Aluminium window frames

[Jo-AnneFairway5402010]

hi hamer, you are a star. ill let craig read it because its to tech for me.

we will be trying it when we are away next week.

thanks so much for all your help hamer.

jo-anne

 

[Hamer_5041128]

Alan--Jo-anne,

Hope you both have a good holiday.

We lived in Derbyshire for 16 years, my wife is a Derbyshire girl. Grin Low is one of our favourite sites.

Hamer

 

[DeliDave]

dave please tell us what make, model and year your van is please if you dont mind?.

do you usually leave the heating on 24/7?.

has putting the heating on not done anything for your condensation?.

jo-anne

Hi jo-anne we have a Bailey Senator Indiana Series 6 bought last septembe(07)

 

[DeliDave]

Deli Dave,

You say you "had no condensation then, otherwise we had floods".

So i am wondering what caused the caravan to go from no condensation to floods.

Do you shower in the caravan?

When there is the possibility of steam in your caravan do you put the extractor on first and leave it on until steam has been extracted?

Do you leave the caravan door open allowing cold damp air into the caravan?

Is your heating on too low? If so condensation will occur.

We never allow our caravan to drop below 60 degress.

Have you set the heating so that it is even throughout the caravan? I have been in some caravans in winter where the centre of the caravan is quite warm and both ends much cooler.

I am trying to help you to solve your problem so you can be condensation free.

Hi,sorry for delay in reply,for first time we did not use shower in van but site showers as Black Horse ones were stunning.But although we keep the heating on,the ends were cool,we posted about this and are :- 1) insulating the ducting were it goes under the van doorway.2) Seeing if the thermostat to the electric heater is in the right place,if not fting remote sensor adjacent to gas thermostat as advice given on another site.

There are only two of us in van and we dont use it much in winter.I accept there is damp in van from storage and that for a few days this will evaporate and disperse but it was still bad even at the end of our 7 day break.

I am delighted with the van and also dealers service,picked up new doorlock and fridge panel today which I am fitting purely to save me taking van back,they would happily fit them and I would not sour this relationship with legal threats but I look forward to seeing a solution to this problem as I sympathise with jo-anne alan and others who have this problem.Leaving windows open when it is snowing is not a very practical solution.

Thank you for your interest.

 

[DeliDave]

dave please tell us what make, model and year your van is please if you dont mind?.

do you usually leave the heating on 24/7?.

has putting the heating on not done anything for your condensation?.

jo-anne

sorry,also we leave heating on 500 /1000 depending on temperature outside but makes no noticeable difference.

 

[DeliDave]

bumped up as comments do not move post

 

[Hamer_5041128]

Hi,sorry for delay in reply,for first time we did not use shower in van but site showers as Black Horse ones were stunning.But although we keep the heating on,the ends were cool,we posted about this and are :- 1) insulating the ducting were it goes under the van doorway.2) Seeing if the thermostat to the electric heater is in the right place,if not fting remote sensor adjacent to gas thermostat as advice given on another site.

There are only two of us in van and we dont use it much in winter.I accept there is damp in van from storage and that for a few days this will evaporate and disperse but it was still bad even at the end of our 7 day break.

I am delighted with the van and also dealers service,picked up new doorlock and fridge panel today which I am fitting purely to save me taking van back,they would happily fit them and I would not sour this relationship with legal threats but I look forward to seeing a solution to this problem as I sympathise with jo-anne alan and others who have this problem.Leaving windows open when it is snowing is not a very practical solution.

Thank you for your interest.

Deli Dave,

As i have stated the only window we leave open is the small kitchen window and then only on the night catch, so it is only just open.

We and friends have winter caravaned for many years in all sorts of temperatures and have worked out our stratergy initially by trial and error.

This has involved for ourselves and friends four caravans with alloy windows. Since getting our stratergy right we have had no condensation.

One caravan is kept in storage but under cover.

Hamer

 

[bill_374352895]

I would have thought this thread should have been on the TECHNICAL section. But it may be the answer to my plea for help and info in the TECH section. See my post under Bailey Series five Senator - Condensation and Mould.

Bill

 

[Ian341]

Hi All

We are currently spending the easter weekend in our static caravan and as the weather is so awful we are spending most of our time indoors, the windows in this van are aluminium framed and the frames are condensing every night. The water is going into the channels at the bottom but instead of filling up it is emptying outside. The frames have a really small hole drilled either end of the channels and this allows the water to empty to the outside.

Could this be what Swift, Bailey and the rest need to do to help this problem ??

Hope this helps

Ian

 

[DeliDave]

its good thinking the water would not be so much of a problem if i knew it wouldnt damage the structure

 

[Jo-AnneFairway5402010]

Ian, my dealer said it would be a good idea for the frames to have a tiny hole so they could empty outside.

maybe they will in the future.

jo-anne

 

[BigRoy]

I took this photo at the weekend while away in the van (apologies for the quality) the pooling seems worse on the seals and the windows are bone dry, the van is an 07 Swift Challenger

 

[BigRoy]

I took this photo at the weekend while away in the van (apologies for the quality) the pooling seems worse on the seals and the windows are bone dry, the van is an 07 Swift Challenger

oops will try again

 

[BigRoy]

try this

http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?&p=999&uid=4472723&gid=19343399&&imgid=310342937&offset=0

 

[BrianStAlbans]

hope this works for you Roy

 

[Lutz]

The amount of condensation shown on Big Roy's picture is fairly typical and I wouldn't have thought that it would pose a problem as it doesn't seem to be going over the rubber seal. It is also in line with my experience.

