Damp traps

[Richtee180]

I'm visiting our caravan tomorrow for the first time since we put the deposit down in October, we were thinking of putting down some of those plastic traps to collect moisture, is that a good idea.

 

[Mr Plodd]

This subject has been discussed, ad nauseum many many times.
There are those who swear by them, and others who consider them a total waste of time.
Ask yourself the following question
Have you ever seen them in use at a caravan dealers? The answer to which will be no.

Doubtless many will come along extolling their virtues and insisting they have removed X litres of water from inside their caravan. But caravans are designed to have air circulating through them, so any de-humidifier is basically trying to dehumidity the planet.

I have had motorhomes and caravans fir 20+ years, they have all been well ventilated , and I have never had an issue with damp and or condensation.

 

[Richtee180]

This subject has been discussed, ad nauseum many many times.
There are those who swear by them, and others who consider them a total waste of time.
Ask yourself the following question
Have you ever seen them in use at a caravan dealers? The answer to which will be no.

Doubtless many will come along extolling their virtues and insisting they have removed X litres of water from inside their caravan. But caravans are designed to have air circulating through them, so any de-humidifier is basically trying to dehumidity the planet.

I have had motorhomes and caravans fir 20+ years, they have all been well ventilated , and I have never had an issue with damp and or condensation.

I've never been to a caravan dealer as such, we use them around the house and they collect water.
Apologies for being an irritating newbie.

 

[Parksy]

I've never been to a caravan dealer as such, we use them around the house and they collect water.
Apologies for being an irritating newbie.

No matter how many times this subject has been discussed, you're new to the forum and your question is perfectly valid.

 

[Mr Grumpy]

You don't need to spend out on plastic traps.
An few old cereal bowls scattered around with some salt in will do the same job if you feel you really do need to put something out.

 

[Buckman]

In the past 20 years we have never used them as it would be like trying dehumidify the planet.

 

[Mr Plodd]

I've never been to a caravan dealer as such, we use them around the house and they collect water.
Apologies for being an irritating newbie.

You are most certainly not an irritating anything!!
My attitude is there is no such thing as a stupid question, onLy a fool who doesn't ask it
.
It's a very valid question, and if you have a search you will find some lengthy threads going back years on the forum. They are a bit of a Marmite thing, some think they are pointless, others they are wonderful.
Read all the threads and decide for yourself.

Those moisture traps will always collect water because the air always has moisture suspended in it. The "issue" with caravans is condensation, and the simplest cure is maintaining sufficient ventilation so everything inside stays the same temperature as outside. No cold surfaces for condensation to form on.
It's good practice to leave all of tje internal cupboards open so air can fully circulate.

 

[Richtee180]

You are most certainly not an irritating anything!!
My attitude is there is no such thing as a stupid question, onLy a fool who doesn't ask it
.
It's a very valid question, and if you have a search you will find some lengthy threads going back years on the forum. They are a bit of a Marmite thing, some think they are pointless, others they are wonderful.
Read all the threads and decide for yourself.

Those moisture traps will always collect water because the air always has moisture suspended in it. The "issue" with caravans is condensation, and the simplest cure is maintaining sufficient ventilation so everything inside stays the same temperature as outside. No cold surfaces for condensation to form on.
It's good practice to leave all of tje internal cupboards open so air can fully circulate.

Thanks yeah I did try and search the posts first but wasn't sure what they were actually called.

I had a car that was always damp on the windows inside when I got in it, I hung up a couple of those hanging bag ones, they filled up with water quite quickly, but I burst one of the bags on the carpet and it never dried, there was this horrible film across the area for a couple of years.

 

[otherclive]

Never used them. I just opened all lockers, doors, wardrobe and cupboards, lifted bedding and seating so the under lockers could vents. This gives good ventilation and prevented any mould developing.

 

[Buckman]

My attitude is there is no such thing as a stupid question, onLy a fool who doesn't ask it

Maybe you would like to rephrase the above and leave out the "who"? I get what you are trying to say. LOL!

 

[Hutch]

When we first started caravanning, we used them every time after a trip out, always got filled with the salt chemical, then one day spilt the acid on a carpet, that destroyed that. So didn't bother again, and we have never had a damp problem. You will get more moisture in the van after a rainy week away.

 

[Raywood]

They are no use for storage. Caravans have lots of air circulation and after the initial water removal you are simply drying the air outside. They may be useful if the caravan is used in cold and damp weather though.

 

[Sam Vimes]

I'm visiting our caravan tomorrow for the first time since we put the deposit down in October, we were thinking of putting down some of those plastic traps to collect moisture, is that a good idea.

Please don't be put off this forum by some of the less than helpful replies you may get at times. Its true that the same questions get asked over and over again but this forum has a lot of users who have a lot of experience spread over many year. It's not surprising that the same thing gets asked repeatedly and not just by new comers but those with years of experience as well.

There are times when we can all learn something new.

Equally its not being foolish not to ask a question. Sometimes people feel that they may appear stupid or ignorant when asking others and this puts them off, especially if past experience has subjected them to less than helpful answers. We were all newbies at one time or another.

And just to get philosophical - Absence of evidence is not necesarily Evidence of Abscence (or vice versa ). True you wont see a moisture trap in the caravans dealers are selling. They're hardly likely to do so and highlight to prospective customers that damp/condensation may be a potential problem.

