What are the Pros and Cons Between Roof AC / Basement AC

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kenb1023

kenb1023

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I am getting close to picking a rig but now I have one question.  Two of the rigs I like (2010 Winnebago Vista 30W and a Four Winds) have standard twin roof A/C units.  These I am fairly familiar with as my 5th wheel has this type.  The other rig and this is the one I like the most has a basement A/C.  Besides being on the ground level and taking up storage area what are the pros and cons to this type of set up?  One thing I am concerned with is if it is strong enough to cool the 32" rig (It is a 2008 Winnebago Voyage 32H)and the other is am I stuck with only being able to plug into 50 amp service if I want to turn the A/C on.  I know on twin roof tops you can run the main cabin A/C but not the bedroom A/C when on a 30 Amp service.  Any advice or suggestions is appreciated.
 
You are right there are pro's and con's. I'll let the Winnie folk give you the pro's. Con's are harder to get techs to work on.  VS 95% of industry uses roof mount.  The intake is near the dust.  Because the cold air has to travel up the plenum and forward for cooling, the track is insulted really well, but in my mind it still loses.

I will give that it is quieter.

There are ways to work on 30 amps.
 
I have had one motor home with roof air and two with basement air. My current coach is too big for the basement unit to cool when in a Texas summer so I added a roof air. My previous coach was an Itasca 34 foot and the basement air cooled it without a problem. Don't let a basement unit stop you from getting the best unit for you.
 
A single or double slide on a 33' Voyage should be about the max square feet for the 24K BTU RVP basement air to cool properly.  Most of basement air owners rave about them.  My opinion is to buy the best motorhome floorplan you like, exclusive of the roof air/basement air comparisons.  More opinion:  I also believe the basement air cooling capacity decreases by the time the cool air leaves the unit, travels up the rear cap area and into the ductwork, and down the hot ceiling structure ducts.  ;)
 
mrschwarz said:
I have had one motor home with roof air and two with basement air. My current coach is too big for the basement unit to cool when in a Texas summer so I added a roof air. My previous coach was an Itasca 34 foot and the basement air cooled it without a problem. Don't let a basement unit stop you from getting the best unit for you.
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Michael, any way you could contact John Canfield, and get your roof air and install pics put on the Winnebago Roof Air install sticky?
 
My understanding is that the basement a/c has a switch or setting to allow operation on 30A - basically it has a two stage compressor that runs either in reduced power mode or full power mode. Obviously you would have less cooling when in the reduced (30A) mode.  Perhaps someone who owns one can comment about hw this is controlled by the RV owner.
 
My basement air cools my 36' motorhome nicely. When on a 30 amp service the EMS controls the #2 compressor. Normal operation, the unit draws about 24 amps, when I exceed 30 amps, the EMS sheds
1-Hot water heater,
2-#2 AC compressor,
3-Fan Speed,
4-Refrigerator
to maintain safe amp load.

If maintenance has to be performed, Duner has a great write up on removal of the unit.

Jerry
 
Very little experience with roof top air but I like our basement AC now that I have sealed the leaky supply and return connections and reversed the air flow thru the condenser. It has 2 compressors, one is used on 30A and both are used when on 50 A.

Basement air I believe is easier to work on especially since I cannot climb ladders to get on the roof.

Roof top Ac's have the ease and cost of replacement going for them, also there is the built in redundancy of having two separate units...I like that! Besides I could use the extra storage space that the basement air takes up.
 
basement air unit is in the back corner of the passenger side of our Meridian.  not prime storage but potential storage.  very quiet and seems to work fine but repairs do require dropping the unit down which is a pain... but climbing up on the roof is also a pain.  the filter is in the rear bedroom.  electrical system manages the power load to accommodate 30amps.  parked in direct sun light, ambient temperature of 90 deg F+ and no wind... unit will run almost 100% duty cycle and keep inside temp in the low to mid 70's.  somewhat less air drag underway probably...  probably less expensive to replace an entire unit on the roof... ducts are helpful in distributing the cool air.  for some crazy reason the louvers want to close when the blower is on high, big PITA.
 
We had the basement air in our Adventurer 33V and often plugged into 30amp, it drew 24amps as Jerry mentions, ems dropped loads as needed when running microwave, etc. We had no problems keeping cool. We now have 3 roof airs, only minor differences I have observed is the roof/ceiling sounds more hollow with the roof air, the air running is louder than the basement air, you have 2 zone tempatures to adjust instead of just one and roof airs seem to have to run more frequently then our basement air did to keep it at temp. So as others have said, not sure if the AC location would be a serious deciding factor on a shorter coach. Good luck with your purchase.
 
Thanks for all the input.  One dealer was trying to sell me his rig with roof and was saying all sorts of bad things with a basement unit.  I rarely listen to sales people about stuff like that but as I never had a basement A/C I need to see if he had any merit in what he was saying.

Thanks,
 
Although I've no direct knowledge of basement air units, I recall seeing a number of discussions about it on the RV Forum.  You might want to use the Search button above to search on "basement air" so you can see their practical problems.  I noticed one person's comment that he will be happy to see basement air conditioners go away.  Very few RV manufacturers use them and some reasons are cost and storage space, but I've been under the impression that consumers didn't want them so it's certainly worth checking.

ArdraF
 
One reason that some manufacturers stopped using them in the big diesel coaches is because the new anti pollution gear/tanks required on them needed the space.

Another reason, perhaps, is the units itself also had to be re-engineered for the new coolant now required and, I believe, this particular A/C manufacturer was slow off the mark so the coach manufacturers had to find alternatives as well.
 
I pulled the trigger.  It should be ready for us to pick up in two weeks.  Took her on a test drive and there are a few things that need to be taken care of before we can take delivery.

Thanks everyone.
 
kenb1023 said:
I pulled the trigger.  It should be ready for us to pick up in two weeks.  Took her on a test drive and there are a few things that need to be taken care of before we can take delivery.

Thanks everyone.
Click to expand...
Congradulations! So did you choose the Voyage or one of the others you referenced in your OP?
 
Dar said:
Congradulations! So did you choose the Voyage or one of the others you referenced in your OP?
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We went with the Voyage.  It was the best bang for the buck. 
 
kenb1023 said:
We went with the Voyage.  It was the best bang for the buck.
Click to expand...
Please don't tell me that was in your signature when I asked. I hate to think that I am that oblivious ::) . Well congards and let us know how it goes. We have a friend that we meet up with every year at the GNR that has a Voyage and has been super pleased with it since day one so I wish you the same!
 
Dar said:
Please don't tell me that was in your signature when I asked. I hate to think that I am that oblivious ::) . Well congards and let us know how it goes. We have a friend that we meet up with every year at the GNR that has a Voyage and has been super pleased with it since day one so I wish you the same!
Click to expand...
Your not loosing it, I changed the signature that day so it may not have been on when you looked :)
 
FrontrangeRVer said:
Michael, any way you could contact John Canfield, and get your roof air and install pics put on the Winnebago Roof Air install sticky?
Click to expand...

I am not sure if I took any photos or not, but John did the same thing shortly before I did.
 
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