Roof AC Rep - Dometic Duo-Therm > Brisk Air II - Questions
I own a 2008 Keystone Cougar Model 291 RLS fifth wheel trailer. It looks like the OEM roof air conditioner - a Domestic Dometic Duo-Therm Model 57915.541 - which came with the trailer has finally ‘packed it in’ and will need to be replaced.
Based on my research to date, it looks like the (probably most compatible) replacement unit would be a Dometic B57915.XX1C0 Brisk II Polar White Air Conditioner (13,500 BTU 410A).
In terms of installation, I’m trying to decide whether or not to undertake it myself OR go through a dealer to have it all done for me. I emailed a local dealer to ask for a quote.
In response, I was quoted:
• “You are probably looking around $1100 plus $300 for labor IF ‘NON-DUCTED’. There is a good possibility if your unit is a DUCTED unit, then you will have to change the ‘control box’ and the wall thermostat, which could cost you another $300 parts plus $150 labor”.
The latter possibility/expense I did not anticipate (even as a possibility).
I kind of figured that given and assuming that the Brisk II unit from Dometic was (as far as I know) the recommended replacement unit, that it would essentially be ‘more or less’ a relatively simple ‘Drop In Replacement’.
So anyway, I figured I would try to find out what would be involved in replacing my air conditioner, IDEALLY FROM SOMEONE WHO MAY HAVE EITHER PERSONALLY DONE IT OR HAD IT DONE, ASSUMING THE SAME STARTING POINT/UNIT BEING REPLACED WITH A BRISK II unit.
As far as I know - assuming we - the dealer and I are on the same wavelength insofar as the term – ‘ducted’ is concerned: well, the way the current unit works in my trailer is that, in addition to intaking and subsequently expelling cold air directly from the unit itself, it does ‘duct’ cold air through (as far as I can recall without checking) three additional ‘swivel outlets’ ‘forward’ in the interior roof of the trailer - two of them further forward in the trailers ‘living room’ and one more in the trailers bedroom.
This might seem like a stupid question but IS THAT what is Universally Understood the term ‘Ducting’ is supposed to mean? Is there some other ‘form’ or ‘type’ of ‘Ducting’ that I am not aware of?
And assuming that – correctly – that my current unit is ‘Ducted’ – I kind of wonder how that might complicate and thus increase the cost of a replacement being installed due to that fact alone ‘that much’.
Or perhaps it doesn’t… Perhaps it might be the other part of the response that makes me wonder…
“There’s a good possibility if your unit is a ducted unit, that you will have to change the control box in the wall thermostat?”.
I suppose (who am I to say?) that that might be true but I was kind of assuming and HOPING that the new unit would simply pretty much ‘drop in and plug-and-play’, that probably all it would be necessary to get it working would be to connected up to AC (the very final thing, perhaps) and, insofar as other low-voltage connections/communications with the thermostat and whatever else there might be involved, that ideally all you might have to do is plug together a couple of connectors.
So anyway, can anybody help clarify this for me? Would be appreciated.
Has anybody out there actually either ‘gol darn gone and dun it’ themselves and so have hands-on experience or, failing that, had a dealer do it who could help clarify things for me?
Thanks.
Based on my research to date, it looks like the (probably most compatible) replacement unit would be a Dometic B57915.XX1C0 Brisk II Polar White Air Conditioner (13,500 BTU 410A).
In terms of installation, I’m trying to decide whether or not to undertake it myself OR go through a dealer to have it all done for me. I emailed a local dealer to ask for a quote.
In response, I was quoted:
• “You are probably looking around $1100 plus $300 for labor IF ‘NON-DUCTED’. There is a good possibility if your unit is a DUCTED unit, then you will have to change the ‘control box’ and the wall thermostat, which could cost you another $300 parts plus $150 labor”.
The latter possibility/expense I did not anticipate (even as a possibility).
I kind of figured that given and assuming that the Brisk II unit from Dometic was (as far as I know) the recommended replacement unit, that it would essentially be ‘more or less’ a relatively simple ‘Drop In Replacement’.
So anyway, I figured I would try to find out what would be involved in replacing my air conditioner, IDEALLY FROM SOMEONE WHO MAY HAVE EITHER PERSONALLY DONE IT OR HAD IT DONE, ASSUMING THE SAME STARTING POINT/UNIT BEING REPLACED WITH A BRISK II unit.
As far as I know - assuming we - the dealer and I are on the same wavelength insofar as the term – ‘ducted’ is concerned: well, the way the current unit works in my trailer is that, in addition to intaking and subsequently expelling cold air directly from the unit itself, it does ‘duct’ cold air through (as far as I can recall without checking) three additional ‘swivel outlets’ ‘forward’ in the interior roof of the trailer - two of them further forward in the trailers ‘living room’ and one more in the trailers bedroom.
This might seem like a stupid question but IS THAT what is Universally Understood the term ‘Ducting’ is supposed to mean? Is there some other ‘form’ or ‘type’ of ‘Ducting’ that I am not aware of?
And assuming that – correctly – that my current unit is ‘Ducted’ – I kind of wonder how that might complicate and thus increase the cost of a replacement being installed due to that fact alone ‘that much’.
Or perhaps it doesn’t… Perhaps it might be the other part of the response that makes me wonder…
“There’s a good possibility if your unit is a ducted unit, that you will have to change the control box in the wall thermostat?”.
I suppose (who am I to say?) that that might be true but I was kind of assuming and HOPING that the new unit would simply pretty much ‘drop in and plug-and-play’, that probably all it would be necessary to get it working would be to connected up to AC (the very final thing, perhaps) and, insofar as other low-voltage connections/communications with the thermostat and whatever else there might be involved, that ideally all you might have to do is plug together a couple of connectors.
So anyway, can anybody help clarify this for me? Would be appreciated.
Has anybody out there actually either ‘gol darn gone and dun it’ themselves and so have hands-on experience or, failing that, had a dealer do it who could help clarify things for me?
Thanks.
