Challenges of High Humidity

Humidity is a fact of life, especially here in Florida, so understanding the way ambient humidity can effect your time on the job site is important to creating an effective plan to avoid spending time reworking and replacing damaged materials. The experts here at Synergy Equipment want to help save you time and money by giving you a few pointers when it comes to operating equipment in a high-humidity location.

What Humidity Means on your Job Site

Ambient humidity above 60% creates an environment that is ripe with problems related to moisture content in your materials and equipment. Two materials that are affected most dramatically by high humidity levels are concrete and wood. Concrete (as well as many surface coatings and adhesives) will take longer to dry and cure, which can lead to expensive amounts of downtime for your crew. In some cases, a high relative humidity combined with warm temperatures can actually prevent some coatings and finishes from setting to their appropriate hardness, which leads to a degradation of the quality of work. Lumber is susceptible to other problems from high humidity, namely mold and rot. Lumber will readily absorb moisture from the air, which quickly allows mold to gain a foothold if it goes unchecked for too long.

What Humidity Means for your Equipment

In addition to compromising your materials, humidity can wreak havoc on your equipment. Hydraulic systems are especially vulnerable to environments with high humidity because the moist air will cool and condense, leaving you with a serious water intrusion problem. The most obvious sign of water intrusion in your hydraulic fluid is a cloudiness to the fluid. While your hydraulics can endure a limited amount of water intrusion, letting this problem go unchecked is going to inevitably lead to some serious and dangerous issues. Symptoms of water intrusion in your hydraulics include surface corrosion, reduced viscosity, compressibility, and load carrying capacity, foaming and cavitation that slow your hydraulics to a crawl, and bearing system damage that leads to expensive repairs.

What Can You Do About it?

Regular maintenance and service practices are your best line of defense when it comes to protecting against the hazards of high humidity on the jobsite. Making sure you check your fluids on a regular basis, and changing your fluids according to manufacturer recommendations will go a long way to keeping everything in ship shape.

You may not be able to control the weather, but you can take the steps to prevent the weather from bringing your project to a halt. If you have more questions about how humidity can affect your heavy equipment, come see the experts at Synergy Equipment with locations all across Florida. We proudly serve the areas of Daytona Beach, Fort Myers, Jacksonville, Miami, Orlando, Paltka, Pompano Beach, St. Augustine, Tampa, and everywhere in between!