Humidity on windows?

[Born2RV]

In three weeks, we'll be pulling our Motorhome out of the pole barn for our spring trip down south. Last fall, we happened to be camping one night when the temperature dropped to around 26 degrees (early October). After running the furnace all night, we noticed that our front windshield had a lot of condensation! We actually put towels down along the bottom of the front window. I don't recall this happening with our prior coach - a Winnnebago Sightseer. Should we look into purchasing a small dehumidifier to put on the dash when the weather is cold?

[mygrayhound]

I recently had the same happen-several times...nothing major, just droplets up the front windshield a couple inches. What I did to alleviate it was to changeover to the heat pump for a half hour or so. I have basement air unit-you probably have roof air with heat pumps. That took care of it.

[DAN L]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Born2RV In three weeks, we'll be pulling our Motorhome out of the pole barn for our spring trip down south. Last fall, we happened to be camping one night when the temperature dropped to around 26 degrees (early October). After running the furnace all night, we noticed that our front windshield had a lot of condensation! We actually put towels down along the bottom of the front window. I don't recall this happening with our prior coach - a Winnnebago Sightseer. Should we look into purchasing a small dehumidifier to put on the dash when the weather is cold?

i use a small 8'' ac fan from walmart to blow air at the windshields after we remove the covers.

[Clifftall]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Born2RV In three weeks, we'll be pulling our Motorhome out of the pole barn for our spring trip down south. Last fall, we happened to be camping one night when the temperature dropped to around 26 degrees (early October). After running the furnace all night, we noticed that our front windshield had a lot of condensation! We actually put towels down along the bottom of the front window. I don't recall this happening with our prior coach - a Winnnebago Sightseer. Should we look into purchasing a small dehumidifier to put on the dash when the weather is cold?

All the above sugg. are ok however you should tackle the cause which is too much moister in your coach. It's obviously fairly airtight, which is a good thing. I leave a roof vent 1" open no matter how cold it gets. We also chamois out the shower stall after each use and turn on the ceiling fan when cooking to let out the moisture.

These few things will help greatly with your problem.

Cliff

[RV Wizard]

Invest in a dehumidifier, you will not regret it. The only time you will not need it is in the south west desert.

[Born2RV]

Yes, we were using the basement heat. So if we turn on the overhead heat for a bit, that should help? We only tried the overhead heat one time, and it seemed like it was blowing cold air - but it probably just takes a little time to warm up.

What type of dehumidifier would we want? What size?

[Bob (WA0MQE)]

Check out these EVA-DRY units at Amazon. Amazon.com: eva-dry edv-2200 mid-size dehumidifier We have two of the Model 2200's and one Model 500. We had the 500 originally and it worked so well we checked and purchased the two 2200's. They really help here on the Texas Gulf Coast. They will fill with water in about three or four days, so you can tell their doing the job.

There small units and this is why we have two.

[Cruzer]

We bought a pair of the EvaDry dehumdifiers from RVupgrades. They are great little units and we use them when parked in our driveway.

However, they won't do what you want them to do on the windshield overnight. If it's too cold and too damp they can't work that fast.

As mentioned earlier, keeping the moisture out is the best solution. Moisture builds up in a coach over time from showering, cooking, and just plain breathing. At a certain point it's going to condense once the moisture content is high enough and the surface is cold enough. That's what happen to your windshield on cool nights and closing the drapes makes it worse. You need to vent it out. Leaving the roof vent in the main salon cracked about 1" won't seriously impact any heat loss in the coach but it will make a huge difference in the humidity level.

[PlayItForwrd]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mygrayhound I recently had the same happen-several times...nothing major, just droplets up the front windshield a couple inches. What I did to alleviate it was to changeover to the heat pump for a half hour or so. it.

To expound on this a bit, roof AC units technically ARE de-humidifiers... As they draw in air from inside the coach, the moisture in that air is condensed on the cold evaporator coils, and the drier air goes back into the coach... It works in your car or truck too, it's why the AC unit kicks on when you turn on the defroster.

[Pete & Linda]

Vent, wipe the shower down and if you have a dryer dry the wet towels. Breathing, cooking and washing puts moister in the air. Those small dehumidifiers will not take much moister out of the air in a short time. You can also have hidden moister in the walls and not know it. Best to vent and loose a little heat than retain the moister.