Venting bathroom?

[folivier]

Most of the boats we've looked at might have just a porthole to open for venting rather than an overhead hatch in the bathroom. Is there a way to vent the moisture when showering?
Maybe some way to add an exhaust fan?

 

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
Mr. f. What is your reasoning for a fan as opposed to an open port? As far as adding "forced" ventilation, could you make a porthole insert that contained a couple of computer type 12V fans (low current draw) to be used whilst showering?

 

[Jetstream]

We have portholes and exhaust fans in both our heads and showers. The fans are the same size as the larger computer fans but a higher capacity. I have to say they are a bit noisy but reasonably effective,

Brett

 

[tadhana]

Since the shower space in most trawlers is significantly smaller volume than in a house, an open port seems to do the trick. Some boats do have a hatch, and you could add one if needed. We have lived aboard year round in weather as cold as 0 degrees. We never shower ashore. We do not have a vent. That being said, with two people, a dog and a propane stove and oven, we do run a dehumidifier once the outside temp gets down to the mid 40s.

 

[TDunn]

I installed a Nicro solar vent set to exhaust in my head. It isn't high volume, but the fact that it runs continuously does the job.

 

[dhays]

Greetings,
Mr. f. What is your reasoning for a fan as opposed to an open port? As far as adding "forced" ventilation, could you make a porthole insert that contained a couple of computer type 12V fans (low current draw) to be used whilst showering?

I have found that passive venting isn't quite as effective as some type of forced ventilation. I would be concerned that the moisture would quickly kill the computer fans.

We have portholes and exhaust fans in both our heads and showers. The fans are the same size as the larger computer fans but a higher capacity. I have to say they are a bit noisy but reasonably effective,

Our North Pacific now has a powered vent. It is effective but noisy as well.

Since the shower space in most trawlers is significantly smaller volume than in a house, an open port seems to do the trick. Some boats do have a hatch, and you could add one if needed. We have lived aboard year round in weather as cold as 0 degrees. We never shower ashore. We do not have a vent. That being said, with two people, a dog and a propane stove and oven, we do run a dehumidifier once the outside temp gets down to the mid 40s.

We have never lived aboard a boat, but for the last 10 years we have used a dehumidifier on board that runs continuously when we aren't on board. That has kept our sailboats bone dry inside. We will move the dehumidifier to Kinship once Legacy sells.

I installed a Nicro solar vent set to exhaust in my head. It isn't high volume, but the fact that it runs continuously does the job.

My sailboat had the older version without the battery in the shower stall. It worked really well. My intention was to replace it with the newer solar vents with a battery so it would run longer (we have cloudy, short days for much of the year). I think these are a great solution if you have a hatch or deck above your shower. Won't work if the head and shower are buried underneath a PH or FB as in our current boat.

 

[Bacchus]

Previous Carver we owned had a head vent fan and it was a nice add. Wish we had one on our Mainship. Have considered options but haven't done anything yet.
If you have acess an inline bilge blower might work well...just need a flanged vent to accept flex duct in head and another for hull exterior. Our exterior was a simple flat slotted grill...never had a need to access fan so not sure what they used.

 

[DHeckrotte]

Revel's shower is entirely, and the entire head is about half, under the helm-side 'dashboard'. Our LeComte sailboat had an operable port and a Dorade box which could only be closed by screwing in a cover in place of the scoop.

Pretty low on a priority, it would be nice to have at least a passive vent on rainy days.

 

[FlyWright]

I don't have a vent in the head, but I can utilize a fan in the stateroom across the companionway from the head to facilitate venting. I swing the stateroom door fully open and secured on the companionway wall. My head door actually swings opposite of the pic below so I open the head door across the companionway and secure it at the aft edge of the stateroom door opening. I open ports in the stateroom and the head and turn on the fan located high on the wall of the stateroom locker. The cross flow ventilation from port to stbd vents the moisture (and odors) quite well out of my head.

Incidentally, I also have a privacy curtain I can hang across the steps leading fwd from the salon.

I hope chc chimes in here. He has a powered vent mounted in his 34 LRC that might help here. Unfortunately, I did not get pics of it while aboard.

