Should I leave heat on in the winter?

[BehindBars]

Originally Posted by catcottf

HI All,
Good afternoon. Just another day in Paradise. Sorry, forgot to leave the info on the dehumidifier:
https://www.westmarine.com/buy/west-...0v-ac--7867518

Since this is labeled as a dehumidifier, I wondered, where does the water collect and how often does it need to be emptied? Well, according to west Marine, it is simply a heater with a fan. "Verified Reply - West Marine Customer Service: This slightly warms and circulates air to keep condensation down. It does not collect water."

So this is nothing more than a less-than-100 watt heater/fan that moves air and marginally lowers the relative humidity by slightly increasing the temperature. There are other very small space heaters with fan available for well under $99.99

[burks]

Originally Posted by catcottf

HI All,
Good afternoon. Just another day in Paradise. Sorry, forgot to leave the info on the dehumidifier:
https://www.westmarine.com/buy/west-...0v-ac--7867518

We used that same dehumidifier in our travel trailer. The first year everything was great but last year we had light mildew everywhere. We are in Georgia. I was really counting on it to work but I am using a small ceramic heater to circulate the air this winter.

[GFD47]

Originally Posted by burks

We used that same dehumidifier in our travel trailer. The first year everything was great but last year we had light mildew everywhere. We are in Georgia. I was really counting on it to work but I am using a small ceramic heater to circulate the air this winter.

Mildew grows in warm wet air as well as cold wet air. Your heater will probably keep the mildew down as long as you have a vent cracked open somewhere for the moisture to escape. Don't trust the heater to eliminate all the mildew if you're sealed up. And be sure to leave all your closet and cupboard doors open so the warm air can get to them as well.

A $300 dehumidifier will REMOVE the moisture without leaving a vent open, and will use less electricity than a heater. If I was worried about my gray tank freezing, which In my case is unlikely, I would simply leave the bathroom gray tank drain valve open, take the four-pronged cover off the drain line, and collect the condensate outside in a 5-gallon bucket that I'd have to empty once a month. I do leave the doors open on all the closets and cupboards that have an exterior wall, even with the dehumidifier.

[TowPro]

Originally Posted by Tinastone

The temps are 19 degrees all week. Yes Kingston, wa. Our 2020 forest river is plugged into electric power 110. So I was using electric power. We turned it all off. Sounds like since we are winterized we are good.
Thank you

remember that when your plugged in your also charging your batteries.
If your RV is now unplugged your no longer charging your battery. Unless you have a battery cutoff switch, your Rv will be using battery to run a CO and Propane sensor. a 27 series battery will fully go dead in a couple days.
Once a battery runs dead, the acid is converted to water and it will freeze.
did you do something to trickle charge the coach battery?, or pull it out and put it in a warm basement?

[NavyLCDR]

One more vote here for a dehumidifier. I am in Lebanon, OR. But I empty the collection tank rather than letting it overflow. Mine has a high level shut-off so it wouldn't overflow anway.

[Larry-NC]

Originally Posted by GFD47

Mildew grows in warm wet air as well as cold wet air. Your heater will probably keep the mildew down as long as you have a vent cracked open somewhere for the moisture to escape. Don't trust the heater to eliminate all the mildew if you're sealed up. And be sure to leave all your closet and cupboard doors open so the warm air can get to them as well.

A $300 dehumidifier will REMOVE the moisture without leaving a vent open, and will use less electricity than a heater. If I was worried about my gray tank freezing, which In my case is unlikely, I would simply leave the bathroom gray tank drain valve open, take the four-pronged cover off the drain line, and collect the condensate outside in a 5-gallon bucket that I'd have to empty once a month. I do leave the doors open on all the closets and cupboards that have an exterior wall, even with the dehumidifier.

Differences between your approaches and mine:

Originally Posted by GFD47

Mildew grows in warm wet air as well as cold wet air.

