Moisture under hybrid mattresses

[5swigerts]

Help! I thought I saw someone comment inside a different thread on this issue.. and now I can't find it:

First night of sleeping in our Hybrid... got to about 40 outside, kept it at 60 inside. In the morning, we had a small amount of moisture under the mattresses on the fold outs. Small amount.. not much concern. But it caused me to remember something on the forum I breezed by weeks ago...

Do you put something between your mattress and your fold-out platform? (memory foam? mattress pad on bottom instead of top? rubberized mat?)

Have any of you experienced this as an issue in the summer months? Or is this only an early spring/late fall issue?

Love to hear what you do with your tent ends. Thanks!

[Tomsuver]

I have noticed the same think on ours but only the times we used the heated mattress. I assume with the heat on top and cool air coming in from bottom creates moisture. what I do after we wake up I lift the mattress up and slide in couple small bins just to air it out.

[robp]

Similar challenges here.
We are just back from our first trip with our X18D, the nights were a little chilly so we had the heater on.
In the morning we had considerable condensation on the tent and under the mattress.

It would dry out pretty quickly during the day but it would be nice to avoid it as well.

[DocBrown]

We've had the same thing happen with our X20E. I didn't notice it until our last trip last year, so it's something I'm going to keep an eye on. At first I thought it was leak because it rained pretty hard the night before, but there was no obvious stream anywhere.

Interestingly enough, in 10 years of owning our Kiwi 17a, this NEVER happened.

[gvn71]

We regularly see condensation on the inside of the tent ends. It is worse when it gets chilly at night or when it is humid. We always open the tent end window zippers a bit to help with the problem. I don't think there is anything you can do about it (except maybe stop breathing when you sleep). I have never noticed moisture under the mattresses, but then again I can't remember ever checking. I keep a couple of hand towels in the bed areas so that we can wipe some of the moisture off when we get up in the am. It beats brushing against the roof of the tent and having that cold water fall on you!

[Jagiven]

We have had the issue a few times, only when it is cold out, and the HTT is closed up tight. We now keep one side window in each tent end cracked open at the high point. Both zippers pulled back about two inches. We also keep the bathroom vent open about a ½”. Since we have done that, there has been a lot less condensation build up anywhere.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

See this article about preventing under-mattress mold.

[howie]

I had the same issue. I tried everything I have read here. Running the fan, leaving windows cracked, etc. I bought a mattress cover that fits completeky over like a pillow. I though tthat solved it, but it just trapped the moisture between the cover and the mattress.
After reeading some more, I ended up buying the 2" thick (I think) styrofoam insulation sheets. You can get them at Lowes, Home Depot etc. They are 4'x 8'. I cut them to fit under the mattress. Only made a couple trips using them, but I did not find any moisture.

[Jagiven]

The condensation does not make me worried about mold. Reason being is we are only out for a week at most without closing up. I have never had condensation on the rear bunk, and that might because my kid sleeps there and not my DW and myself.

Key is to get the bunks and mattresses to dry out. So when everything is closed up to travel the mattresses are folded and pulled away from the bunk, air can get in there and dry everything up.

I do like the nonwoven mat, but it is one more thing to carry and to layout before making the bed.

[bucko]

With the first two camping trips we made with our Jayco 16xrb (fold outs), we too experienced the moisture underneath the corners of the matress, where it would touch the sides. These two trips involved cold weather at night, and we had the heater going. When it was time to break camp and head home, I would use a towel to dry up any moisture that did not do so on its own prior to folding the matresses and folding up the end panels.

Our last trip in April had temps into the 90"s in Florida, and we were running the air conditioner. With this, we had no moisture under the mats at all.

I've seen this addressed in some other threadsm and folks have stated that opening the flaps about an inch or two helps in keeping the moisture down. I have not done this though.
I have not seen nor smelled any evidance of mold, so I'm not alarmed with it.

[bfurry78]

When I had my x18d and took it on hunting trips into Michigan UP in late october I brought along a de humidifier and ran it at night while we were sleeping. We all woke up with cotton mouths but we did not have an condensation in the camper