 

[FF]

"it would be nice to have at least a passive vent on rainy days."

A trimmed plastic jug wind scoop in the port will increase the air flow at no cost.

 

[DHeckrotte]

Entertainingly, FF, of the four operable ports on Revel, the head port is the one most likely to allow water in when raining and the port is open. I'd have thought that the opposite port on port would do the same...but not. The ports are in the path of rainwater shedding off of the forward-facing salon windows. I had thought about plastic eyebrows but the sidedecks are narrow and I'm large.

 

[Bacchus]

.... I had thought about plastic eyebrows but the sidedecks are narrow and I'm large.

We do like the PortVisors pn our MS
Had same problem w rain w all 3 ports prior to the install.
They don't onterfere much w access and they are somewhat forgiving and flexible.
We do have fairly wide walkarounds and understand the concern if narrow

 

[chc]

Prior to our ICW trip in 2009/10, I installed a Nicro solar powered fan in the head overhead on our Californian 34. It has, amazingly enough, worked steadily ever since. I have replaced one set of batteries, I think about 3 years ago. It is quiet, & seems to move enough air to keep things fresh & dry. Even runs during the winter under shrink wrap. I'd buy another one in a minute, but the head in our boat is not really big enough to need 2 units.

 

[AprilDeg]

Noisy Fan Replacement

We have a fan in our head. When we turn it on, it is so noisy. Husband says that is "normal" but I wonder if there is any "quiet" fan out there that we could replace ours with. I don't have the information on our fan, but it is about 3 inches square. How do you know if it is "normal" noisy or "on its last legs" noisy?

 

[Pete Meisinger]

My bathroom had a single window which I left half open all the time. I was lucky the prevailing wind favored the open window and it never got wet inside.

I rarely used the shower or tub though.

pete

 

[rslifkin]

Both of our heads have an exhaust fan in them. They just use a regular bilge blower ducted to a vent next to the toilet. Because of the placement, it's great for removing smells, but sub-optimal for removing humidity during showers (the vent is down fairly low in the head). Ducting-wise, a vent located up higher would have been more challenging to install, so I can see why they didn't do that.

 

[DDW]

A 3" square fan is almost certainly a electronics enclosure fan (computer fan). These are available in thousands of speeds and blade configurations, ranging from almost inaudible to very noisy. Suppliers will list the sound level, look for example on Digikey.com for a very large selection.

 

[tiltrider1]

You don’t mention what type of boat you own. Back in the 80’s & 90’s builders used bilge fans. These fans were very noisy. Now more and more builders are using fans developed for electronic applications. These fans are almost noise free, use much less power and have longer life.

 

[SteveK]

We have a fan in our head. When we turn it on, it is so noisy. Husband says that is "normal" but I wonder if there is any "quiet" fan out there that we could replace ours with. I don't have the information on our fan, but it is about 3 inches square. How do you know if it is "normal" noisy or "on its last legs" noisy?

We have the inline bilge blower fans and yes it is very noisy. Bilge fans have always been noisy, not sure if a new one starts out noisy or whether moist air going through wears it out faster.
One benefit is it does not get left on longer than needed.

 

[Comodave]

We have a fan in our head. When we turn it on, it is so noisy. Husband says that is "normal" but I wonder if there is any "quiet" fan out there that we could replace ours with. I don't have the information on our fan, but it is about 3 inches square. How do you know if it is "normal" noisy or "on its last legs" noisy?

There is a benefit to a noisy fan, it helps disguise the sounds when someone is using the head. If you have guests aboard sometimes it can be embarrassing…

 

[AprilDeg]

2008 Nordic Tug 37. Hubby thinks it is a bilge fan.
Can that be replaced, fairly easily with an electronics fan or are the two types of fan entirely different?

 

[tiltrider1]

While the two types of fans are different, you can easily replace old bilge fans with the more modern electronic fans. The noisy bilge fan will move a greater volume of air but at greater expense.

You can also quite a bilge blower by slowing it down. This can be done with a resistor. I prefer switching to the electronic fans.