Unoccupied RV Humid Months

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ina_gadda_da_vida

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Jan 7, 2019
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A business commitment means that my RV will need to sit unoccupied for 4 months during the most humid months of the year.  Is there anything that needs to be done preparation wize before I leave to avoid any long term damage to the RV.

Thanks in advance, Bill 
 
Can you tell us where you are located, the most humid months of the year are very different between Southern New Mexico, and Southern Louisiana
 
It would also help to know what type of RV
TT..Class A/C?

Will you have it plugged in?

And Welcome to the forum Bill
 
If you have electric set the A/C to 84 degrees. That's how we leave our house in Florida for the summer. If you don't have A/C leave your roof vents open with maxAir covers on them. Do not cover with a plastic tarp. If you cover it must breathe. Lots of damp rid. I leave mine for 8 months uncovered with the vents open is MA. We are there for 4 months in the summer.
 
Thank you for the welcome. 

I am just south of Dallas Texas and my RV is a 30' Jayco.  Everything will be turned off but it will be plugged in while i am gone.
 
In that case at a minimum you will want to run exhaust fans to circulate air, running the air conditioner set at around 88 degrees would also be very helpful, this is not about cooling the RV, but is about sucking the humidity out, assuming the RV is parked outdoors, it should hit well over 90 degrees on any sunny day throughout the entire humid season in Texas.
 
I'd be reluctant to leave something electrical on unless I was checking it daily. Maybe I'm odd  ;D

Welcome to the forum Bill....
 
jackiemac said:
I'd be reluctant to leave something electrical on unless I was checking it daily. Maybe I'm odd  ;D
Welcome to the forum Bill....
Click to expand...

I would be reluctant as well...but in four months it's going to get a very strong musty smell that may be difficult to remove. I would at least run the exhaust fan...But the A/C would be the better choice. It wouldn't hurt to have someone come over and check things at least every couple days.

Another thing not mention;
The water traps / commode will no doubt dry out in 4 months. Add some vegetable oil to cover the water in each opening. You only need enough to form a layer of oil over the water. You don't want to come home to a RV smelling like sewer gas.
 
Several years ago friends in the UK owned the equivalent of a park model at a holiday resort. Thanks to local weather, their summer season was fairly short, and their 'prevention' measure for moisture was to leave buckets of salt inside the RV. I'm not sure the salt did much, because every spring they'd have to wash down the interior walls with bleach.
 
If your concern is humidity, get a dehumidifier. Set it on the countertop with the drain running into the sink. It would be next to impossible to get enough water to fill your gray tank.

Other than humidity, I don't see anything wrong with just letting it set for four months.
 
Use a couple  of large containers of "Damp Rid" from Walmart or other store. Worked well for us in South Florida summers.....

A dehumifier will work as well as long as 120V and a place to drain it are available. Our (new) dehumidfier from Whirlpool (Costco) has 3 draining methods, a small bucket to be emptied by hand, OR a small line emptied by a built in pump and into a sink drain (advantage, it can sit on the floor), OR a larger line into a floor drain or sink drain if sitting on a counter top. We used the pump method last summer along with some Damp Rid and had not problems last summer. In prior years  we used only Damp Rid and that worked ok too.
 
Alaskansnowbirds said:
If your concern is humidity, get a dehumidifier. Set it on the countertop with the drain running into the sink. It would be next to impossible to get enough water to fill your gray tank.

Other than humidity, I don't see anything wrong with just letting it set for four months.
Click to expand...

Having had a 70 pint dehumidifier running 24/7 in the basement of the last house we had, I would deduce that statement is incorrect. It was a non-stop trickle of water. There's no way I would run a dehumidifier for 4 months into my closed up gray tank(s). Maybe the humidity is worse here on the Delmarva peninsula.
 
Alaskansnowbirds said:
If your concern is humidity, get a dehumidifier. Set it on the countertop with the drain running into the sink. It would be next to impossible to get enough water to fill your gray tank.

Other than humidity, I don't see anything wrong with just letting it set for four months.
Click to expand...

I don't know about that we had one in a small temporary building office in south Louisiana at one point, and it had to be emptied at least once per day, and as I recall the reservoir held almost a gallon.
 
I recently installed a dehumidifier in the basement of our part time home in the MidWest, and I was emptying the 2 gallon container every 2 days. I finally attached a regular hose, and it's a continual drip into the sump.
 
Dehumidifiers come in sizes up to 70 pint / 24 hour capacity.  70 pints  /8 pints / gal = 8.75 gal/day or 60 gal / week.

That is MAX CAPACITY.  As others have said, 1 - 2 gal / day is more realistic.  That is still up to 60 gal / month.

Can you run the drain hose outside or just leave the CLEANED gray tank open, since only clean water is going in?
 
Agreed that it would leave me with an uneasy feeling leaving anything running.  Things happen all the time when noone is around.

It would be nice to know the time it would take for any permanent damage to occur.  I may have to demand to the client that it is imparetive that I return once every 30 days for 2 days and then return.  The thought is that after 30 days I could return and run the AC for 2 days and then leave, and then repeat until the job is done.

Appreciate the welcome, this seems like a nice place for RV people.
 
What works excellent:
We have a new trailer and for the past two summers it has been left in Key largo, (think high humidity) for six months.
We asked all our neighbors who have been here for many years what they do.
It is just the opposite of what everyone else is telling you.( no damp rid and no ventilation)
The office at our RV park as well as the local RV dealer here in Key Largo carry it.
It is little packs that you open and put on the Floor (the directions tell how many per square feet, and I think we use three for a 37 foot trailer.)
The Directions: The RV should be closed as tight as possible, (have no ventilation- Close all vents and openings).
When you open the RV back up dispose of the little packs and open all the windows and doors to air it out and while it is airing out don't go in it.
The directions also state that it will not work if vents are open or if air is being circulated

The  first year we used it we were amazed at how perfect it worked  The trailer looked brand new, when we opened it up and then again the same this year, (zero mold and not a dead or live bug to be found).

Needless to say we will be using it again when we head north in the spring

We used the one from the RV dealer which is a little different then the one the RV park carries, and if you want the name of it  I can call them and get it for you.

Jack L
 
Jack, it would be great to get the name of that product. I'm sure many people here would like to try it. Thanks.
 
I'd like to also welcome the OP to the greatest RV forum on earth. You have a different forum name. Can you tell me what it represents?
 
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