Condensation on front wall - Montana Owners Club

Scottyscott · 11-24-2008, 04:01 AM

I have a 2006 mountaineer 315 RLS. The bed is in the front. The bedroom has no slide. I am getting condensation/frost on the wall behind the bed. I checked out above the gas bottles... and found where condensation is pooling at the base of the wall and where the flooring ends. Is there a way to stop this??? I have pics if you would like to see. I can e mail them if you like

stiles watson · 11-24-2008, 04:36 AM

Many of us use a desiccant to absorb the moisture out of the air. We also keep air moving somewhere. When cooking, we always use the vent fan to remove the cooking moisture. When showering, we run the water closet fan to remove the steam.

Humans create a lot of condensation that has to be pulled out of the atmosphere one way or another. Some folks have invested in a dehumidifier. So far our methods have worked for a year+ of full timing.

jimcol · 11-24-2008, 10:29 PM

Stiles makes two very good points about venting during cooking and showering. We also learned the hard way to leave a vent cracked regardless of the outside temperature. You would be surprised how much moisture a person puts in the air while exhaling.

Steve and Brenda · 12-04-2008, 05:01 AM

We run the bathroom exhaust 24/7 regardless of season or temperature to exchange air.

sunshineduo · 12-04-2008, 11:24 AM

We were finding quite a bit of condensation, and invested in both an indoor/outdoor thermometer that reads indoor humidity and finally a 30 pint capacity electric de-humidifer (from Home Depot).
Problem is pretty much solved, and we are running around 45%-55% humidity most of the time. The unit is a bit heavy and bulky, and not terribly quiet either, but it makes an OK end-table for now and we think we can store it under the table easily enough when we pull.
Now, if we don't have shore power, we'll be back to plan 'A' which is to used the cans and pouches of dessicant (although I had a bit of trouble with the heavily perfumed brand).
We still do keep a small bucket-type container of dessicant in the closet as not much air ciruclates there.
We were getting enough condensation from cool wall surfaces, and the a/c vents themselves, to see quite a bit of dripping going on so we decided to take the plunge for a big dehumidifier.

We found that the cool A/C air would chill a door, or cabinet to the point that moisture would collect on the opposite side of it, even the ceiling fan blades would get wet and sling a drop here and there. Maybe re-aiming the a/c vents to spread the cool air around differently might ease the problem somewhat.

Mrs. CountryGuy · 12-04-2008, 12:02 PM

A ceiling vent left open as little as 1/2 inch year round, works miracles. Gotta move the air through, or allow to escape.

course, ya gotta pull out the shower humid air each and every time.

or, you could just stop breathing for a few hours each day??

whatta ya mean, you don't think that would work??

seriously, the open vent and the pulling the shower air out has worked for us, with outside temps quite cold, but, if we forget, then we get humidity showing on the windows, but, never had it coming off the fan blades. whewie, that is humidity plus.

sreigle · 12-29-2008, 11:45 AM

Scottyscott, what outside temperatures are you experiencing? I recently got an email from RCandSamantha. They're wintering near or in Whitefish, MT, almost into Canada. They've dealt with temperatures (very successfully) to at least 20 below Fahrenheit. They also had this condensation problem in the bedroom. They solved it by putting 2 inch blue Dow Foam boards on three sides of the bedroom slide, using bungee cords to hold them in place. That solved their problem. Here's a picture Patty sent.

larryngail · 12-30-2008, 05:30 PM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by jimcol

Stiles makes two very good points about venting during cooking and showering. We also learned the hard way to leave a vent cracked regardless of the outside temperature. You would be surprised how much moisture a person puts in the air while exhaling.

So then it's true....we people really ARE full of hot air! hahahaha

Scottyscott · 01-03-2009, 07:16 AM

Have you ever seen anything like that (condensation)? I am totally lost now on what to do. I have done everything except leaving the vent open all the time. I have not put a dehumidifier in yet due to limited power. I am only 30 amps. I have 50 amps available at the campsite. Too bad the rv was not 50 amps! I just hope there is someone that has this same problem and can tell me what to do before the wall has serious water damage. Keystone has been NO HELP. They told me that the reason this is happening is due to me living in it???? HOGWASH! I have even stuffed the entire area there around the tanks with encapsulated fiberglass insulation (leaving the bottom of the tanks open for safety reasons). I also leave the fan running 24/7 on the ac. I was thinking that this would help circulate the air and possibly heat that front cap... NOPE. Any ideas??

Scottyscott · 01-03-2009, 07:22 AM

BTW.....Here are some more pics of my Mountaineer if you are interested. In the pics, you will find I have put skirting up. Now what????
http://s726.photobucket.com/albums/w...20Mountaineer/

Mrs. CountryGuy · 01-03-2009, 07:33 AM

Have you considered that you may have a roof leak??

The open vent (left open 24/7) about 1/2 inch or so, has worked well for us, in temps around 25 to 45, Fall camping in Michigan. Took a few days to get the humidity down.

or get some damprid, and maybe the dehumidifier.

but, I would be looking for a leak round where the cap is connected to the roof.

