Damp following first habitation check

Hi

We've just had the first habitation check completed on our 2016 Nuevo. It was done by our dealer who we have always been pleased with.

The damp check showed around 20% damp over various parts of the floor with 25% on the driver side under the locker. No plans around this other than to check again soon.

There was 40% damp between the habitation door and the fridge and when the fridge vents were removed, this level of damp was also evident on the floor behind the fridge.

The engineer felt that it was coming in at the fridge vents. They had been changed as part of the recall earlier this year but it is suspected that the fitting of new vents was perhaps not as good as it could have been.

We are booked in for new fridge vents to be fitted (again) but waiting for this to be confirmed from whomever sorts the warranty agreements.

I'll also ask the dealer to recheck damp levels generally across the floor.

This is my first experience of having damp and I thought forum users may have useful experience that you might share?

Is there something else that needs to happen to dry/sort the damp or is it simply an issue of changing the fridge vents and allowing the van to dry out naturally?

I'd appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks

L2

Now you have me worried. We too have a 2016 Nuevo EK which is due its 1st habitation check and has also been through the fridge vent recall. We chose the auto-sleeper after looking at most of the other UK built alternatives (Elddis, Bailey, Auto-Trail etc). Hope the decision does not prove to be wrong.

Lemon2 wrote:Hi

We've just had the first habitation check completed on our 2016 Nuevo. It was done by our dealer who we have always been pleased with.

The damp check showed around 20% damp over various parts of the floor with 25% on the driver side under the locker. No plans around this other than to check again soon.

There was 40% damp between the habitation door and the fridge and when the fridge vents were removed, this level of damp was also evident on the floor behind the fridge.

The engineer felt that it was coming in at the fridge vents. They had been changed as part of the recall earlier this year but it is suspected that the fitting of new vents was perhaps not as good as it could have been.

We are booked in for new fridge vents to be fitted (again) but waiting for this to be confirmed from whomever sorts the warranty agreements.

I'll also ask the dealer to recheck damp levels generally across the floor.

This is my first experience of having damp and I thought forum users may have useful experience that you might share?

Is there something else that needs to happen to dry/sort the damp or is it simply an issue of changing the fridge vents and allowing the van to dry out naturally?

I'd appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks

L2

Lemon2, did you mean the locker on the passenger side? I can only assume that dealers expect a motorhome will "dry out" through usage and by opening up the damp areas to allow air to circulate. That theory will only work if the source of the water ingress has been properly identified and rectified. My advice would be to ask your dealer for regular checks to be done to establish if the areas affected and the measured moisture level are increasing or diminishing.

Thanks for raising this topic. I also have 2016 Nuevo and I am now curious about the fridge vents. When I took my Van back to Willersey  for some warranty work they refitted the vents with what looks like a foam gasket. Is this the recall fix? 
Thanks
Pete

Hi

Thanks Tony, my terminology error. Apologies. The driver side floor in the under bench storage area has 25% damp, from the left hand side of the bench to just close to where the leisure battery is located.  

There was no explanation for this and the plan is just to keep an eye on it. I store bedding in there when on the move and leave it empty when the van is at home. Also keep a damp trap in there when at home and it pulls out a fair amount of moisture. I wonder whether it is coming through from the wheel arch but we'll keep an eye on that. 

Pete, the 40% damp on the passenger side is thought to be down to the fridge vents. The foam gasket was indeed the fix and if you look very closely at mine, you can see where the join is less than tight. They were fitted in February and so there has been lots of opportunity for the rain and road spray to ingress. I'm curious about how this can dry out given that the damp is 'trapped' between the fridge and the exterior wall but hopeful that a three week trip to Spain in September (where of course the sun will shine every day and there won't be a drop of rain...) may just allow it to dry out.

Oddly, I also keep a damp trap in the passenger side locker which is very close to this damp area and this pulls out very little.

I plan to ask the dealer to keep a regular eye on the damp across the floor in general and I am also thinking of investing in a damp reader.

