Moisture & mildew issues?

rekoj71 wrote:
Yep, It's a problem for anyone who resides in their RV in cold country. Are your windows dual pained? if not you might consider using that film that sticks to the inside edge then gets stretched tight with a hair dryer, I saw it at home depot and a neighbor of our used it on his single pane windows in his RV and it helped a bunch. I mostly have the problem on the single pained windshield and keep a washcloth handy to wipe it down regularly and wring it down the sink. A second dehumidifier might help but remember they work best when the air inside is rather warm so that their cooling fins can attract the moisture.
The moisture in the bed is probably coming from a window above and then rolling down the wall and into the bed. I have noticed on ours a couple of times when it was extreamly cold out and so humid inside that I could find all of the aluminum studs in the walls as they too were sweating.
As far as ventilation goes, if the cold air outside measures the same percentage of humidity as the inside warm air, remember that that is still less overall humidity cause the colder air can't carry the same amount of actual water vapor.
We make sure we use a power vent whenever we shower or cook, even if it's cold out. Thankfully our electric is included and our space heaters can more than make up for it without costing us.
My only idea that might work better than the pallet if you want to raise the bed for ventilation would be to possibly use a more plastic material that won't absorb moisture, like maybe PVC pipes.

Good luck.

Thanks for all of the replies.

I have single pane windows and have looked at the "shrink wrap" option. I could not find a reasonable attach point for the shrink wrap. I have been tinkering with a solution.

As to the source of the moisture: I think that a good portion of it comes from the moisture that we exhale & perspire in the night.

I did find some details regarding the mattress on the manufacturers website. It claimed that the mattress must be on a support that provides airflow under the mattress because we sweat up to a pint during the night. That moisture can soak all of the way through the mattress and must have airflow to evaporate. The offered a platform that looks very much like a pallet.

I find the idea that I sweat enough to soak all of the way through an 8" mattress disgusting but when I look at the pattern of the mildew stains on the bottom of the mattress I have trouble arguing the point.

Sooo..... Home Depot, 3-2x4's, 14- 1x2's and a handful of screws. Now we have airflow under the mattress.

While I was there I found a product called Concrobium. It has good reviews online and claims to kill and prevent future growth of mold/mildew. So I treated the mattress and surrounding surfaces.