Actually it grows faster in warm wet air than cold wet air. I've been coordinating disaster response to hurricanes Matthew and Florence (both storms of record) as well as Dorian and Isaias. The big issue with both of the first two was not the wind damage but the flooding that occurred days later under blue skies. The first order of response is picturesquely called muck-and-gut. Out goes the carpet, upholstered furniture, drywall and insulation to 2 feet above the water line, and the flooring. As soon as the rest dries, mold remediation must take place or the house will be overtaken by mold, which can be toxic.

Originally Posted by GFD47

A $300 dehumidifier will REMOVE the moisture without leaving a vent open, and will use less electricity than a heater.

I use the regular 30 pint (smallest size) dehumidifiers, but I buy them on Craigslist for $25. They will run forever with a little care. I have one that my neighbor gave me back in 1982 that I am still using in the house, and two from Craigslist, one in each trailer.

Originally Posted by GFD47

If I was worried about my gray tank freezing, which In my case is unlikely, I would simply leave the bathroom gray tank drain valve open, take the four-pronged cover off the drain line, and collect the condensate outside in a 5-gallon bucket that I'd have to empty once a month. I do leave the doors open on all the closets and cupboards that have an exterior wall, even with the dehumidifier.

I leave the gray valve open and connect my 23 gallon Barker sewage tote. It's HDPE and will sustain freezing. There's a tiny pinhole in the connector hose. If the Barker does get full (never has) then a little clean condensate from the dehumidifier will spill on the ground.

We try to leave cabinets open, but because we aren't in the unit producing moisture and the dehumidifier is removing most of it, it hasn't been an issue.

As you know, the amount of water vapor that air can hold depends on the temperature. As air cools, the amount of water vapor it can hold decreases. For example, a parcel of air near saturation may contain 28 g (0.99 oz) of water per cubic metre of air at 30 °C (86 °F), but only 8 g (0.28 oz) of water per cubic metre of air at 8 °C (46 °F). More simply, if the air is at 100% humidity at 46F and the temperature is raised to 86F it will only be at 29% humidity. As long as we can keep the amount of water in the air lower than the dew point (100%) level at the outside air temperature, there will be no condensation. We've never seen any condensation upon returning to the trailer. (Italicized sentence lifted from Wikipedia)

[Larry-NC]

Originally Posted by NavyLCDR

One more vote here for a dehumidifier. I am in Lebanon, OR. But I empty the collection tank rather than letting it overflow. Mine has a high level shut-off so it wouldn't overflow anyway.

I disable the "missing tank" switch and set it in the shower with the gray valve open and a 23-gallon sewage tote connected.. The trailer is about 150 miles from the house and I'm sure not going to make a 300 mile round trip to check the dehumidifier.

[Duckogram]

I live in FL, arguably the mold capital of the world. My unit sits outdoors, next to a leach field with no electric available other than plenty of Sunshine. Temps and humidity are regularly 90/90 in the summer and 70/60 in the winter. Right now it is 61/100! I use a 1 gal damp rid bucket and have zero mold. Cheap, no maintenance.

Eazy Peazy

The exterior is getting green again.

[Chuck_S]

Don't want my canned beans to freeze.

The beans, like most canned food, will be fine but some food may not be. Anything that can be damaged by freezing should come out during winterization not just draining the water system and dumping antifreeze in the drains.

I remove almost everything from my camper and boats. It's surprising what does not go back in in the Spring.

-- Chuck

[TowPro]

Originally Posted by NavyLCDR

One more vote here for a dehumidifier. I am in Lebanon, OR. But I empty the collection tank rather than letting it overflow. Mine has a high level shut-off so it wouldn't overflow anway.

but don't they say not to run a dehumidifier below something like 60 deg?

[Chuck_S]

Yep. Dehumidifier is just a refrigeration coil and if the humidity freezes on the coil -- vs just condensing and remaining liquid -- it can damage the unit.

-- Chuck

[Larry-NC]

Originally Posted by TowPro

but don't they say not to run a dehumidifier below something like 60 deg?

Yes, I lost one of the older $25 ones that way. All the newer ones have a thermostat and don't run below about 40 degrees. They have been on, unattended, through several winters with weeks below freezing.

