Air Conditioner - Dometic or Coleman better?

I've had two Dometic Penguins (family member with another) and one Coleman in three RVs. Used quite a bit in very hot weather. The Dometics have never had major failure, but have minor annoying issues. The exterior shroud has marginal life expectancy. The Coleman had no issues including the shroud in same time span. Both seemed equally noisy-and they are noisy.

If I had to do over, I don't know. I do like the look of the Penguin, fairly sleek. The Colemans I've (and know) had just seemed to work better. But probably model dependent. Some of the taller low energy Colemans are pretty frugal with the power and worth checking out if you need that.

We installed a new 15,000btu Atwood air conditioner/heat pump, shown in the post above, in our trailer last year as a replacement for our old Dometic DuoTherm unit that was dying. We have been impressed by the amount of air movement it produces and how quiet it is. I especially like the fact that it has two fan motors instead of one doing double duty like the Dometic unit did. So far, it seems to have been a wise decision but time will tell.
Barney

I hear these are suppose to be good but, I have never seen one. Maybe you want to check them out

http://www.atwoodmobile.com/air-conditioners/rv-air-conditioners.asp

My brothers last 5th wheel had a Coleman Mach. On a 95 degree day it would only put out 75 degree air. In a poorly insulated camper with a lot of windows that is not going to keep it cool.

I have a older Travel Trailer. My Emerson AC will put out 50 degree air on a 95 degree day.

Someone on here started telling me that it was impossible to get more then a 20 degree drop in air temps. I was saying that my older AC would do better then that.

That led to a discussion about RV refrigerants .

About the time I was ready to give up and think that all modern camper AC are bad because of the refrigerant someone posted a picture of their Dometic Penguin AC also putting out 50 degree air on a 95 degree day.

Try the Coleman all the Dometic are junk .

P.S. Oh, and I just remembered. When I was trying to help my brother get his Dometic to work better we got up on the roof and took the cover off. The air flow design is backwards !! It draws the air through the condenser and then tries to push the air out through the sides of the cover threw the little slats . Not only is this a poor air flow design it also is flowing hot air over the compressor which is the hottest working part of the unit.

Stupid, Stupid, design. And, remember I'm a Caveman !!! Even I know this thing would never work well.

I apologize for the spelling and grammatical errors. I'm just trying to help by telling you the experiences I've had.

I have read an article on the dometic ac and it is the fan that is causing the noise. They have a fix for it now.

I recently had a very minor issue with my unit. Called a mobile tech that I have used many times over the years. His comment was that I was lucky to have a coleman. He went on to say that the recent dometic units have significant problems. He has replaced many dometic units under warranty and that dometic does not want the units returned to them. He only has to sent them the ID tag from the unit as they know they have a problem. Hopefully they will get it fixed soon.

I've had both Dometic Penguins A/C's replaced twice as well as other parts. The original's, which were noise tolerable, needed motors, caps, seals. The new ones will keep you awake with a low freq. hum...They are terrible! I tried to work something out with the shop and get Colemans instead of Dometic, but they knew they couldn't sell them to another savy owner due to the reputation. All the work has been done under warranty, but that doesn't solve the sound issue we have now...I think it's class action time.

My Dometic A/C is very loud... so loud I can't really sleep if directly under it, but have to go to the bed, close the pocket door. Assuming there isn't a need to keep with the same thermostat or multiplexed electronics, I'd check if the Coleman or another Dometic model is quieter.

It does keep the rig cool in 100+ degree Texas heat, and that is important.

I would match what you have.

I have owned 3 RV's over a 20+ year span all of which have had the Coleman and I have never experienced a failure.