From my own experience two cases:-

We had an old cottage with solid brick walls and one corner cupboard with no ventilation. Winter times condensation formed on the walls. The moisture traps helped mitigate some of that.

When we moved to a new area our caravan suffered from condensation in the winter, which we'd not come across previously. I tried moisture traps but was fully expecting them to not be effective. They weren't any good in general because the caravan is a large space with many places from which moist air can enter. They had a minor localised effect so basically not much use.

However, Plan B was to ensure better air circulation throughout and now the caravan appears - as someone else here described - like an explosion in a furniture show room. All the seat cushions are lifted up, cupboard doors open and vent holes not obscured. It works.

 

[Beachball]

Use these plastic trap in our last caravan which we use to leave in storage over the winter open everything doors, cupboards, lockers and fridge excellent product no damp or moist to be found, we also kept some for our home .

 

[otherclive]

Use these plastic trap in our last caravan which we use to leave in storage over the winter open everything doors, cupboards, lockers and fridge excellent product no damp or moist to be found, we also kept some for our home .

We didn’t get any damp or moisture without using the traps. So could it be the opening up and overall ventilation that does the trick?

 

[Dustydog]

Use these plastic trap in our last caravan which we use to leave in storage over the winter open everything doors, cupboards, lockers and fridge excellent product no damp or moist to be found, we also kept some for our home .

BB At the end of winter storage how wet were these strips?

 

[ProfJohnL]

Not everybody understands the relationships between Humidity atmospheric Temperature and pressure, and how that all relates to the moisture content of materials and the air. Realistically it's too complex to fully explain in a reasonable reply.

Suffice to say: The ability of materials (such as air and wood) to absorb moisture increases with temperature, and when moisture laden material cools any moisture in excess of its ability (at that temperature) will evaporate into the air or condense into water droplets. That is essentially how rain is caused in the atmosphere.

When we use caravans, we tend to keep them warmer, so both the air and other fabrics will be able to absorb the water vapour we create when we breath. An adult will normally exhale between 100 to 200mL of water over 24hours. Cooking and boiling kettles, even burning an open flame will all produce water vapour so whilst we use our caravans the moisture content of a caravan will increase.

Consequently when we put a caravan into storage and it begins to cool down, the moisture laden materials will be unable to carry all the moisture, so they will slowly release any excess back into the air inside the caravan. Where the air is trapped and can't circulate properly or where that air finds an even cooler surface like a window or door frame it will drop the moisture as condensation.

Caravans are designed with a certain amount of "fixed Ventilation" which should never be obstructed. The vents will eventually change the air in the caravan with the ambient air outside. But no all spaces have access to proper ventilation which is why many caravanners lift the cushions and open lockers and cupboards to allow good ventilation throughout.

Over a few days in storage, the levels of moisture in the furnishings will equalise with the ambient levels in the environment.

If there is some reason you need to get the moisture levels down more quickly, then you can use dehumidifies, but once the moisture levels have equalised with the external ambient, there is no advantage to continually use dehumidifiers, as all they will be doing is reducing the humidity of newly introduced air which will quickly be replaced with other incoming ambient air so it won't make any significant difference to the caravan's overall moisture levels.

The caravan won't be harmed if you decide to continually use a dehumidifier, but your pocket money will be depleted, and there are some ecological concerns with some desiccant materials used in some chemical moisture traps.

 

[Richtee180]

Please don't be put off this forum by some of the less than helpful replies you may get at times. Its true that the same questions get asked over and over again but this forum has a lot of users who have a lot of experience spread over many year. It's not surprising that the same thing gets asked repeatedly and not just by new comers but those with years of experience as well.

There are times when we can all learn something new.

Equally its not being foolish not to ask a question. Sometimes people feel that they may appear stupid or ignorant when asking others and this puts them off, especially if past experience has subjected them to less than helpful answers. We were all newbies at one time or another.

And just to get philosophical - Absence of evidence is not necesarily Evidence of Abscence (or vice versa ). True you wont see a moisture trap in the caravans dealers are selling. They're hardly likely to do so and highlight to prospective customers that damp/condensation may be a potential problem.

From my own experience two cases:-

We had an old cottage with solid brick walls and one corner cupboard with no ventilation. Winter times condensation formed on the walls. The moisture traps helped mitigate some of that.

When we moved to a new area our caravan suffered from condensation in the winter, which we'd not come across previously. I tried moisture traps but was fully expecting them to not be effective. They weren't any good in general because the caravan is a large space with many places from which moist air can enter. They had a minor localised effect so basically not much use.

However, Plan B was to ensure better air circulation throughout and now the caravan appears - as someone else here described - like an explosion in a furniture show room. All the seat cushions are lifted up, cupboard doors open and vent holes not obscured. It works.

Thanks some good points, we visited and it was surprisingly dry as a bone, and pleasantly warm inside, no condensation at all.
Now to kit it out.
I bought a hitchlock, a new truma pipe not a pump, the same that was in the sink, it looked manky, a fire extinguisher, there was no ehu power lead.

Luckily my neighbour is an seasoned caravaner so I'm getting pointers from him and of course the helpful youtube videos.
But it's just nice to be able to get experienced advice direct on here.

I've been on Av Forums for 20 years, you get a mixed bag of advice on there too.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Having a friend or a family member or a neighbour who are keen caravanner are a fantastic resource, and most caravanners are open to offering advice and even helping out with problems. Use them wisely.