A/C breaker trips whenever ambient temp is high?

dougrainer wrote:

Chris Bryant wrote:
Clean the coils, inside and out. I can usually get at least a one amp drop by cleaning the outside coils, often two or three amps.

Chris, he is pulling in excess of 21 amps which caused the breaker to trip. IF cleaning would drop lets be generous 4 amps, that still puts the amp load at 17 amps at 95. STILL 3 amps too high. As I stated, there is no Magic fix and cleaning the coils while should be done will not fix this problem. Doug

Doug, all we know is that when it gets hot it trips a breaker. We don't know the current draw, we don't know the temperature at the condenser. I suspect a dirty coil and weak breaker.

I should have added if possible I would move to a single space breaker, if there is room in the panel.

Chris Bryant wrote:
Clean the coils, inside and out. I can usually get at least a one amp drop by cleaning the outside coils, often two or three amps.

Chris, he is pulling in excess of 21 amps which caused the breaker to trip. IF cleaning would drop lets be generous 4 amps, that still puts the amp load at 17 amps at 95. STILL 3 amps too high. As I stated, there is no Magic fix and cleaning the coils while should be done will not fix this problem. Doug

Breakers operate thermally. Bi metallic. New breakers operate correctly. Old breakers will operate from like-new performance to tripping at much lower amperage rating.

Diagnosing with an ammeter is the only way to handle this. First though I would remove the load wire from the 20-amp breaker and insure the copper is not dull and has not annealed from thermal cycling over the years. If the wire was found to be clean and bright then the breaker needs further examination. I would watch the ammeter for signs it is creeping up in amperage as the minutes pass. If amperage is increasing and passes 20 then the blame can fall on the A./C. compressor or motor. If the amperage does not creep upward yet the breaker trips then the breaker itself becomes suspect.

Looking at your profile you have been a forum member long enough to have had an opportunity to see the caution adnd check for loose set screws in your breaker box. Have you don that?

Chris Bryant wrote:
Clean the coils, inside and out. I can usually get at least a one amp drop by cleaning the outside coils, often two or three amps.

Chris warned me about something else when our Coleman Mach 15 was drawing high amps and shutting compressor off from its internal overload cutoff. The "outdoor" coil (at the rear of the unit, properly called Condenser) will overheat if the hot air it's trying to get rid of, is "short cycled" back into the coil. The edges of the Condenser should have foam rubber baffles to keep this from happening. Ours were missing. I improvised with pieces of foam "swim noodles" and it's been OK since.

So when you're up there cleaning, be sure there are seals in place. Cheap to make if they aren't.

Mine have done that as well. both of them at one time or another.

EVERY TIME. (Save one and that is a special case) the problem was a dirty condenser.

Two sets of instructions
Coleman: Remove outer shroud (4 bolts in the top) set aside and brush it off.. See option below but I just brushed and pealed the "Cotton" off the thing.
Replace shroud job done.

Most other makes TURN OFF Remove the outer shroud (many screws around the lower edge) remove inner cover (How depends on make) If your hands are as big as mine remove Fan. now you can clean the condenser by whatever method. Then re-assemble and turn it back on.

Options: They make some "Coil Cleaner" products you can use for an even better (in theory if the product claims are to be believed) clean.

Also both a water wash or a Compressed air wash (After initial brush off) may help.

Clean everything else while you have the cover off.

Since my last cleaning (Last Week) I have had the breaker trip once. I think that was Sunday.. As I was putting the groceries in the RV the power went off for a couple seconds and when it came back on the breaker tripped. This is understandable as you should keep it off 3 minutes.. Worked fine once I reset.

Chris Bryant wrote:
Clean the coils, inside and out. I can usually get at least a one amp drop by cleaning the outside coils, often two or three amps.

Not a magic fix, just routine maintenance, that can seem like magic. No doubt this procedure reduces your sales of replacement ACs.
Many people fail to consider the temperature of the air represents only the sensible load on an AC, which can be as little as 1/2 of the total load on the AC.

Clean the coils, inside and out. I can usually get at least a one amp drop by cleaning the outside coils, often two or three amps.

There is no magic fix. The ONLY thing to do is to run an AMP DRAW of the compressor wire. THAT will tell you what the problem is. AC spec ratings are based on 95 degree ambient and at 95 degrees an AC will NOT pull more than 15 amps hi cool regardless of brand/ model. So, if the 20 amp breaker trips at 95 degrees that tells me the compressor is probably bad and is pulling excess amps. Below 95 the draw is probably 17 or 18, but not enough to trip the breaker. Doug

Hi,

My 13500 btu Dometic starts out at 1200 watts. If it is hot outside that eventually becomes 1900 watts. BEWARE of low voltage/high amperage.

DownTheAvenue wrote:
There may not be anything wrong with your RV, circuit breaker, or the A/C. In fact, the circuit breaker may just be doing its job correctly. The RV park may be experiencing a ultra high electrical load during those high temperatures that causes a drop in voltage. The lower the voltage, the higher the amps. And the circuit breaker trips when the amps go up.

This occurs at my home or RV parks.