Searching for draughts

Has any one got any good recommendations for looking for draughts in my 2005 dorset, whilst sat on the sofa i can feel a really cold air on the underside of my legs, iv been round the whole van with a lighter looking for the flame to flicker dramatically but dont seem to be seei g much, is there a common place on these vans to let air in? Thanks in advance
Dean

If you have the dashboard heater control to bring air in from outside, set it to recirculate instead.

Don't forget you have floor vents in our vans, usually located under the seats and cooker.
I have unscrewed several plastic covers covering voids in around the cab area and filled up the voids with loft insulation off cuts, seems to work.
Boaby

Thanks paul, iv made sure its on recirculate and also made sure the vents are shut also, its weird as i can the draught on my legs with jeans on but cant seem to find or deel it whilst searching for it.

Boaby, tbe draught seems to be waste heigjt or tbere abouts if tbat makes sense, i always seem ro feel it around my keg area whilst sat down, not so much on the feet

Have you checked around the fridge?

Hi roger, yeah iv been all round the fridge area and cant seem to feel or see anything (using the lighter flame) possibly not windy enough out side mind.ncan fairly feel the chill when ligged in the fart sack ha

Hi Dean
Some fridge vents can let in a fair amount of draft, especially if you broadside to the wind.
We are coasties and had to turn our van around more than once in Whitby.
Boaby


Too late ,Roger beat me to it  
Boaby

Any outside locker that is accessible from inside usually allows droughts to chill your legs and feet. Where air enters through lesser gaps, such will be the force to disturb the flame from said cigarette lighter. But from the large expanse of the cab, the draught is much more subtle to effect the flame but enough to move the invading cold air usually at floor level. If you were able to light a taper of some sort that gave off white smoke, perhaps this would more accurately give origin and direction of the droughts.

With reference to above, found these:

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Now in no way is this a recommendation for their use inside your motor-home, just given as a possible way forward. Your decision.

You can get a draft from the roof Heki vent if the seal has been cut or damaged at any time, I've replaced the seal on my Sigma and had to do the same on my last van. Both had drafts coming down, maybe to high up to cause cold legs?    
Boaby

We also get the Heki draught. I keep saying I'll buy a seal for it. Many don't have the seal for safety reasons, they have to have so much ventilation in a van but I reckon there's enough with all the draughts and gaps around vans .

Boaby, il keep that in mind next time im pulled up, il swing the van round and see if that makes a difference, or il see if there is any kind of flap or cover to go over the vents, the fridge is never on gas really.

Para, after looking into smoke pens and thi gs iv settled on using some insence sticks, it wont over power the van with smoke but will. Produce enough smoke to identify any draughts, if nowt else itl make the van smell good, cheers for the idea of using smoke.

Paul,boady. Il be sure to have a look at the roof vent, it is fairly noisy at speed on the motorway but guessing thats normal with the wind lifting it up, it might have lifted the seal or something. Il  sure to check round there tho. Just need a breezy day to come now to have a look.

Thanks all for your help and advise

Hi.

I wouldn't completely block off the fridge vents even if not using gas as the fridge still needs cooling air to remove heat from the condenser.

Do you have winter covers for them and if so are they in place? Those are not designed to eliminate draughts but to aid efficient operation of the fridge in cold weather.

We eliminated the huge draughts by sealing around the fridge body where there was a small gap between the surrounding panels.

There have been several past threads about this.

Good luck, I hope you find the source.

Cheers
Roger

Dave 418

Perhaps I am teaching you to suck eggs, but just in case you don't already know.........

The Ford Transit has a motor powered changeover from fresh to recirculated air, so if you want to switch to recirculate at night to reduce draughts, you must do this with the ignition on and give the electric motor about 10 seconds to effect the change. If you don't do this, then the heater switch will show the ventilation set to recirculate, but the air (wind) will still be coming in through the cab vents. The effect of this is to make any other air gaps that exist (particularly round the fridge) that much more effective in letting cold air into the van.

Check round the cooker, on our Duetto there was a strong draft from the 'vent' at the foot of the oven door, also from the gas drops in the Eberspacher and water heater box, closing all roof vent blinds will also help.
frederic

After having another ratch around iv found that some if the draft is coming from under the sofa bed, where the ebersparcher is stored along with the water heater, the little pull down thing for the sofa to be pulled out has cold air coming through as has the little hot air vent. This. Might not be the only points where its coming in but its a start, iv sealed it the best i can with some material from my work thats used to make filters and iv also ordered some winter things for the fridge vents on the out side. Once iv put them on im going to go round the van with a insense stick to see if i can find any more draughts, hopefully theyl produce enough smoke . really appreciate everyones input and adviae, great place to come for advice.
Dean

Dean
Not knowing the exact layout but on my 2012 Dorset i was feeling the same it took a long time but now i think I have cracked it.
Mine was most noticable when the heater was on and the cause was that the inlet pipe for the heater was just to one side of the sliding door thus it was pulling cold air towards this area hence the cold air feeling around the main seating area.
I have put pipes and two new outlet vents one in the step and one in the seat area facing into main habitation area, I have also disconnected the inlet pipe from the inlet grill and left it loose in the false floor so the air drawn is now a lot less.
Hope it makes sense

Remember that that hot air vent is the return pathway for the Eberspacher heated air.
Our Duetto is the same I think and we do get some draft from those two you have mentioned 
one way would be to connect the return vent by a pipe to the Eberspacher not as it is on ours by the air being taken from the enclosure space.
frederic