Furnace issue

[LawrenceG]

Have a '14 Hawk which we love, of course. Have always had an issue with condensation when running the propane-fired furnace. Not something we do often -- my wife likes the mountain chill taken off in the mornings. But there are times when we run it for half and hour or so and when we do, moisture condenses throughout the unit. Looking to do some winter camping and am wondering how to minimize/eliminate the problem short of opening windows & vents. Thanks

 

[craig333]

Something plugging the exhaust? Nest of some sort maybe?

 

[Wallowa]

Something plugging the exhaust? Nest of some sort maybe?

We put screens of exhausts to exclude most insects [hornets/wasps etc] from building nests and blocking them...most RV vendors sell them in different sizes and they are inexpensive...

 

[esimmers]

Burning propane produces carbon dioxide and water, which is one reason to prefer an outside-venting appliance since neither of those products is to be desired in an enclosed space like a camper. It is a good idea, as already suggested, to make sure your furnace is properly vented.

But that's not the end of the inquiry if you're experiencing lots of condensation inside your camper on cold mornings.

Remember how on a hot muggy day you get all that condensation on the outside of your cold beer glass? That condensation happens because the cold glass cools the humid warm air along the outside of the glass. Cool air can't hold as much water vapor as warm air so some of the vapor condenses and is collected as water droplets on the outside of the beer glass.

The same thing happens on a cold morning in your camper. You've been exhaling lots of water vapor all night. Since the inside of the camper is relatively warmer than the outside, the warm inside air is able to hold a significant amount of water vapor. But along the sides of the camper, and anywhere else there's a cold surface, the adjoining air will be cooled and will lose some water vapor that condenses on the camper sides and cold surfaces as water.

You would like to minimize/eliminate the problem short of opening windows & vents. That's pretty hard to do unless you travel with a dehumidifier machine. Go ahead and open windows and vents a bit. Turn on your exhaust fan to low. You're probably heating water for coffee and tea so you want to exhaust the carbon dioxide and water produced by the stove anyway. Exhaust that humid air that's build all night and replace it with fresh low-condensation air from outside.

Our experience is that we'll always have some condensation on cold mornings to be toweled up, but the total amount is greatly reduced by opening a window and running the fan for a while.

Good luck!

 

[CougarCouple]

Could not have described it better esimmers. I would like to ask LawrenceG, have you slept with a lower air opening and a upper air opening just slightly opened? I find that helps greatly with reducing humidity inside. When percolating coffee it is a must and I open the roof vent all the way and place the fan on low exhausting the camper air.
Russ

 

[LawrenceG]

Thanks for the information!
L