Disintegrated vent, Warning about using vent cushion/inserts
When we first got our current RV back in 2012, we purchased a vent insert/cushion very similar to THIS to go in one of the roof vents. It has a white cushion material on one side that you see on the ceiling, and a reflective foil material on the other to reflect out sunlight, heat. Did not really need a vent where that one was, and the thinking was that this would allow less heat and sunlight to get in, make it cooler inside. We were happy with this, and it worked fine (until just recently...read on).
Anyway, last week, we took a long, 5 day weekend trip to a local state park. On the road headed there, that insert piece drops out of the vent opening, and to the floor. Adhesive must have wore out, I thought, when driving down the road, no biggie, I easily fix that when we get to our campsite. Well, when I get to the campsite and set up, go to put the vent insert back in, look up at the vent opening and Whoa!! I'm staring up at blue sky, vent is wide open! No, vent itself is not open, it is closed, but the plastic vent cover itself is completely gone!! Ohhhhh, its a really, really good thing no rain is in the forecast for next several days! hahahaha!
Anyway, I found that the plastic vent itself had with time been exposed to sooo much heat from the sun, it had become brittle and literally broken away to pieces and was completely gone. I got up on the roof to investigate, found that the little bit of the plastic of the vent that was left was sooo brittle and worn out, you just touch it and it would flake away into pieces. Not sure when, how this happened, but know it must have been very recent, as in, probably on the way to the campground, 'cause it had been raining just days before that, and there was zero evidence of any water that had got down onto the insert piece. Neither was there any evidence on the roof that a branch or other object had fallen on to it and caused any of the damage. That plastic roof vent just literally rotted away to nothing and at some point, came completely apart going down the road. I checked everything else on the roof very closely while I was up there. Everything else, other vents, seals, etc. looked perfectly fine. This only happened to the one vent I had used one of those inserts/cushions on.
Our solution for the time being: On way home Sunday, stopped at RV place, picked up and installed a black MaxAir vent cover over that vent. Now, don't really need the insert, the dark colored Max Air cover keeps the sun out well enough. Eventually I'll have to replace the destroyed plastic vent piece (THIS), but the Max Air cover solves it for now. Not sure yet if I'm going to put the insert/cushion back in or not. The black MaxAir vent cover we put on does a pretty good job of keeping the sun, heat out, not sure if the insert will still be needed or not.
Anyway, lesson to be learned from this: If you use vent inserts like I mentioned here that have the foil like reflective material on the top, be careful!! It seems this can cause sooo much heat to build up on the vent cover, it can make them rot away and disintegrate in a few years from all the heat. I can only guess that the reflective material on the top caused sooooo much heat to be trapped on that vent, it eventually caused the plastic vent to completely rot away and disintegrate.
Has anyone else ever experienced anything like this with a vent?
Anyway, last week, we took a long, 5 day weekend trip to a local state park. On the road headed there, that insert piece drops out of the vent opening, and to the floor. Adhesive must have wore out, I thought, when driving down the road, no biggie, I easily fix that when we get to our campsite. Well, when I get to the campsite and set up, go to put the vent insert back in, look up at the vent opening and Whoa!! I'm staring up at blue sky, vent is wide open! No, vent itself is not open, it is closed, but the plastic vent cover itself is completely gone!! Ohhhhh, its a really, really good thing no rain is in the forecast for next several days! hahahaha!
Anyway, I found that the plastic vent itself had with time been exposed to sooo much heat from the sun, it had become brittle and literally broken away to pieces and was completely gone. I got up on the roof to investigate, found that the little bit of the plastic of the vent that was left was sooo brittle and worn out, you just touch it and it would flake away into pieces. Not sure when, how this happened, but know it must have been very recent, as in, probably on the way to the campground, 'cause it had been raining just days before that, and there was zero evidence of any water that had got down onto the insert piece. Neither was there any evidence on the roof that a branch or other object had fallen on to it and caused any of the damage. That plastic roof vent just literally rotted away to nothing and at some point, came completely apart going down the road. I checked everything else on the roof very closely while I was up there. Everything else, other vents, seals, etc. looked perfectly fine. This only happened to the one vent I had used one of those inserts/cushions on.
Our solution for the time being: On way home Sunday, stopped at RV place, picked up and installed a black MaxAir vent cover over that vent. Now, don't really need the insert, the dark colored Max Air cover keeps the sun out well enough. Eventually I'll have to replace the destroyed plastic vent piece (THIS), but the Max Air cover solves it for now. Not sure yet if I'm going to put the insert/cushion back in or not. The black MaxAir vent cover we put on does a pretty good job of keeping the sun, heat out, not sure if the insert will still be needed or not.
Anyway, lesson to be learned from this: If you use vent inserts like I mentioned here that have the foil like reflective material on the top, be careful!! It seems this can cause sooo much heat to build up on the vent cover, it can make them rot away and disintegrate in a few years from all the heat. I can only guess that the reflective material on the top caused sooooo much heat to be trapped on that vent, it eventually caused the plastic vent to completely rot away and disintegrate.
Has anyone else ever experienced anything like this with a vent?
