Avoiding interior smell?

[bvirc]

Living in a van - cooking, sleeping, driving... - inevitably brings unpleasant smells, even if you care about the hygiene and regularly clean and ventilate the interior.
How do you cope with it? Steam cleaning, washing the seats, etc?

I am looking forward to hear your experiences.
Best,
Bostjan

 

[Meoncoast]

I would say advoid frying as much as possible inside and find if able open a window on both sides of the van to get a through flow of air to let steam of cooking out.
Seat covers are a must for us just pop in washing mashines as required.( we have A Jackyards set they wash well )
But still find the good old fish and chips out of the paper is the best one for smells which stay lingering around when we get a new car I always seen how long I can put the family off before eating fish and chips inside. (Not run in until this has happened) :hello

 

[Stu]

We don't fry at all in ours. Portable gas rings are nice and easy.

 

[IanE]

We like a bacon butty when we're camping in the winter and/or when it's raining (which is a lot here in the Lakes!) so we just fry indoors and clean up quickly afterwards. We've had the van since new and it's 4 in September. In fact we've cooked anything we fancy in the van. I don't think it pongs. We're careful to cover the back seat as the only issue for us with potentially messy cooking is splashing.

 

[calikev]

We like a bacon butty when we're camping in the winter and/or when it's raining (which is a lot here in the Lakes!) so we just fry indoors and clean up quickly afterwards. We've had the van since new and it's 4 in September. In fact we've cooked anything we fancy in the van. I don't think it pongs. We're careful to cover the back seat as the only issue for us with potentially messy cooking is splashing.

IAgree. I use the cooker for what it was intended for bacon sarnie's i don't bother with the smell
It soon disappears.

 

[Californiaman]

We've also cooked all sorts and the van doesn't seem to retain any sort of smells.

 

[Freeley]

We never used to cook anything in the van until we met IanE and his beloved other half in the lakes. They gave us a good talking to and we cook in there all the time now (except for bacon butties which are still done outside!)
I think ours still smells quite new even though it's 5 years old.

 

[Meoncoast]

Although not stopping smells we have (no idea what it is called) a circular mesh device with a handle which you put over the pan to stop/catch spitting fat from those rashers

 

[calikev]

Although not stopping smells we have (no idea what it is called) a circular mesh device with a handle which you put over the pan to stop/catch spitting fat from those rashers

Splatter guard

 

[GrannyJen]

I cook everything.

With the sliding door open, roof raised, a couple of vents open I've had no problem with residual smells..

Except ...

A bacon sandwich once, depths of winter, probably had all ventilation closed, lingered for a couple of days.

At the end of the day it's a camper to be used as such. If I wasn't going to cook I would not have had a cali with a kitchen, then "life would have been a beach".... :lol:

 

[Zebedee]

Spaghetti Bol, sausages, always doing pancakes although I do toss them outside, etc. Open windows, side door if poss, lid on frying pan, etc. we do have a fold-up BBQ which we use outside. Also mini fe breeze plug in on the air fans and a small de-humidifier on the dashboard.
We were away for 3 weeks in the summer and now we're back home I really miss cooking in it. We also have a mini electric oven as our first night away was in 85mile winds and could not pop the roof...also my daughter can't survive weeks away without pizza.
Enjoy
Zebedee

 

[bvirc]

Thanks for all the tips! However, I still miss some advices after a "damage" is already done... Any experience with steam cleaners and washing of seats?

 

[Freeley]

Thanks for all the tips! However, I still miss some advices after a "damage" is already done... Any experience with steam cleaners and washing of seats?

I've never got on very well with trying to clean the seats - when we get back from our hols I think I'll get the cali interior valeted.

 

[fawn]

Hello

I clean Cali seats with wet and dry vacuum cleaner once or twice a year. It looks and smels like new.

We don´t fry anything in our Cali

Best regards (Lep pozdrav

 

[2into1]

Car valeting companies can use a (nice smelling) smoke bomb device inside your van. I've not tried it but could be worth a try.

I don't think my grey water (waste water) tank is too sweet and when freshly drained, I get a bit of a whiff inside the van. Running some water from the tap seems to help (I suspect it fills a u bend and isolates the tank from the sink drain?)

 

[KernowLad]

Strangely we cooked almost all food on an outdoor burner last year (5 weeks in Europe) but hardly used it this year. Mind you, we did eat out rather a lot...