Thanks
L2

Hi Lemon2, I'm astounded as to how calm you are about this whole event.    A one year old van having that level of damp at its first service  -  and not only in one isolated location.    I would be on directly to Autosleeper and making a lot of noise.     You dealer's suggestion that  "we keep an eye on it" is not going to solve the problem, and neither is driving to Spain to get some good weather.

I would be one very annoyed owner.     Hope it all gets sorted out soon.    Good luck.

Oh I am a very annoyed owner. And taking a much firmer line in sorting it out than represented in my posts. I just prefer to begin quietly and escalate to noise if that doesn't work.

I'll let you know how I get on.

Sorry to hear of your damp woes, we have first hand experience and appreciate how you feel. We had damp too, and like several others had the fridge vents replaced. This did not improve the damp levels at all. Then we had the 3 points on the side replaced - the gas, electric sockets and the water inlet.  These would appear to be well known areas of water ingress and several on here have had these replaced too. Like you, it is our first experience of damp in five vans, so needless to say we're disappointed.

It will be checked again soon and hopefully the issues are sorted. 

Good luck.

Can anyone recommend a reasonably priced damp meter, and I assume the moisture traps are the silica gel bags. Do they work. I was thinking of buying a few from eBay for the winter lay up.
Cheers
Pete

Pete, we (and it seems quite a number of others on here) have one from Aldi. Both they and Lidl do them every so often for about a tenner and they work well enough for our purposes. You can get moisture traps at a reasonable price in Home Bargains or B&M.

Can understand the urge to get a moisture detector as we've suffered damp due to insufficient/poor sealant at EHU and LPG points. Recent professional damp test showed lower percentage readings in affected areas. Thinking of getting Brennenstuhl moisture detector at £14.00 from Amazon but there are many others in similar price range. It's peace of mind, hopefully to confirm damp readings remain within the normal levels.

It would seem that my fears from my earlier post on this topic appear to have been realised. Had our 1st habitation check on Friday and its reported that there is 40% damp in the nearside near the fridge area. We had the fridge vents done as part of the recall, so I am hoping this is a residual problem caused by the fridge vents. Dealer is pushing through warranty claim. I hope that this forum is read by Auto Sleeper themselves and that they take notice of our concerns.

Sadly AS do not read it!
Hope you get it sorted. If it ends up back at AS in Willersey, then Mark Burdett in the Service Dept is your man. He will make sure it is done properly. In my opinion it should really go back to AS, so they are made more aware of damp issues in their vans.

Pete

An alternative suggestion.

We have a 2014 Broadway EK. When the fridge is even slightly off level or, more noticeably, when anything in the fridge touches the refrigerating fins at the back, we get a build up of ice on the fins. This melts when the fridge is without a supply or even on 12V when moving. The water produced does not always go down the drain and several times I have found significant pools of it under the fridge, in the under-bed locker or under the floor covering. 

Could it be that the same sort of thing has happened here and it soaked into the fabric of the van ?

We have not had any recall for fridge vents ? Should we have had ?

Quilter wrote:We have not had any recall for fridge vents ? Should we have had ?

I don't think A/S have issued a recall, but they have asked dealers to fit the gaskets during habitation checks - I think.    

It's all a bit obscure, and the answers depend very largely upon who you ask. If you are concerned I'd suggest a call to your dealer, asking him about fitting the gaskets. If you don't have a problem I think I would leave well enough alone.

If it ain't bust, don't fix it! 

Maasai Warrior wrote:Sadly AS do not read it!
Hope you get it sorted. If it ends up back at AS in Willersey, then Mark Burdett in the Service Dept is your man. He will make sure it is done properly. In my opinion it should really go back to AS, so they are made more aware of damp issues in their vans.

Pete

We went back to AS with our damp issues. Work aside, they were a pleasure to deal with, replied to emails and did everything within the planned time. Indications from our own damp meter suggest that they've sorted the problem, but will wait until it is professionally checked to be sure. It's barely stopped raining in the north for the past month, so a good test of the waterproofness or otherwise of the near side sockets. 

