SargeW
Site Team
While doing my faithful cleaning routine of the rigs AC filters, I managed to cause myself a bigger problem. Our AC is ducted, and the bottom of the AC units do not extend into the living area. Tiffin has a neat system where one row of ceiling ducts are return air ducts, and the other row are cooling ducts. We love it, it's quiet and works really well.
To solve the filtering issue, the return ducts have foam inserts that are washable. The vent covers snap off, and the filters rest on top. Ours had gotten pretty dirty/dusty as we have been using the AC a lot ever since we left Yellowstone about 6 weeks ago. The ones in front of the stove area where Diane cooks daily get a oily kind of dust too. (I complained once about that. She offered to quit cooking to save me some trouble).
So I pulled all of the filters out, and she tossed them into the washer on delicate setting. They came out perfect and I was happily reinstalling them. When I finished, I was surprised to see that I had a extra retainer ring left in my hand. Not good. The retainer rings snap on top of the vent covers to hold the filters firmly in place.
A quick check of the vents showed that the bathroom retainer ring was left off by someone :
I could tell that because the filter was no longer visible in the vent opening Did I mention that someone in his haste had already turned the AC back on to cool things down in the RV :-[
So I have a missing foam insert, and the likely place is sucked up into the AC cooling coils :'(.
Imagining that all kinds of terrible things might happen, I got out the AC installation diagrams. It looks like the only way to access the bottom of the cooling coils is to remove the AC unit from the roof and reach underneath .
As a last ditch effort, I grabbed my Inspection Camera (Harbor Freight Special) and peered into the AC duct work. There about a foot inside, about half way sucked up the return air duct was my air filter ;D ;D ;D
With Diane holding the camera for me I was able to use a metal coat hanger to snag the filter and pull it out of the return air duct. 8)
It's true. Sometimes you just get lucky........
To solve the filtering issue, the return ducts have foam inserts that are washable. The vent covers snap off, and the filters rest on top. Ours had gotten pretty dirty/dusty as we have been using the AC a lot ever since we left Yellowstone about 6 weeks ago. The ones in front of the stove area where Diane cooks daily get a oily kind of dust too. (I complained once about that. She offered to quit cooking to save me some trouble).
So I pulled all of the filters out, and she tossed them into the washer on delicate setting. They came out perfect and I was happily reinstalling them. When I finished, I was surprised to see that I had a extra retainer ring left in my hand. Not good. The retainer rings snap on top of the vent covers to hold the filters firmly in place.
A quick check of the vents showed that the bathroom retainer ring was left off by someone :
I could tell that because the filter was no longer visible in the vent opening Did I mention that someone in his haste had already turned the AC back on to cool things down in the RV :-[So I have a missing foam insert, and the likely place is sucked up into the AC cooling coils :'(.
Imagining that all kinds of terrible things might happen, I got out the AC installation diagrams. It looks like the only way to access the bottom of the cooling coils is to remove the AC unit from the roof and reach underneath
. As a last ditch effort, I grabbed my Inspection Camera (Harbor Freight Special) and peered into the AC duct work. There about a foot inside, about half way sucked up the return air duct was my air filter ;D ;D ;D
With Diane holding the camera for me I was able to use a metal coat hanger to snag the filter and pull it out of the return air duct. 8)
It's true. Sometimes you just get lucky........
