A/C problems - water ingress

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Magnet21

Member
Joined
Feb 16, 2018
Posts
12
Coach is a 2011 Winnie Adventurer with twin roof top air units.  When it rains heavily, I get some water coming out of the vents inside the coach when the A/C is operated.  It is no more than an ounce or two but it does make a mess on the bed and in the bathroom floor.  Is there some sort of drain to clean to prevent this?

I had noticed two drain lines under the left rear corner of the coach and one of them was dripping water with the A/C in operation.  Thinking the other one was plugged, I pulled out the little screened plastic plug and ran a piece of  0.20 in it as far as it would go and did get a little water back out of it.  Are these the drains for the A/C condenser?  I did clean out both A/C units by taking the tops of and vacuuming the coils, etc.  Also cleaned out the drain holes in the A/C sheet metal baseplate.

Just unsure where to look next.

Thanks for any replies!

edit by staff - changed message icon to topic solved and made subject more descriptive

 
I didn't think the Adventurer had a/c condensate drain lines, but I have no direct knowledge of that  model.  Usually, though, they are found only on much higher priced rigs (please don't take that as an insult!).  Those are more likely to be low point drains for the plumbing.

Hopefully one of our Winnie experts can tell you for sure.


Meanwhile, check the tie-down bolts on the a/c - sometimes they loosen up with travel. There is one in each corner on the inside, visible once the air intake cover is removed from the ceiling. They should be snug but not over-tight.
 
Those two lines must be for the roof air condensate drains. Try to blow them out with compressed air, that should work. I don't know about other parts of the country, but we get dirt daubers making nests in any cylindrical opening the diameter of a pencil or smaller. They will pack the larvae in with a mud cap on the end. I had one stop up the automatic transmission breather in my truck, dealership cleaned it out once but it happened again. I zip-tied a screen over the end of the breather hose.

And check the mounting bolts like Gary mentioned - they should be tight enough to compress the thick gasket between the top of the roof and the bottom of the AC blower discharge but not too tight. Coleman Mach has an indicator of how much to compress the gasket, you might find something like that when you remove the ceiling bustle.

Another good source of troubleshooting assistance is Winnebago Owner Relations - those guys are very knowledgeable and most if not all of them started out in production and/or as a tech.

 
The next time you are running the A/C in warm humid or rainy weather, as soon as it is safe to go up on the roof, look to see if the pan on the bottom of the A/C is full of water.  If it is then the drain holes are clogged. If you do have drain lines, one way to clear them is to use compressed air to blow out the crud. 
 
Thanks to all who replied.  Moderator spoke of a ceiling bustle.  I am not sure what that is.  My rig only has intake filters about 5 inches wide and blower vents about the same size inside the cabin.  None of the A/C units hang down inside.

Will try those line clearing suggestions when I get home and report results.  I am also going to spray clean the coils inside the cold air discharge plenum as recommended by an RV repairman I know.

Hoping for the best!
 
Magnet21 said:
Thanks to all who replied.  Moderator spoke of a ceiling bustle.  I am not sure what that is.  My rig only has intake filters about 5 inches wide and blower vents about the same size inside the cabin.  None of the A/C units hang down inside....
Then you don't have the vent/control/bustle.
 
Thanks a million to all that replied.  I think it is whipped.

The two lines mentioned in the reply above are condensate lines for the a/c.  I strung enough coat hangers together to run pretty much the length of them top and bottom.  Some water came out but the little screens that plug into the end of the lines seemed to be the real problem.  They were plugged with black crud of some kind.  Cleaned those with bleach and dish soap.

Got up on top and removed the top covers of both units.  Both units were fairly clean from the vacuuming previously mentioned.  Once the top sheet metal cover to the cooling coils was removed, I finally figured it out.  The coils have a windage tray underneath and the condensate collects in it. The air pressure within the coil compartment forces the collected condensate into a small box like container outside the cooling coil housing.  A plastic line connected to this box carries the water out to the the drain lines I ran the coat hanger through.

I didn't have a way to run bleach into the lines, so I pretty much filled them with Windex that has ammonia in it and then sprayed some 3X brand  Coil Cleaner in them and then let it set for 10-15 minutes.  I used the rest of the cleaner on the coils.....pretty good stuff I think.  No rinsing required and it did a nice job on the coils.

Bolted it all together and had only two sheet metal screws left over (not bad for me!) and fired it up for a test run.  There were no water discharges from the inside outlets and the stuff I had put in the condensate lines poured out freely.  Ran the units for 1/2 hour or so and all seems well.

Conclusion:  If those little plastic bug barriers on the end of the condensate hoses become crudded up you will have these problems with water blowing out of the vents.

Recommendation: Clean them at least annually.

Thanks again for the help!
 
Forgot this- 
The bolts John mentioned are accessible from the top of this a/c unit.  They seemed tight enough so I didn't fool with them.
 
Terrific that Winnie provide those drains - most manufacturers do not!

I've heard it's a good idea to pour a bleach solution through the drain lines once in awhile, cause some have been known to clog up with mold/algae.  I suspect that only happens in ones that don't often drain much water - it never happened in the 12 years I had them.
 
That was a pleasant surprise to see those drains.  Freaked me out a bit when I saw water coming from the engine compartment the first time.  I was on the roof with the AC covers off and if I remember those lines travel right through the return or supply air duct to the back, then they go straight down the rear cowling. 
 
Hope this little adventure was helpful to anyone with similar problems.  I hate to think what this little simple job would have cost at a dealer.

Cheers and Happy Fathers Day to all the Dads out there!  :)
 

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