Good luck, keep us posted as to what you find.

exav8tr · 01-03-2009, 11:00 AM

Scott, We had a Fantastic Fan installed in the bathroom area outside the shower. We never shower without it being on and exhausting. Always cook with oven vent on and fantastic fans (both) going, and have a damprid chemical absorption container that wife keeps emptied. Nary a problem with condensation, btw we live in ours full time and do most of our cooking in the unit....Good luck, perhaps a couple damprid devices near the condensate. I would explore the roof leak possibility also. Good Luck and let us know the outcome. Also Welcome to "The Best Darned Forum on the WWW"!

Scottyscott · 01-04-2009, 06:22 AM

Ok, I have been up on the roof today looking for a possible leak...Everything looks good. I do use the fans when showering and cooking. I am running out of options now... Woke up this am to the front of the materss soaked! The wall has conendation running off it. I was goin gto use the dehimid.... but I am only 30 amps here in the camper. There is 13 outlets on one circuit!! Other than brining another power source in, not much to do.

Mrs. CountryGuy · 01-04-2009, 07:02 AM

Can you run an extension cord in somewhere and grab another circuit off the pole??

I am gonna go back to open a ceiling vent somewhere and leave it open about 1/2 inch ALL the time.

and, when you run those vent fans when cooking and showering, you must run longer than the event, run for a while after, we have been known to run for 30 to 60 minutes afterwards.

Gotta say, your soaked mattress sounds like a lot of water and I would look all over the place for something running in. Leaks might not be where you think they would be, telie antenna?? vent on roof?? something else might have leak and the water/moisture running. They are very hard to find. Check for small tears in that roof as well, would not take much of a tear, and they can be hard to spot.

This sound like wayyyyy too much for condensation.

But, there is always a first, and you just might have it.

Keep us posted on your progress on this situation.

Good luck.

Icehouse · 01-04-2009, 07:58 AM

Where are you? Are your windows condensating as well? Is there any visible water damage on the wall behind the mattress? Is your carpet wet where it meets the wall?

To saturate a mattress is a lot of condensation and I agree with Mrs. CountryGuy that it sounds like a leak. Have you recently had a lot of rain? What's under the mattress by the wall (i.e., water pipes or hydraulic pipes)?

Keep us posted on what you find. Welcome to the forum.

bob n pam · 01-04-2009, 01:46 PM

Tammy! Waa Hoo!! We've missed you. Hope all is well.

Pam

sreigle · 01-04-2009, 02:09 PM

Scott, Carol's comment about a possible leak sounds like the likely culprit to me. I didn't think about that when we were emailing. That seam where the front cap seals to the roof can look ok and still have leaks. I wonder if you had someone run a hose over that seam while you watch for signs of water in the propane locker would help identify where it's coming from? Or recaulk that seam? If I recall, it's requires a special self leveling caulk??

Scottyscott · 01-06-2009, 08:13 AM

I was up ther ethis summer with the DICOR (sealant) I did not find any places but I reapplied just incase. It is not soaking the materss, it is wet. You can tell that it is condensation due to some of it being frost. Not kidding...frost. I have installed the 3m plastic over all the windows. So it is hard to tell if the windows are condensating. I finally got in touch with another person at Keystone besides Brittany. Chris was his name. I explained to him what was happening. He said that there is a weak point there in insulation (no kidding). There was no way to fix that except keeping all moisture out. So it looks like I am stuck living in a garbage bag...lol JK. I noticed some other posts about closet walls.... in newer floorplans, the front wall is the closet...mine is the bed. Others may be having the same problem... mine is more pronounced due to the front wall not a closet. As far as power, I have 2 options.... 1 replace both incomming line and line from plug to converter.. to 50 amp... or 2 drill a hole in the floor and run another power supply. My plans for this would be under the tv behind the water heater. There is a 1'x1' area there. Install a breaker box there and run power that way.
Any way you look at it..... not an easy fix.

Scottyscott · 02-27-2009, 06:00 PM

No roof leaks. I have found out that the insulation in the front cap is very poor. I removed ALL cabinets and closets from teh front wall and removed the paneling. I found that there was hardly any insulation at all. In some areas, NONE!! Cold air was meeting the warm wall causing the wall to get realllly cold. This in turn produced the condensation. Since I re-insulated the front cap, I have had no problems at all. I want to thank all of you for the great sugestions!!

mopar1 · 03-06-2009, 02:17 PM

I am glad you found your problem!
I wanted to recommend to everybody that may be looking for a dehumidifier to consider a Soleus air unit. We use one in our house and it works very well! It only draws 225w and 1.9A of power and is 41db. It is really quiet!
Amazon sells both the 45qt and 25qt ones. We have the 45qt one.
We have had some of the units like the LG and Kenmore and I could not hear the T.V. over them. Then they quit working.
I could not believe the Soleus was even working till I emptied the water from it. I just thought the fan was running.

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