Harry:dont_mentionIt

Quilter quote: I have found significant pools of it under the fridge, in the under-bed locker or under the floor covering. 

Are you saying - if it doesn't go down the drain hole in the fridge compartment it comes out through the doorway at the bottom into the hab area? If so, I will have to keep an eye on that one. I am assuming there is a drain hole!!

We did have high levels of damp readings around the inside of our outside fridge vents early this year. This was reported to Mark at AS when we had the habitation check done in March. He made sure that new seals were fitted on both the fridge vents. I haven't had time to check whether there is any improvement in the damp readings, but will do it before we go away. 

Pete

Maasai Warrior wrote:Quilter quote: I have found significant pools of it under the fridge, in the under-bed locker or under the floor covering. 

Are you saying - if it doesn't go down the drain hole in the fridge compartment it comes out through the doorway at the bottom into the hab area? 

Pete

Yes. The drain channel is not all-catching and even a slight slope or a bit of gunk can have melt water running out from behind the veg basket and onto the floor.  If the van is sloping ever so slightly down towards the hab door then you might never notice as it runs under the fridge. It then goes into the under bed locker which, in our case, has non- stick  rubber matting and, usually, loads of stuff, and so it is easy to miss any water.

Another damp source: Our last van ( not AS) had no insulation on the metal wheel arches which, like this van, were partly under the fridge and partly in the under bed locker. In winter they used to run with condensation until I found what was happening and covered them with insulation. Our current van has proper fitted insulation over the wheel arches.

Perhaps not for everyone, but we now stick a sheet of kitchen towel under the fins at the drainage hole to trap excess water (and sometimes ice  ). It gets changed every three or four days and no leaking water to contend with.

Askit wrote:Perhaps not for everyone, but we now stick a sheet of kitchen towel under the fins at the drainage hole to trap excess water (and sometimes ice  ). It gets changed every three or four days and no leaking water to contend with.

Yes, I've got a folded jay cloth under the veg drawer for the same purpose.

Thanks Quilter and Askit (Tony) for the heads up with this issue. I will follow your leads and as a precaution I will put something absorbent in the fridge to collect any surplus water. My wife has just said " Not yet another b***** thing to think about" !!

Pete

Pete, I understand why your wife has said that but it's not really a chore as such. One of us (usually not me  ) will check it when in the fridge for something cold. As we have our van in storage, we dry it out when leaving it and leave a couple of layers of kitchen towel below the fins to catch drips before putting the door thingymajig on to keep it ajar.

I have one of the Aldi damp meters but have never been happy with poking little holes in the van making it look like it's had tiny wood worms. I have just found a non-invasive checker on E-Bay which works on inductance , as the proper ones should, but at a ridiculous low price, has anybody tried one.

Code:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Non-Invasive-Inductive-Moisture-Meter-For-Drywall-Mansory-Softwood-Hardwood-/181424677488?_trksid=p2141725.m3641.l6368

Tony,

I think her reaction was more related to the number of issues we have had to sort out since we bought the van new, over three years ago. Her quick reply was a little revealing!! Though things have now calmed down, we are both still a little nervous - as to what next! 
Anyway I love chores! Most of them are normally mine when we go away! That's only my opinion of course! Strange, I can't seem to get my lovely wife to empty the toilet on a regular basis, or at any time. Has anyone got any suggestions? - I know it's a warriors job!

Pete

Maasai Warrior wrote: Strange, I can't seem to get my lovely wife to empty the toilet on a regular basis, or at any time. Has anyone got any suggestions? - I know it's a warriors job!
Pete

Just for devilment I once took the cassette back half emptied, and told Mrs Gromit I had emptied mine, but wasn't keen on emptying hers!
I was off the crutches within a month, but the scars do nothing for my inherent charm and good looks!