Added passive Bathroom vent to Tab 320

rydfree

There are times when, let's just say, you don't want certain odors to escape the bath compartment into the living area. I thought about installing a powered fan, but the factory fan moves quite a bit of air and when set to blow inward, it just needs a path to flow in the right direction. I decided that a passive vent from the bath compartment to the outside would be more than enough to extract any odors plus I would not have to fight with running power wires. I found this vent on Amazon that can open in two directions and has a nice weather-Tite foam seal when closed. It will either open to the top or to the bottom depending on which way you move the handle inside. I will always have the opening to the bottom, but I suppose it would allow hot air to escape easily if opened to the top position. Perhaps that would be a good place to have it during storage in the hot season.

The install was super easy as there are no supports or wiring in the area above the factory round window. Measure, level, mark and tape around the lines so the jigsaw doesn't mar the surface. I taped a plastic hospital pan on the inside to catch any debris as I was cutting. Vacuum the pan out from the outside and there is absolutely no cleanup on the inside after you're done. No need to seal the inside trim ring as a small bead of silicone around the actual vent itself on the outside will take care of any weather proofing. I did buy stainless steel screws and will probably paint those black later. The interior trim ring will most likely get painted white later just to blend in better.

Works great and you may not want to be standing under the vent on the outside when business is being done :)

Bayliss

Nice work, @rydfree. Very clean install.

SLJ

Nice job. I preferred powered to get rid of moisture quickly.

rydfree

While the vent itself is not powered, the factory vent set to pull air inward will expel any odors and moisture out thru this opening quickly. I personally do not see the need for two powered fans in such a small space. You would still need a window or the factory fan cover open to prevent creating a vacuum effect with a 2nd powered fan.

SLJ

https://tab-rv.vanillacommunity.com/discussion/comment/223395#Comment_223395

My main vent is never closed all the way to prevent condensation. No sense in pulling the bathroom smell into the main compartment when fan is off and main vent is open which is how it would travel with the fan off. The powered bathroom fan gets rid of the bathroom moisture quicker than the main fan. 12 volt power is easy to get to.