another thing….

I know we said there were 5 benefits of using the Infra-Lex Mobile Dri-IR?, but we couldn’t finish without explaining that you only need one unit to dry out a room of 12m2. Small, silent and powerful, the Infra-Lex Mobile Dri-IR? always delivers.