New A/C Units

[Deano2002]

Hello all, sitting at Illini State Park since Thursday night with the front ac unit on pretty much 24/7 until dinnertime at the table I turn the bedroom unit on and turned the front unit off for the noise and front unit blows across the table cooling the food down. After about an hour the bedroom ac starts to leak, the front will drip also if not perfectly leveled, the bedroom has to be way off level not to leak. I'm assuming these units are original from 1989 and still blow cold air, I replaced a fan motor on the front unit 3 years ago and bought new inside covers around then too. I have also replaced the seals on the roof twice in the 10 years we have owned this. Since there are no drain hoses to clog up on these Dometic units and the drain holes are not clogged and I take the covers off and clean them I have to suppose I have tightened these down too much and bent the bottom pan so, looking to replace both units before thy die out. I have seen a post on Facebook of a RV store that went out of business thats selling Dometic Freshjet which I'm not familiar with, we have the old Brisk Air Duo Therm units. Whats a good unit to go with now days? I'd like something with a hand held remote or wireless wall thermostat

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

A/C water "leaks" are nearly always condensation dripping off the chilled ducts or coils. They get worse in higher humidity environments.

 

[CharlesinGA]

Buy something that is quiet. Some of the new Coleman units are supposedly very quiet and the Houghton/RecPro models are also quiet.

Some of this hinges on the condition of the RV and how long you intend to keep it. New, quiet units are well worth the money. I got lucky, my rooftop jet engine aka Dometic Penguin broke a refrigerant line and that was the end of that.. Made my decision to replace it easy I installed a Houghton/RecPro unit.

RV Air Conditioner

Charles

 

[Deano2002]

A/C water "leaks" are nearly always condensation dripping off the chilled ducts or coils. They get worse in higher humidity environments.

shouldn't be leaking on our bed Gary

 

[Deano2002]

Buy something that is quiet. Some of the new Coleman units are supposedly very quiet and the Houghton/RecPro models are also quiet.

Some of this hinges on the condition of the RV and how long you intend to keep it. New, quiet units are well worth the money. I got lucky, my rooftop jet engine aka Dometic Penguin broke a refrigerant line and that was the end of that.. Made my decision to replace it easy I installed a Houghton/RecPro unit.

RV Air Conditioner

Charles

I'll check into the RecPro

 

[John From Detroit]

Ducted is of course quieter. Deano mentioned Coleman . I replaced one of my carriers with a coleman It was "Hard to hear" (Ducted)

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

shouldn't be leaking on our bed Gary

Indeed, and I was not suggesting that leaks are OK. But dripping condensation may not get fixed with a new rooftop a/c. The ducting and the air handler connections still get cold and humidity still collects there. Might even get worse if the new one chills better. Correcting deficiencies in the airflow may be a more effective solution to the dripping.

 

[Kirk]

Indeed, and I was not suggesting that leaks are OK.

That usually means that the drain line from the drip catch tray under the cooling coils is not draining for some reason. By far the most common reason is that either the line is plugged with debris and mold, or the drain out onto the roof of the RV is plugged up. When things are working as they should, the condensation falls into the drip-tray and then drains onto the roof. It is the reason that it is so common to see water dripping from the rain gutters of RVs in campgrounds during the summer season. If you have no water coming on the roof from your air conditioner, that is probably the reason.

 

[Deano2002]

I have no duct work on these old A/C's nor are there any hoses, the drip pan has holes in them that drip onto the roof and unfortunately in the motorhome too, even when the pan is completely rinsed clean it still drips into the motorhome that's why I assumed I have disformed the drain pan by over tightening. Remember this is a 1989 coach

 

[Lou Schneider]

Does your motorhome have a flat or rounded roof? I had a flat roof Winnebago and found the roof had sagged around the a/c due to it's weight. If I parked completely level water would run into the interior as the depth of the puddle around the a/c exceeded the height of the drip tray lip around the condenser.

 

[TheBar]

Try using 2 gaskets with longer bolts to overcome deformities in the drain pan.

 

[Deano2002]

Does your motorhome have a flat or rounded roof? I had a flat roof Winnebago and found the roof had sagged around the a/c due to it's weight. If I parked completely level water would run into the interior as the depth of the puddle around the a/c exceeded the height of the drip tray lip around the condenser.

Flat roof and... i think it has sagged a little, I was thinking of shimming in between the plywood and the metal roof a 1/4" or so to get in back to original height, the drip pan is up off the roof 1/4" or so. I really think it's time to invest on new ac units as we plan on keeping this for a while and living in it in the summers at a rec club we joined this summer. These must be good units to have lasted this long but, they won't last forever and looks like newer ones are more quiet and I do want the remote or wireless wall control then, my 4'11" wife can change the temp on me when I'm sleeping, I like it 66 degrees and she likes it 72. LOL

 

[Deano2002]

Try using 2 gaskets with longer bolts to overcome deformities in the drain pan.

Just thinking here, if I have bent the drain pan downward with the bolts, would another gasket change anything other than lifting it higher off the roof?

 

[TheBar]

The extra rubber would help to fill the gaps.

 

[Deano2002]

I'll check into the RecPro

ordered 2 RecPro units today, the remotes I think will be what makes these units and interested in hearing if these are less noisy than my 36 year old Dometic units are

 

[Rene T]

ordered 2 RecPro units today, the remotes I think will be what makes these units and interested in hearing if these are less noisy than my 36 year old Dometic units are

Please let us know how these work and if your leak stopped

 

[Deano2002]

Buy something that is quiet. Some of the new Coleman units are supposedly very quiet and the Houghton/RecPro models are also quiet.

Some of this hinges on the condition of the RV and how long you intend to keep it. New, quiet units are well worth the money. I got lucky, my rooftop jet engine aka Dometic Penguin broke a refrigerant line and that was the end of that.. Made my decision to replace it easy I installed a Houghton/RecPro unit.

RV Air Conditioner

Charles

are these noticeably quieter than the Dometics?

 

[CharlesinGA]

I do not have a lot of experience with Dometic units, but my 11k btu Penguin sounded like a jet engine on the roof. Anyone who has had a Penguin or Penguin II will agree. I downsized to a 9500 btu Houghton and went from 100 lbs to 68 lbs, and got a very quiet unit.

Charles

 

[Deano2002]

Both my RecPro ac's came in yesterday at only 2 days shipping, very pleased with that even though they are just 2 1/2 hrs east. Put one up and in today with my grandson, was pretty straight forward, the gasket was installed on the bottom of the unit from the factory and. directions said to put a bead of self leveling sealant around the roof opening before you set the unit. It also says to not tightened the retaining bolts no more than 5lbs torque, I have nothing that goes that small, I just snugged them down with a 1/4" ratchet one handed, I might see if Harbor Freight has something that can measure 5lbs?? I didn't start it up tonight as bad as I wanted to, but getting it on the roof we turned the box up side down for a minute so I assume you have to wait 24 hrs before starting it up in this case. One more thing is that several screws for the ceiling panel are missing, I had some that worked but, 4 machine screws are going to need to be replaced so. I'll call to get the sizes, looking forward to running it tomorrow night

 

[Rene T]

It also says to not tightened the retaining bolts no more than 5lbs torque, I have nothing that goes that small, I just snugged them down with a 1/4" ratchet one handed, I might see if Harbor Freight has something that can measure 5lbs?

You need an inch lb torque wrench. 5 lbs of torque would be 60 inch lbs