Wet and mold

donn0128 wrote:
One word, DEHUMIDIFIER. Windows open help, but a large dehumidifier is what you need. Run it 24/7. You will be amazed how much water is removed. Also leave closet doors open when you can.

x2. course that only works if you have shore power.

and not one of the tiny tiny 12V dehumidifiers. get one of the small home dehumidifiers.

First day or so you may pull 5-10 gallons of water out of the air! then it will drop down.

and also keep vents open when you shower. and do NOT use an non venting propane heating unit. they will dump about 1 gallon of water in the air for every gallon of propane burned. your furnace is ok, it's exhaust vents outside. but the oven and cooktop do produce water vapor.

and the human body produces a lot of water vapor just from breathing.

This is a little 23 ft rv, with 2 large dogs and 2 cats. No room for a humidifier anywhere, all I can do is vent it. If not for worry about the animals being cold we'd just leave the heat off more and use another blanket, but I cant leave my animals freeze. I do leave closet doors open and now in the day when windows are open or overnight, take the cushins off the dinette where most to the moisture seems to be. Lousy design as storage under the seats has no doors. Would never even consider plugging up holes or caulking like I would a house, because a house, its not! :)

Ditto on the recommendation for a dehumidifier. A compressor driven unit, not one of those scam thermoelectric units.

An adult human body releases about 5 cups of water into the air per day plus you have moisture caused pets, cooking and showering. That's a lot inside the small confined space of an RV and it must be removed otherwise you will get mold, rot in framing (metal exteriors) or delamination (fiberglass exteriors). Knowing that, you need to take steps to remove the moisture.

Never seal up the cracks and gaps in walls, ceilings or weep holes in windows. Turning up the furnace does not help and besides, the higher the air temp. the more moisture it will hold. As mentioned above, crack open roof vents and windows. If you have a fan with speed control, keep it running (on low). The best thing is a dehumidifier. A hygrometer to monitor humidity level is a good idea and don't cost much. Opening cabinet doors can help so you can get some air movement in them.

They really don't design RVs to cope with winter camping/living. Besides ventilation, the way they build them there is no vapor barrier on the warm side of a wall or ceiling like in house so moisture migrates to the exterior skin and roof where it is cold and condenses leading to serious consequences. As well, when moisture gets into insulation, it loses R-value.

Thank you all for the suggestions. As we are in a very small rv, not sure where to put a dehumidifier, but will try leaving vents open and see if that helps.

If you are camping in a place with electricity then a electric Dehumidifier is your best and easiest way to solve the problem.

If not then see the above threads about ventilation.

Make sure your stove vent actually vents outside and not just back inside the cabin. Dunno what purpose a non venting vent is or why they sell them, but they do.

I used to take my Lance TC snowmobiling in Northern Michigan and I learned real fast that leaving a window open a bit and opening the roof vents really reduced the condensation inside. Especially when cooking and showering.

I actually had condensation freezing on the inside walls at one time but I was in much, much colder temps that you have. Like 5 below. Just providing some way for the moisture to get out helped that immensely.

one thing to always keep in mind is that the moisture on the walls that you can see, is also under the walls and in the insulation so, a continued damp enviroment inside will cause damp insulation and possibly cause rot, much like water intrusion from seals does.

Sail boats and boats in general have many of the same problems.. some of their solutions are great. ONE of them I liked was a large breathable mesh that goes under mattresses so that moisture and mold don't start under mattresses. Stuff isn't cheap however IF one is using camper a lot I'd wager it's worth the investment...
Propane create water when it burns so the ventless burners add lots of moisture to the air also.
The truck camper crowd also does a lot of cold WX camping and have many great ideas.