i don't really know how to start these videos because everyone always says welcome back to
the channel but i think that's a bit cliche anyway in today's video we're going to be talking about
condensation and the problems we've had while camping in the winter so if you're new here we've
converted this vw cali maxi and we've got loads of videos on our channel sharing the full conversion
how we did it so if you're new go check those out before you watch this one or you can watch them
after but anyway let's get on with the video so we've been away a couple of times and we've had
major issues of condensation coming through the doors and also the roof to the point where it
was dripping off the roof onto the bed um we fully insulated the van and we did a full vapor barrier
like extreme full vapor barrel i mean a lot of people just do a few panels and we did like a full
like proper you know everything's taped up so that you know to stop that rust and then getting free
but obviously there's an issue of ventilation so today we're just going to talk about what we've
done to solve it and there's my phone going off so we're talking about today how we've solved it and
the little tips and tricks we've done to get rid of that condensation so obviously condensation is
not really a problem in the summer so if you're only going to go away in your vans in the summer
you know it's not really going to be an issue you still get condensation but not as much
but obviously if you're going to be like i wasn't going away all year round especially in the winter
you get a lot of condensation building up um obviously as you know the condensation
is obviously when you get a lot of hot air hitting a cold spot and then obviously then
the water droplets in the air condense and it causes water droplets which can then
cause mold and it can obviously like drip into your bedding and stuff which isn't great
so the best way is obviously you know create ventilation you know so you don't have the
large pockets of hot air hitting cold spots so opening your windows can obviously help a lot
but in the winter that don't do a lot so we've bought this um correct me for a wrong this
condensation bag or whatever it is pretty much just cat litter in a bag um they work
really really well we put obviously put one on the windscreen because that's where you know there's
normally a lot of condensation building from the cold glass and then we also put one at the back
on the doors as well because they're metal with the glass windows but you can obviously dry these
out in a microwave an oven or in the sun so this works really really well um but yes that's pretty
much how we deal with it and so far they've been great and we haven't had much conversation since
but yeah we're just going to show you the spots we've got condensation just so you can look out
in your van so if you are installing or doing work at the maybe to put a little bit extra there
or create some ventilation so you know when you go away so if you guys are working on your vans now
this is the main spot we seem to have a lot of water dripping through which is obviously where
the two bits of the roof connect um underneath here there's a massive metal bar we're not massive
but there's a metal bar and the roof goes into it we stuff this full of uh recycled bottle plastic
insulation and then put um van insulation i think it's called over top of that and then we fully
sealed it with tape as well there's no chance obviously like water water's going to get up
into the metal there's obviously a very cold spot and we had a lot of drips coming off here
so this is another problem where we had a lot of water coming through as you can see we've
re-varnished this i think when we put the plywood in we might put it slightly too high so
it's pressing on the door seal and then water was maybe dripping in from the outside as we've been
away as well a lot of condensation builds up on this bit and this whole section got stained even
though we varnished it so i've sanded back the plywood and i've started to re-varnish it again
with some better varnish here and then obviously we'll sand it and re-varnish and stuff again
to try and make it all good and blend it all in but yes that's another spot to look out for when
you're doing your plywood make sure you don't do too much and it presses on the rubber seals
because that seems to be a problem so that's the end of the video guys i hope that's helped you out
with condensation issues in the winter but the main thing is obviously ventilation if you get
ventilation in the van that's going to reduce condensation or the cheapest solution we found
is buying a condensation bag or dehumidifier bag which essentially the same thing about 15 pounds
so a van for this size you buy two of those bags put one at the front and one at the back
and obviously you've got a bigger van maybe by like three or four of them yeah so i hope that's
helped if that's helped and it's added value hit that like button and subscribe to the channel
let us know in the comments you subscribed and we'll get back to you as well thanks for watching