Forum Discussion

Chuck_Goodwin's avatar
Jul 06, 2013

Air conditioner dripping inside (Dometic)

Well, with this heat and humidity am sure we all are using our ACs. Ours in our '04 Excel TS has started to drip. It's a Dometic DuoTherm 600 Series Penguin. At first we hoped it had some non-obvious connection to the fact that the filters were filthy. We just bought the rig a few months and clearly the previous owner never cleaned them. So we did but the leak came back, drip drip right on our bed!

I checked the roof and don't see anything obvious but neither do I see condensate up there as I would expect.

Any suggestions for a quick fix?

Thanks!
Chuck

9 Replies

  • Chuck,
    I have a 2005 Excel TD and had the same problem you have. It started dripping condensate when we were in Florida and had to deal with the humidity. Be advised that while Dometic ac units do have 4 threaded holes for mounting bolts to snug the unit to the seal on the roof, PleasureWay has chosen to only use the front two. Seems to work okay I guess but in my case, one of the two empty holes was leaking condensate onto my bed. My fix was to remove the inner plastic panel and filter which gave me access to the two unused bolt holes. I forced a bit of silicone into each hole and then threaded a 1/4"x20 hex head bolt about 1 1/2" long into each hole and snugged them down. Problem gone.
    I spoke to Phil Nikel at PW about this situation and he said the unused bolt holes WERE supposed to be capped or plugged at the time of installation at the PW factory and the two front bolts were enough to hold the ac down okay. I think the back end is wedged against something and the rear two bolts were not necessary.
  • Instead of making a new thread, will add to this related one.....
    I had a horrendous leak Saturday morning, while the unit was running and it had rained. Water was actually pouring out of the ADB, onto the bed and floor! Shut the unit off, and the pouring eased to a trickle, then stopped. Soaked the headliner of a brand new truck, and so on.
    Unit is a 3 month old Dometic Penguin. Roof was a new installation, and there is a piece of 1/8" aluminum up top to strengthen the roof, as well as some 3/4" plywood underneath, between the headliner and ADB.
    There was drops of water on top of the unit inside, above rooftop level. Both in front and behind the squirrel fan. Some fotos here:
    [img]http://s356.photobucket.com/user/leftlanetruckin/media/wetac.jpg.html?filters[user]=83232422&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=2[/img]
    [img]http://s356.photobucket.com/user/leftlanetruckin/media/wetac2.jpg.html?filters[user]=83232422&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=1[/img]
    [img]http://s356.photobucket.com/user/leftlanetruckin/media/acinsidefront.jpg.html?filters[user]=83232422&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=3[/img]
    [img]http://s356.photobucket.com/user/leftlanetruckin/media/actop.jpg.html?filters[user]=83232422&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=4[/img]

    The metal drip(?) tray, than can be felt from the inside with the ADB removed, has standing water in it at the front corner today too.
    Any ideas please? It is on a brand new Western Star semi truck, and a soaked headliner wont be under warranty....lol
    [img]http://s356.photobucket.com/user/leftlanetruckin/media/acside.jpg.html?filters[user]=83232422&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=0[/img]

    Trying to link to fotos, but if that fails, here is a link to my albums.
    http://s356.photobucket.com/user/leftlanetruckin/library/?sort=3&page=1

    Martin
  • Chuck, my wife is a mobile dog groomer with a Dodge Sprinter van. When her roof air-conditioner leaks, the first thing I do is check her air filter, then I remove the AC cover on the roof, remove the evaporator cover and blow out the evaporator.it is always clogged and wet with condensate. While I’m on the roof with the cover off I clean the condensate drip holes. I need to do this twice a year with all the dog hair flying around. Hope this helps
  • My air conditioner leaked a couple times and every time it was because the roof drain got clogged.
  • Before making any repairs, I would make sure the front end of the van is just slightly higher than the rear end so the water runs out. Solved our problem.

    Jim
  • Sounds like the evap coil drip pan drain holes are plugged.......pan fills up with condensate, overflows and gets carried into discharge plenum by fan.
    Condensation should be running down roof.

    Will need to go up on roof, remove shroud cover and then remove sheet metal cover over evap coil. Clean evap coil, drip pan & pan drain holes.

  • Just be careful. Bolts should be just SNUG. Do NOT tighten tight as that will destroy the gasket.
  • Chuck Goodwin wrote:
    Well, with this heat and humidity am sure we all are using our ACs. Ours in our '04 Excel TS has started to drip. It's a Dometic DuoTherm 600 Series Penguin....Thanks!
    Chuck
    No doubt you already know this, but an air conditioner removes or condenses moisture from the air as it conditions it. The moisture is water or condensate. If your rig is perfectly level, the water can pond around the seal between the air conditioner and your roof top. If the seal is not perfect or has loosened as mentioned by "Dick_B", water will drip on through. :)
  • There are some previous posts on this subject but the problem may be that the four hold down bolts have loosened with the compression of the sealing gasket around the A/C. Access them from inside, snug them up and the problem should go away.