Exhaust fans

Move the air, or you’ll wear the smell

A roof fan, bath fan, or range hood is often the cheapest odor control you have. Run the wrong way, or not at all, and the same fan can pull tank gas, exhaust, or mildew into the coach.

Roof fans

Maxxair, Fantastic Fan, and similar lids sit over a big hole in the roof. On exhaust they pull cooking, shower steam, and stale air out. Many also reverse and blow in. Reverse is useful on a hot day. Reverse next to a plumbing vent can suck black-tank odor down into the living room.

A lid that won’t open, a rain cover packed with dust, or a fan that sat shut for a season will smell musty the first time it spins. That’s the blades and the gasket, not the tank. See mold and mildew if the whole ceiling smells.

Bath fan and range hood

The bathroom fan should run during and after a shower so the stall dries. A dead bath fan is a mildew starter. The kitchen hood (if you have one) should go outside, not just recirculate grease into the filter. A greasy filter smells like last week’s bacon even when the stove is off.

Don’t run a bath fan on intake while the toilet seal is dry. You can pull tank air the wrong way.

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Roof fan lid opens and the fan actually spins (fuse, switch, and rain sensor aren’t stuck). Fan is set to exhaust when you want odor out — not reverse, unless you’re cooling the coach on purpose. Plumbing roof vent isn’t dumping into the fan intake on reverse. If it is, use exhaust or a different window for intake. Bath fan runs during and after showers. The stall can dry. Range hood filter is washed. Grease in the mesh is a smell of its own. Fan screen and lid gasket are free of dust, pine needles, and old mildew. Rain cover or Maxxair-style lid isn’t trapping a swamp of wet debris.