roof air failures
In just the last 3 months 7 of my friends have their roof air units fail. 4 of the RV's were new. Has there been a design change? Have any of you seen a similar situation? Seems weird to me.
Forum Discussion
chuckftboy wrote:
I work in the air conditioning field and its nothing more than the units are being built as cheaply as possible. Most of the electrical parts are foreign made and the copper tubing is very thin. Very few compressors are made here anymore.
We live in a disposable world now so any failure in warranty and they just replace the unit. Its now cheaper to build a new one than pay the labor to make a warranty repair.
The cheaper they make them, the more failures we'll see.
AS someone who ACTUALLY works in the RV service Industry and is certified to work on both RVP and Dometic, ALL the electrical parts except the compressor and The evaporator and condenser can be replaced and will be under warranty. The REASON the Compressor and the evap and condenser is NEVER fixed is simple. With Repair Labor hourly rates at $100 plus, they will not pay someone to spend $300 plus parts on a warranty repair. It is cheaper to replace the upper complete unit. Capacitiors/relay's/fan motors/control boards/tstats are ALL replaced under warranty if defective. The Sealed system CAN be repaired by someone that knows how(I DO), but it costs more than it is worth to do it. They do not even OFFER Compressors as a separate part from both RVP and Dometic, because of the cost. The reason you see more failures is twofold.
1. 410 operates at higher pressures to get the same BTU cooling capacity as the old Freon 22. higher pressures means more work for the compressors
2. With millions sold, with only 2 real OEM's (RVP/coleman and Dometic), you will have more perceived failures. If you only had Ford and Chevy building cars, the perception would mean they have a HIGH Automobile failure rate. But only because they would be the only makers of Auto/trucks.
3. The poster that complained of his Newmar replacement, he must have had the New Penguin installed with 410. The FIRST 2 years of that 410 penguin DID have a hi noise problem. Dometic traced it to the compressor and re-engineered the compressors and rubber mounts to avoid the noise. The past 2 years on those Penguins are extremely quiet. Newmars always had a higher than normal roof AC noise as the design of the roof cavity acted like a speaker box and amplified the noise from the roof top Penguins. The Brisk airs if installed on a Newmar did not have that noise. Doug
