If you have pets, kids, cook indoors or are in areas of excess pollen and dust, it’s important to keep your RV window screens, door screen and Fantastic Fan clean and in working order. But, they are one of the most ignored regular maintenance chores even though we look through everyday.

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RV Maintenance: Fantastic Fan, Door and Window Screens

Unlike a sticks and bricks house, RV window screens and fantastic fan screens are are mounted inside of a motorhome or camper trailer. This enables easier access for access, operation, maintenance, removal and cleaning.

Whether your RV is equipped with the newer double pane windows or the older style slide windows, screens are essential for ventilation and air flow.

Removing and Cleaning Screens

When we clean our screens, we carefully remove them from the window frame. However, its a good idea to remove and clean one at a time as to not get them mixed up as, in our experience, window frames may have shifted causing the ‘fit’ to vary.

Once we remove the screen, we have already set up our cleaning station; a bucket with hot soapy water (simple detergent is fine), soft brush, small clean cloth and water hose. Our preferred area to clean them is on a paved surface as to not get dirt sprayed onto the clean screens.

First, we rinse them off to get loose debris, hair, leaves or other particles. With a soft bristle brush and hot soapy water, we gently scrub the screens and frames. Then we rinse them thoroughly and allow them to air dry.

While the screens are out of the windows, we will thoroughly clean out the trough where the screen sits into; getting rid of dirt, dust, dead bugs, and grit that collects in them.

We clean ours with an old toothbrush, soft cloth, and hot soapy water with a little elbow grease. Make certain the troughs are dry before reinserting the screen.

Also, at the same time as our window screen cleaning, we also remove the screen from our overhead Fantastic Fan.

Truth be told, we clean and inspect the fan screen more often as it gets used more prominently for ventilation and air flow. We execute the same cleaning protocol as our window screen cleaning.

Inspect and Repair Your RV Window, Door and Fantastic Fan Screens

Once our screens are clean, we will inspect the frame and the screening material. We look for holes, rips or tears, screening material pulling away from the screen frame and the frame itself.

RV screen replacement is expensive and can be time consuming if you must order them.

For a worthy oldie but goodie YouTube tutorial (not ours), check out this YouTube tutorial by 2012escapee1:

Typically, RV screens aren’t much different than house window screens. They come in parts; frame, corner frame connectors, screening material and gasket. Also, some screens come with small aluminum brackets that allow them to be snapped into the window trough.

If we find a screen or two needing to be repairing, we’d assess what appropriate tools and supplies needed to complete the job. We usually try to situate ourselves near a hardware or big box home improvement store to buy our supplies. Otherwise, we order our supplies and have them shipped to our location.

For temporary window screen fixes

Window Screen Repair Kit, 5″ x 7″ Patch, Charcoal

Window Screen Repair Kit, 2″ x 80″ Roll, Charcoal

For permanent window screen fixes

Make-2-Fit P 7541 Screen Door Repair Kit with Rolling Tool

Unrepairable Screens

If your RV screens are unrepairable, we recommend contacting your RV manufacturer, component manufacturer or an RV window replacement manufacturer.

So, that wraps up our recommendations on RV screen maintenance and repair.  Screens keep the bugs out and the air flowing throughout your RV on good weather days. By taking care of them properly, they should last a long time.

You may want to check out these other RV maintenance articles:

RV Maintenance: Keeping Your RV Air Conditioner Working Efficiently

RV Maintenance: Air Conditioner Vents and Filters

RV Maintenance: How to Maximize Efficiency of Your RV Refrigerator

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