New to Keystone

Indiana Rogan · 11-14-2013, 07:56 PM

Hello. New to this so please bear with me. Purchased our 2013 Cougar 21 RBKSWE in March. So far not so impressed. A few little things but the big one is the condensation and the fact that it is supposed to have the Polar Package but only has single pane windows that mass amounts of cold air come thru. Anyone else having these issues? I think the windows are defective. We live in the Thompson-Okanagan region of BC. We sleep with the vents wide open but recently had to buy a dehumidifier to bring it down.

Festus2 · 11-14-2013, 08:07 PM

Greetings and welcome to the forum.

There has been volumes written about Keystone's Arctic/Polar/4Season/??? Package and I am not going to go into that except to say forget about the description. It is essentially meaningless. Do a forum search of this stopic and you will find enough threads and posts to keep you occupied for days.

Condensation can be an issue and you should not rely on the Polar Package to prevent it from happening. The best way, other than the dehumidifier route is to keep air moving inside the unit. This involves keeping the vents and/or windows open a crack or have a fan on low moving air around.

If you have the RV winterized and put to bed for the winter, keep the dehumidifier on, provide some kind of ventilation, purchase and place DrizAir crystals in containers to help draw moisture from the air.

Keep bedding and pillows away from the walls as they can be a place where condensation can collect.

As an aside, I see your address is in the Fraser Valley but you say you live in the Thompson-Okanagan region ??????.

Anyway, welcome to the forum from another British Columbian.

Ken / Claudia · 11-15-2013, 12:41 AM

Welcome, the first RV I was in was my parents in the mid 70s 4 people in it and water would drip from the ceiling due to poor venting. RVs have came along way since but, we make alot of moisture you need to keep air moving from outside thru inside. Vents open, heater maybe on, a window or 2 cracked open. We had water on inside of windows at last outing in the morning. I wipe it off or let it drain thru the window drains. I am not sure how anyone could make a RV much better regarding heating, moisture, freezeing problems when the walls, floors, roof are only about 1.5" wide. Well really it could be done but, could we pull it due to more weight or afford to buy it.

GaryWT · 11-15-2013, 07:24 AM

First off welcome to the forum. The polar package for the most part is a marketing thing. It means the tanks are enclosed (with cardboard for the most part) and a little heat is sent to that area when the heat is on in hopes that your tanks will not freeze. Of course your dump valves are still outside so those can freeze...

Anytime you have heat inside and cold out, your windows and metal will be wet. We only camped once when it got below freezing and it was ok but we kept the heat at 62-66 for the most part and everything stayed pretty dry inside. Good luck to you
.

fla-gypsy · 11-15-2013, 07:39 AM

The best insulation in the world will not prevent condensation. The moisture is constantly being introduced into the air and it will condense on anything getting cool enough.

SAABDOCTOR · 11-15-2013, 08:29 AM

HI AND

TO THE FORUM. AS STATED the stickers are wothless. keep the vents open a crack or a dehumidifier and the condensation will be gone! enjoy

Indiana Rogan · 11-24-2013, 12:31 PM

Thank you all for your advise. We have to live in our unit until house is built. (soon hope, hope, hope.) I have since put electric heat inside and turned the furnace down to about 10 deg C. Removed the vent pillows and opened the bed vent, and basically pull the eating nook apart every night. This has done wonders. We run dehumid during the day. We hit -22 the other night so tanks froze even though we have her skirted. (I think they would have in any unit) My one concern now is the nook window does not fully seal at one end. we had it to Camping World they replaced it but now doing same thing. This might be something Keystone should be reviewing when they build next years models.
Again thanks.

Festus2 · 11-24-2013, 01:17 PM

If you aren't already aware, you should realize that the furnace, when operating, will supply a small amount of heated air to the underbelly - tanks/valves - via a 2" duct. If you have your set to a low temperature, it won't kick in as often and as a result the amount of warm air reaching the tanks/valves is reduced.

If, in your case, you indicated that the tanks froze, the valves probably froze as well and may have suffered some damage from cracking. Come Spring, you might want to check them out and for any subsequent leakage from the tanks.

Have you tried placing some foam tape inside the nook window frame at the place where it doesn't seal properly? The foam might be sufficient as a temporary fix. It sounds like the glass and its frame are not a good fit. Perhaps the frame is bent or crooked.

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