 

[BigRoy]

Thanks for that Brian, could you tell me how you uploaded it to the forum, I used to use Steve's photo tool but for obvious reasons it doesn't work anymore

If you look closely at the other photo's you can see water pooling on the seals between the window and the frames

 

[Jo-AnneFairway5402010]

UPDATE TO ALL. We have just come back from 5 days in derbyshire. We took advise from alot of you fellow caravanners especially Hamer.

We kept the heating on 24/7 as suggested by hamer and others, put the omni on whilst cooking and kept the door shut as much as possible. sometimes it did get a bit to hot so we knocked it down to either 500 or 1000. most of the time it was on 2000.

There was no condensation on the windows at all there was a tiny bit on the black rubber and nothing really at all on the frames.

one night we had all the kids in with us as no awning on last night, turned the heating down and put some bedding and cushions under the made up bed in front. so the heating was on low and not circulating as it should ( cause of blankets etc ) and guess what the condensation/pools appeared.

so the key is keep the heating on 24/7 on 2000 and about 8/9 and on about 2 to 2 half on heater itself if you get me. if its to hot them turn it down to 1000.

Thanks for all your help and advise especially HAMER your a star.

jo-anne

 

[Martin_374323560]

I have been watching this thread with a lot of interest, as I have a Series 6 Wyoming (like Alan) and I tow it with a Sorento too.....but that's by the by!!

Having just been away for 10 days in the Cotswolds, with snow, low temps etc, I'm pleased to report that I had no problems with pools of water on any of the windows in the morning or any other part of the day come to that......

As Jo-anne outlines in her post, keep the heating on all day, drop it down to 1KW at night and bob's your Father's cousin, as they say......Oh, and use the omnivent when cooking!

Cheers

Martin

 

[DeliDave]

we have just been away this weekend,improved heating by lagging the ducting ,bit more to do next weekend still.Opened the blinds on aluminium windows up an inch and had no condensation to speak of.Hope it might help.

 

[Dustydog]

Just returned from Grinlow Buxton after two weeks of sub zero temperatures and snow blizzards, we do enjoy the snow and so do the dogs.

We followed Hamers advice to the letter but found we were far too hot at night.However , no condensation.

Like Jo-anne we experimented and turned the heating down to 1000 with the fan on auto. Condensation appeared. Next night 1000 but with fan on manual set at 5, no cond on frames but there was on the black rubber at bottom of windows.

It was very noticeable that the aluminium was extremely cold which leads me to believe the outside temperature is being transmitted to the inside. So maybe the theory that the thermal bridging has not worked could be true. The front three non aluminium windows had no problem at all.

Just like Deli Dave we left the blinds up just enough so that the lower ally part was not covered. At 1000, manual fan at 5 no condensation but ay minor amount on the black rubber.

In conclusion , mainly following Hamer's advice the condensation problem can be overcome. However it remains a material fact that the aluminium window frames do not perform as well as the "originals".

Cheers

Alan

 

[Royston]

This has been a very interesting forum,Alans last comments reminded me when double glazing for your house first came out the inside of the frames in winter where very very cold to touch, that was why we changed to the plastic frames much warmer, cannot for the life of me understand why they had to introduce these alum frames into their top range, something i pray that they do not introduce into the lower ranges, and when i next purchase another van, i will avoid these windows like the plague.

Royston

 

[Dustydog]

Hi Royston

The number of posts on this thread must be a record.

Nick Howard, MD at Bailey has taken a personal interest in this matter and maybe for the future things may change.I cannot speak for Nick but at least he has had the decency to correspond with me personally on the matter. Confidentiality precludes me from saying any more. The problem is seasonal and I suspect Polyplastic got it wrong. Reinventing the wheel and all that.

Aesthetically I couldn't care less about ally window frames and I do not think they really add anything at all.

The more of us who air our views on these type of subjects with caravan manufacturers can only be good for the future. It's just a shame that Polyplastic and Swift closed the door on us all here.

Again , many thanks to Hamer for all his experiments which have helped me and others reduce the problem to negligible levels.

Cheers

Alan

 

[Keith_374359272]

Hi Royston

The number of posts on this thread must be a record.

Nick Howard, MD at Bailey has taken a personal interest in this matter and maybe for the future things may change.I cannot speak for Nick but at least he has had the decency to correspond with me personally on the matter. Confidentiality precludes me from saying any more. The problem is seasonal and I suspect Polyplastic got it wrong. Reinventing the wheel and all that.

Aesthetically I couldn't care less about ally window frames and I do not think they really add anything at all.

The more of us who air our views on these type of subjects with caravan manufacturers can only be good for the future. It's just a shame that Polyplastic and Swift closed the door on us all here.

Again , many thanks to Hamer for all his experiments which have helped me and others reduce the problem to negligible levels.

Cheers

Alan

I read the postings about the condensation problems with Swift windows in February just after we had placed an order for a Swift Conqueror 645 and were really worried about them,

We took delivery on the 3rd of March and have had no problems with condensation in the 3 1/2 weeks we have used it so far, we have used it frosty conditions and a little snow but it has been fine.

I wonder if our experience has been helped by the excellent Alde heating that is fitted to this model?

We did experience some alarm problems, but recived some great help from both Sargent and Phantom and we are convinced this is a one of and that both companies kit is of premium quality.

Hegards

Keith