[Larry-NC]

Originally Posted by Duckogram

I live in FL, arguably the mold capital of the world. My unit sits outdoors, next to a leach field with no electric available other than plenty of Sunshine. Temps and humidity are regularly 90/90 in the summer and 70/60 in the winter. Right now it is 61/100! I use a 1 gal damp rid bucket and have zero mold. Cheap, no maintenance.

Eazy Peazy

The exterior is getting green again.

Cheap, but it's an ongoing expense.

It's not "no maintenance." You have to be there and change it when it's saturated or it's useless. Our trailer is 2-1/2 hours away (one way). We needed a solution that needs no attendance for a couple of months at a time.

[Duckogram]

Originally Posted by Larry-NC

Cheap, but it's an ongoing expense.

It's not "no maintenance." You have to be there and change it when it's saturated or it's useless. Our trailer is 2-1/2 hours away (one way). We needed a solution that needs no attendance for a couple of months at a time.

If you have no electricity it is a very viable alternative. As for ongoing expense, unless you have free electricity you also have an ongoing expense with a dehumidifier.

If you have a drain for your dehumidifier and it freezes you could have a nice flood or even split the condensation tank. If you drain into your holding tank and it freezes, well we know what could happen then.
None of those things are likely to occur with a desiccant.

It is “no maintenance” if you consider that in this context, replacement is not maintenance.

As for driving 5 hrs round trip, I doubt that many, if any of the folks here park their motorhome up at “the lake”. It is not a trailer. Gensets, engines and transmissions need to be run monthly.

So while many months of no attendance will work for you, it does not work well here in F/SS country.

[maxxtc]

We have ours hooked to a residential propane tank and heat our fifth wheel year around, we use it as an office for the greenhouse and pull in the slides for the last part of December and open it up mid-March.

[Rancher Rob]

We winterized our RV ourselves last year for a cost of around $40 for 6 bottles of rv antifreeze.
This winter, for the first time since we bought it new, all the major systems are mostly working right and we’ve been trying to finally get some use out of it. So we’ve left it plugged in to our 240v receptacle and the two heat pump thermostats set to 60 degrees (lowest one of them will go) and the electric aqua hot running. It’s comfy in there with no condensation but judging by our electric bill, it’s costing us an additional $100 or so a month! So next year, hopefully we can get a lot of use out of it during the warm weather months and then assuming we’ll have had our fill, we’ll winterize it again.
We wanted to take it to Leavenworth this season but haven’t been gutsy enough to take it through the snowy passes to get there yet. Hopefully going to Mt. Hood Timberline for some skiing soon!

[gw1800]

Originally Posted by 5picker

Interesting.

If cold enough to winterize, how do you handle the 'gallons' of water that goes into the grey tank and P-trap from the dehumidifier?

Here in the East we winterize with antifreeze to keep water in the P-traps and dump valves from freezing by pouring that antifreeze down the drains during the winterization process. Having a dehumidifier running and draining into the already winterized traps would be counterproductive. In fact, that sounds disastrous at 19ºF mentioned by the OP.

In 40 years of storing a R/V over winter in the East, I've not ever seen enough condensation inside an R/V (which is the same temperature inside as ambient outside) to warrant running a dehumidifier.

Agreed. Plus the fact that the dehumidifier probably won't do anything. I relies on warm air to melt the frost on the condenser.

We keep out trailer in an outdoor storage lot. The only thing we do is keep one of the roof vents slightly open. DampRid in a few places inside. Also leave the cabinet doors open to allow air circulation.
Plus leaving heat on inside may draw furry little creatures. They are remarkable at finding ways to get inside.

[bkbonner]

We don't have as much moisture, but we buy a big container of dry-rid for any extra moisture.

[5picker]

Originally Posted by bkbonner

We don't have as much moisture, but we buy a big container of dry-rid for any extra moisture.

Assuming you meant DAMP-Rid?
I've not heard of the other.

[bkbonner]

Lol, yes. It's still too early.