When leaving the van for a long period of time i.e. over winter should you close the windows fully or leave them on the vent setting so air can circulate???
We close ours fully, we also go out and open the whole thnig up on a nice day to air it through. To draw the moisture out of the air, we place a dish of salt at each endof the van and one on the work surface in the centre.
We also remove all the soft furnishings into the house & keep them at room temperature. This must have ome as a shock to the scum who pinched our last van off the drive, all they took was an empty box lol.
We only use our van between Easter & September so once it's parked up we start to winterise it & it's all cleaned and put away before the bad weather hits us.
We also drain down all the fluids, we leave the drain valve open on the water heater & also leave the taps open.
I also remove the toilet cassette, swill it out, allow it to dry & store it in a bin liner up in the attic & I put the battery in the garage so I can keep it charged up.
I like the idea of leaving a vent cracked, but my wife hates the idea of a spider crawling in ! she absolutely hates them (although i haven't told her that they could get in via any vent etc)
There's adequate ventilation within the van as it is. The rooflights provide natural venting as they don't fully shut/seal, plus there's various grills etc., dotted around to vent sufficiently.
Dehumidifiers and the such don't really provide any further moisture extraction; all they do is draw moisture that's naturally present within the air anyway and give the false impression that they're of some benefit.
We've worked on this principle for some years now and have not had any issue with damp etc., as a consequence.
there is a chance of damage to the work surface polish from the gasses given of from the salt.best to leave on the floor.
i use a dehumidifier constantly on a low setting it does make a difference to the atmosphere in the caravan and keeps it dry inside.got a cover for winter not used as yet.
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Before closing the windows for winter rub some olive oil around the rubber seals to avoid them drying out and cracking.
Phil
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We just open the van up all through the winter period at different intervals such as on a nice sunny day and have had no problems over the last 20 years.Ian
Quote: Originally posted by abi89 on 26/9/2011
and give the bowl of salt a go :)
The problem with just a couple of small bowls of salt is that you only extract the water from the air that passes over it, leaving the rest of the damp air to freely circulate in & out of caravan thru the fixed ventilation.
If you want to extract & store the water from most of the air that passes thru caravan you need to cover floor & all other surfaces with bowls of salt.
Do this & you should end up with several gallons of water stored inside your caravan. It does seem odd to me that anybody should want to store water inside their caravan over winter, but plenty do so who am I to argue?
Quote: Originally posted by abi89 on 26/9/2011
...and give the bowl of salt a go :)
The problem with just a couple of small bowls of salt is that you only extract the water from the air that passes over it, leaving the rest of the damp air to freely circulate in & out of caravan thru the fixed ventilation.
If you want to extract & store the water from most of the air that passes thru caravan you need to cover floor & all other surfaces with bowls of salt.
Do this & you should end up with several gallons of water stored inside your caravan. It does seem odd to me that anybody should want to store water inside their caravan over winter, but plenty do so who am I to argue?
Quote: Originally posted by abi89 on 26/9/2011and give the bowl of salt a go :)
The problem with just a couple of small bowls of salt is that you only extract the water from the air that passes over it, leaving the rest of the damp air to freely circulate in & out of caravan thru the fixed ventilation.
If you want to extract & store the water from most of the air that passes thru caravan you need to cover floor & all other surfaces with bowls of salt.
Do this & you should end up with several gallons of water stored inside your caravan. It does seem odd to me that anybody should want to store water inside their caravan over winter, but plenty do so who am I to argue?
Completely agree, its like trying to use your cars air conditioning when the windows are open.
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Topic: A quick question
she absolutely hates them (although i haven't told her that they could get in via any vent etc) 
