So, I have a 2014 Keystone Hideout travel trailer. Bought brand new, was tired of used leaky trailers. I have kept inside my pole barn since day one, so never ever leaked a drop of water. This winter, I never messed with it much, or really even went in to check on it. Just knew it was winterized, inside, and good to go. WELL, not so much. I left a few windows partially opened, and it appears I suffered from interior condensation and now surface mold in spots from over winter storage. More than just a tad bit, so really makes me mad!!How do I control this from happening again? Rid-ex stuff? I really hate the idea to plug in a dehumidifier all winter long. Ironically the mold attached to random things like baby pack and play, skillet, and other random things that I threw out. I will be scrubbing everything else top to bottom this weekend. Thanks in advance!

Mold only grows where the air is damp. Trailers are not air tight nor can they be made air tight. Dehumidifiers pull a ton of water out of the air. Rid-ex or rice or whatever...….not so much. IMHO a dehumidifier is your only option unless you want mold growing in your trailer all the time.PS it will grow where you can't see it or even get to it. IOW's mold is REALLY hard to get rid of.

A Dehumidifier is your best bet.I understand you were trying to avoid using one, but that's the way to go.I redid an old camper this Spring. It had some Mold issues.It took me a while to get it taken care of. (It had a leaky roof)After I got it waterproof, I went around the windows and fixed a couple of poor fits.I added rubber around the door to help keep out the cold/water too.Working on my storage compartments was a little bit of work too...I worked on that old camper Feb till May. Finally fixed most things on my list.By far, the Mold was the most annoying to work on. Nasty stuff.Work on yours a little at a time, get it right, then go camping...I said that like it was easy... NOT EASY.

You apparently have a very humid environment where you store the TT. We keep a large bucket of cat litter open in our living area, a large bowl in the bathroom and another in our bedroom. Ours is stored uncovered outside and we have never had a mold issue.

Mine is kept in a seasonal campgrounds all the time. It is closed up for 8 months winter season a year. I have MaxAir covers on the roof vents. For the first two years we left the roof vent OPEN all winter. No problem. The third year we forgot and left them closed. Have you ever tried to clean mold off of mini blinds??? This year we left them open again and were very pleased to come back to no mold anywhere. I don't know if being up in the mountains of Hinsdale MA at 1450' has anything to do with it but it does work. Local RV repair tech informed me of this. Now if I was down in Florida I would not dream of trying that. My house is locked up tight and the A/C is set at 84 degrees and no body is home. Humidity stays around 50%While we are here we run the dehumidifier if the heater is on. No wet windows and walls that way. If we don't use the dehumidifier with the furnace all the windows fog up on the inside. Water will run down the wall. It all has to do with where you live.

When I winterize out TT and/or park it for an extended period between uses, I use Damp-Rid hanging bags and small pails to help keep it dry. I hang a bag in the main part of the TT and open all the cabinets and doors. I put the little pails full of the calcium (what is used to absorb water) in the storage compartments. When using absorbing products like this, CLOSE all the windows and vents - you are not trying to "dry" the outdoors!Works well for our 21 foot camper. Larger campers may need more things done.Throw out stuff if it is really nasty with mold, but usually I just clean off mold with something like Chlorox Cleanup (something heavy on the cleaning / bleaching stuff).

Terrible condensation/mold? What to use to prevent

jabres
Explorer II
Jun 13, 2019
thanks for all the helpful advice! Heavy scrubbing begins this weekend, and real good cleaning. Hoping for the best, makes me sick as we bought this trailer brand new to eliminate any problems.
thanks!
afidel
Explorer II
Jun 13, 2019
DampRid or Humidri, two buckets of DampRid worked for us with 4 months in a damp cave, but if you're going 5-6 months the storeage place recommends the Humidri which is a bit more expensive but apparently does a better job (I believe it's a pail of the silica gel beads like what you get in many packages like shoes that a transported in shipping containers)
myredracer
Explorer II
Jun 13, 2019
We're on the west coast of BC where it rains almost non-stop for 6 months over the winter. Have a cover on our TT in the off-season and crack a couple of roof vents and windows. Have never had mold. We use damp-rid, as do most. We have a hygrometer in the TT and humidity is a bit higher than I'd like but doing better than Damp-rid means a dehumidifier which uses power and needs emptying periodically (or draining directly outside).

The colder the outdoor temp. is, the less moisture the air will hold. Cracking a vent and/window shouldn't cause a problem. I would avoid ever heating the interior. Condensation of surfaces *might* occur, I think, if there is enough temp. change in the day like say when the sun comes out for a while then cools down quickly but if inside a barn might be unlikely. For those that camp in the winter, sealing up the interior to conserve heat is a bad idea.

The infamous "leaky condo crisis" of the 80s & 90s was caused by inadequate ventilation and leaking building envelopes (windows, siding, etc.). For many years, there were condos & other buildings all over draped in humongous tarps while they ripped off the exteriors, drywall & insulation down to bare structure and re-did it all. The building code in Canada was changed to require continuous ventilation, usually a bathroom fan hard-wired to stay on.

As mentioned, mold can be there and unseen. Take a food source like luan and just add water and voila... Some types are toxic. Can be difficult to eradicate sometimes, depending on type. Bleach will work in some cases, but not all. In the worst of cases, some homes can't be salvaged. If it's bad enough, the only way to eradicate it could involve pulling off the luan walls & ceilings.

I would get a hydrometer and see what the actual RH is. Maybe talk to a mold professional. Also check with your insurance co., if insured over the winter to see if covered.

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Terrible condensation/mold? What to use to prevent

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