How Airlock One Destroys the Worst Smells in Your RV! (Installation and Testing!)

4 weeks ago
Chad

We’ve been dealing with an on-and-off musty smell in the bedroom for a while now, and it seemed to be getting worse the longer we sat in hot weather. So when the AirLock One kept showing up in our social media feeds as a smell-reduction device for boats and RVs, we decided it was time to actually try one. To make sure we weren’t just imagining an improvement, we tested it the messiest way we could think of: fart prank spray.

How the AirLock One Works

The AirLock One uses bipolar ionization, which sounds complicated but boils down to something fairly simple. The device takes water vapor already in the air and splits it into ions, which are just charged particles. Those ions float around and attach themselves to contaminants like dust, pollen, and microbes that are too small for a regular filter to catch. In theory, that should mean cleaner, fresher air moving through the whole RV.

Installing the AirLock One

Once we got past the theory, the install itself came down to two decisions: where to mount it, and how to power it.

The AirLock One needs to sit somewhere in your AC’s airflow to release ions into the RV. It’ll technically work on either the return side (where the AC pulls air in) or the supply side (where it pushes air back out), but the supply side is the better spot. Ions generated on the return side have to pass through the evaporator coils before reaching the room, and a lot of them get lost to moisture on the evaporator along the way.

Power is 120-volt AC, not DC, which matters because it changes where you’re pulling from. On our Coleman Mach 15K units, that meant tapping into the 120-volt line already running to the AC’s control box inside the return-side plenum, accessible from the roof.

Front AC: Working Around Our RV AirFlow

Our front AC was the more involved install because we already have an RV AirFlow accessory in place, and we couldn’t find any install guides that addressed combining the two. We wired up the AirLock One’s power first, popping open the WAGO connectors already in the control box and clamping in the extra line — no splicing required, since there were open ports to spare.

For mounting, I held the RV AirFlow piece in place to see where the AirLock One needed to sit, marked the foam, and used a Dremel to cut away just enough material for a snug fit. It took a few rounds of trimming and test-fitting before we had a clean opening. From there, it was a matter of sticking the AirLock One to the magnet it comes with, setting the RV AirFlow back over the top, bolting everything down, and running the wire through a small notch we cut for it.

Bedroom AC: A Simple Stock Install

The bedroom AC is a standard unit with no RV AirFlow involved, so this install was far more straightforward. Same general spot, same WAGO connector approach for power, and the same adhesive magnet bar for mounting. I also added simple on/off switches to both units — not something you need for a normal install, since the AirLock One is designed to just stay on, but it made it easy to isolate the “before” and “after” for testing.

Testing It With Fart Spray

For testing, we wanted both a subjective and an objective read. Tara volunteered as our nose (her sense of smell is far more sensitive than mine), and we also had an air quality meter standing by in case it could pick up anything measurable. Both ACs ran on low fan the whole time, since the AirLock One only pushes ions while the fan is moving air.

Baseline Test: AirLock Ones Off

With the AirLock Ones switched off, we sprayed the fart spray directly into the airflow and started checking in at intervals. The air quality meter never registered a change, which we later learned makes sense — our noses can detect odors in the parts-per-trillion range, while the meter we used only reads down to parts per billion. Tara’s read, though, was clear: strong right after spraying, noticeably fading over each check-in, and essentially gone after about an hour.

AirLock Ones On: A Faster Fade

We let the AirLock Ones run for about 90 minutes before repeating the test, which matters because these devices need time to build up ion levels throughout the RV rather than working instantly. Even before we broke out the spray again, Tara noticed the lingering musty bedroom smell had already backed off. Once we sprayed and started checking in, the smell faded noticeably faster than it had in the baseline test — by the 45-minute mark, Tara couldn’t pick it up anymore, so we cut the test short instead of running it out to the full hour.

Our Takeaway

Early results are promising, and we’re glad we finally pulled the trigger on trying the AirLock One. We’re planning to keep living with these installed long-term, and we’re especially curious how they hold up against tougher smells, like smoke from a neighboring campsite. As always, we’ll update this post and the video description if we learn anything new after more time with them.

AirLock One ($20 OFF w code CHANGINGLANES20): airlockusa.com/CHANGINGLANES20

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