AC Troubleshooting

If you are in a CG I would go up to the office and ask who they use for mobile repair.

Just saying. I found the RV mobile repair in Florida VERY 'inexpensive'. I swear sometimes when I get the bill I think I wouldn't even pick up a hammer for that low of a price to fix something. :W

They get in and get'r done and they have all the supplies and parts they need right on the truck while you sit back and have a cold one.

I full time and I use RV mobile repair for EVERYTHING on my RV.

Good luck, hope you have cold air blasting into your RV soon!

Hi,

Simple Green or another dish soap will work fine on the A/C unit, however it is very slippery, so keep yourself on the ladder side of the soap, and spray the roof in that direction - away from the ladder, so it does not become slippery. Have a towel up on the roof, in case you need to kneel on it, or to walk across if some slippery soap gets in between you and the ladder.

Use a garden hose to wash off the A/C unit. This will improve air flow for the outside coil, and aid in getting rid of all that heat.

The square grill in your ceiling should be the 'return' air grill (and be larger than the others) and contain the air filter. Rinse it out in the sink or bathtub. Normally I just put it back right away, it can dry itself out while running the A/C unit. With the cover off, you can look for ice on the indoor coil. If it has been covered with ice, then run the fan all the time to get rid of any ice on it, in between cooling cycles.

Running on high fan speed, you are less likely to have ice build up on the coils.

Run your refrigerator on gas, and the heat input to the boiler (where the cooling starts) is double the capacity on electric. Also you will be using 3 less amps in the RV, and voltage to the A/C unit will be slightly higher. So on days over 90F, I would always change my refrigerator to gas. You can change back to electric at night, or just run it on gas and remember to fill the tank every 6 weeks or so.

While you have the garden hose and soap out, you might as well clean the radiator coils on the engine too! It will increase the cooling capacity of the dash air as well. Just spray on some soap, and rinse with the garden hose. If you have a "No cleaning vehicles" policy at your campground, do this discretely, and do not wash the outside of the vehicle, just the radiator that you can see. It will get a lot of bugs on it just driving around, and that reduces the cooling ability of your vehicle.

Good luck, and have fun camping!

Fred.

Home depot sells coil cleaner. I use the professional stuff at $25.00 a gallon but I use it for all my rental units.

Thanks everyone.

My guess is the coils. We have been here a while and it is very dusty and we have had lots of green mold on the truck.

Can we clean the coils ourselves? If so How?

If you are in Florida and have been there awhile it is your coils.

The coils are most likely covered with green mold and tree pollen stuck to that.

I had the mobile RV guy come out when mine wouldn't cool properly.

First thing he did was go up and look at the coils. They were completely covered. He cleaned them and that AC instantly cooled like a gem and colder than it ever had been.

He said that when staying in Florida cleaning the coils should be a regular maintenance routine.

The rectangle/square on the ceiling should have a grill area. If you carelully stand on a chair or small ladder you should see a couple tab's (for lack of a better description) on the grill. You need to gently push them toward the grill to remove it, then the foam filter will be behind it. Wash the filter, let it dry then reinstall. If that doesn't improve the cooling you may be low on refrigerant or the condenser on the roof may need cleaning next. That will be a bit more difficult as you need to get around the condenser fan. Which could also be an issue if the condenser motor is inoperative.

It is a dometic air conditioner and thermostat. No manual. Not that it would help. There is a rectangular grill on the ceiling I just noticed. It is not below the air conditioner. It is dark now so we will do some investigating tomorrow.

It is very dusty here so things could need a good cleaning.

Keep the suggestions coming.

MFL wrote:
There should be a grill on the ceiling, right below the AC sitting on the roof, on the ducted models I have seen.

Jerry

If it is one of the units totally above the roof, there is no interior grill. To access the evaporator you have to pull the top cover and take the sheet metal plenum cover up top.

Rather than start with all of the opening up the unit, please tell us the model numbers, whether it has a heat pump, number of units and model of theromstat.

Ken

There should be a grill on the ceiling, right below the AC sitting on the roof, on the ducted models I have seen.

Jerry

We have ducted air. Nothing inside to look up into. Just round vents in the ceiling.