Condensation in Cool weather

artmetal · December 2020

Experienced condensation on cool day. Bathroom ceiling and walls dripping. Understand breath condensation. What puzzles me is the evident delamination of the vinyl wall cover. Upon squeezing delamination, water is expelled. I assume the vinyl is permeable otherwise water would not pass through. That's my major concern.

Sharon_is_SAM · December 2020

@artmetal - which TaB model and year do you have? Any pictures? We have seen discoloration of a ceiling due to condensation but what you describe sounds like a possible leak.

Jersey · January 2021

Did some driveway camping last night, temps down to the 20s. Often have the typical condensation issues, specifically on the ceiling where the beams obviously are. In the past I've cracked open a window or 2 and and that usually does an adequate job, but being so cold last night wanted to try something else so I could keep windows fully shut to bottle that heat in

Got the inside temp up to mid 60s (buddy heater then Alde maintained it). Shut buddy heater off, sealed windows shut. Condensation started forming in minutes. Started a small desk fan on low sitting on top of sink pointed slightly upward. Ran this all night and was bone dry throughout! And didn't really feel any if the breeze from the fan. Current just followed the contour of ceiling.

Kind of surprised this worked as well as it did.

Denny16 · January 2021

Yes a small fan works quite well. We use a small USB plug in fan and put it on top the Alde front cover under the dinette table aimed toads the back of the trailer. Keeps air circulating and eliminates condensation.
cheers

TommySax · January 2022

RE: Jersey & Denny16 posts....
Surprisingly simple solution. I experienced major condensation last 2 days as it was relatively cold outside (-8 Celsius).
Questions: Did you keep the skylight open? ( I had mine open a little bit) But it's too cold to run that fan.
AND
Did you do this at night? If so, where did you put the fan as Alde front cover and dinette table are gone because the bed is assembled.
THANKS! I am quite concerned about the excess humidity. All I can do now is wipe down the walls and ceilings with a towel.

Denny16 · January 2022

Tommy, I have a TaB400, so the fan goes on the floor when the front dinette is made up as a bed. If camping in the trailer, I leave the roof vent open a small bit, with the fan in one of the slow positions (upgraded fan), and have the galley window in its vent, locked open position (latched but not sealed at bottom).

Cheers

AnOldUR · January 2022

We're still waiting to get this out of the garage to test how it will work for condensation, but are hopeful. Not sure which direction pointing the fans will work best. My thought it leaving all the windows in the vent position and pointing the fans down toward the bottom of the front window in an attempt to draw air in through the side windows, but pointing them in may end up working better. This Amazon fan hums a little at lower speeds. Don't know yet if that will be a problem.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021717/uploads/editor/ut/0hjx73hnvzgd.jpg

Dutch061 · January 2022

When we had our 2017 320-S, moisture was always an issue. I found after multiple attempts that opening both side windows to the "open but latched position" and opening the roof vent with the fan on very low (I had the upgraded fan, so I had 10 speeds) all but eliminated the problem. This may work for you also.

Brad

ImNotThereYet · November 2022

Great tips everyone! We just camped for the 3rd time last weekend, experienced the condensation on the ceiling as well. Will try the fan on the the sink countertop. I have an excellent battery operated Ryobi fan that I keep with me all the time, I’ll try that and give a full report! So far we are loving our TAB and being out in the beautiful planet we live on!

AnOldUR · November 2022

ImNotThereYet said:

... Will try the fan on the the sink countertop ...

The kitchen fan I posted above in January was put to the test this year. It worked very well. We got the best results by putting the front window and one of the side windows in the vent position and pointing the fans into the cabin. We found that using the roof vent (with or without the roof fan running) allowed for too much heat loss on cold nights. It seemed wasteful to pump heat out in that way. We found it better to keep the air moving in the cabin with minimal exchange of outside air.

AnOldUR · November 2022

A little off topic, but I had a thought about the way the condensation forms at the location of the roofs cross braces. The hollow aluminum rectangular tubing is the problem. Wondering if putting a hole at either end and pumping foam insulation through the tubes would both improve insulation and reduce the condensation. Not a practical thing to attempt on an already built trailer, but could it be done at the factory before the roof structure was added without too much effort?

BrianZ · November 2022

I doubt that would work, @AnOldUR. While foam, like air, resists heat exchange, the aluminum dissipates it effectively. Since the aluminum tubes have surfaces on both outside & inside, it could still transmit heat from its inside surface through the metal to the outside surface, bypassing the inside of the tube. That's why it's cold on its inside surface when it's cold outside.
Now, if they could sandwich a thin layer of metal with a low thermal conductivity inbetween the inside & outside of the tube, that might help some with the condensation, but it wouldn't help with the steam bath or lack of fresh air. At least the condensation let's you know you have poor air exchange.

bergger · December 2022

Yes as @BrianZ says, filling the aluminum tubing would not fix the problem. The heat or cold will still travel through the aluminum going around the foam filling and transfer the associated heat or cold inside the trailer. NuCamp just needs to introduce a good thermal break in the roof and in the walls. Instead of placing the interior paneling on top of the studs they need to first place a vapor barrier followed by a dense foam board, say 1/2 inch or so, then the interior paneling. That would go far in disrupting the temperature transfers. If they really want to do it right they need a thermal break on both sides of the studs. But that would start making the walls and roof quite thick.

Mickerly · December 2022

I would rather see the temperature barrier between the outside aluminum sheet and the frame. You would think it wouldn't be that hard to construct a solid ceiling, two layers of fiberglass with foam in between to replace all the aluminum. You may even be able to make the edges curved for better aerodynamics at the same time.

pthomas745 · December 2022

I think: the only way to prevent this is: lots of warm air at the ceiling. Imagine your vehicles without a defroster: a defroster eliminates the condensation at the glass layer that meets the outside cold air.

Someone needs to construct a blanket/cover/insulator that will cover the top of the trailer and insulate it. There is no way NuCamp will doctor the trailer extensively for this issue. Unless the inside layer of the trailer is warmer than that thin strip of aluminum cover outside, it will condense.

Denny16 · December 2022

I keep the heat on low, either the Alde or a portable electric heater in really cold weather, with a small circulation fan blowing straight up, and I do not get condensation inside. It even stayed dry during yesterday’s frost when temperatures dropped below 30F.

ImNotThereYet · December 2022

Just read the manual again for the A/C and there is a drying mode, maybe I just need to run that for a little while when we see the condensation form.

Condensation in Cool weather

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