Furrion Chill 14.5 & 15.5 unit's both use 15.4 amps?

Coleman is built in The USA
Dometic is built in Mexico
Furrion is built in China and has less than 5 years in the RV industry

I have 50 years in the RV industry, 43 as a Tech. I would NEVER buy a Furrion, when RVP(Coleman) has a more than 50 year solid history. The extra 500 BTU's IMO, is a marketing gimmick. You can install a 13.5 or 15 k RVP replacement unit. I would not worry about amp draws. You may also have to buy an adapter harness kit to use the Furrion in place of the RVP. Depends on your AC control system and wall Tstat. Doug

What's hard to believe is that none of these companies has come out with a 15+ SEER heat pump replacement unit. The mini splits show they can be built, and will surpass the current units in efficiency at similar cost.
But we seem to be getting the same 20 year old designs.

Simple physics. The reason they both have the same amp draw is because they use the same compressor and fan. The difference in the BTU ratings is that the condenser and evaporator are different size.

I guess research is good, but my Coleman Mach III is 18 years old and works great. I'm not worrying about it until it makes me.

wanderingaimlessly wrote:
What's hard to believe is that none of these companies has come out with a 15+ SEER heat pump replacement unit. The mini splits show they can be built, and will surpass the current units in efficiency at similar cost.
But we seem to be getting the same 20 year old designs.

Comes down to cost.

It costs more to manufacture higher SEER A/C units.

Price compare Low to high SEER ratings and you will find a big difference in price.

It costs more to make heat pumps.

Heat pumps use a more complicated system of special valves which switch the flow direction in the coils. That adds mechanical complexity along with electric control complexity. Special design considerations for optimizing the coils for dual use may also add in cost to the design.

Price compare normal A/C vs a heat pump.. Big difference between the two for the same BTU rating.

Very few RV buyers care about A/C efficiency, they are more concerned about price point or what is it going to cost them to buy the RV.

If you want more efficiency, consider a higher efficiency window air unit, many now days are using variable speed compressors plus they reuse the condensate (which on RV A/C units is just allowed to drip off your roof) by splashing/slinging it on the outside coils which increases the over all cooling efficiency.

Not to mention, most RV A/Cs are placed exactly where you don't want them for high efficiency, right smack dab in the middle of the roof on a hot sweltering sun drenched day.. That roof can be at blistering high temps and the A/C efficiency goes down the hotter the outdoor coils get..

TurnThePage wrote:
I guess research is good, but my Coleman Mach III is 18 years old and works great. I'm not worrying about it until it makes me.

Yep, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

As far as which unit, if the cost difference is negligible, go for the higher BTU unit. Of course, not heard good things about furrion in general.

TurnThePage wrote:
I guess research is good, but my Coleman Mach III is 18 years old and works great. I'm not worrying about it until it makes me.

I'm not sure how they did it - but somehow, they managed to make my new Mach III Plus even noisier than the Mach II was in my previous RV.

The compressor design is still pretty much the same as it was back in the 1950's - One speed, drawing enough startup current to dim all the lights in the entire RV park.

Airxcel was selling every A/C unit they could make while COVID and the RV boom was in full swing - so no incentive to improve.

Furion is not known to have the best quality by any stretch of the imagination.

Fisherman wrote:
Furion is not known to have the best quality by any stretch of the imagination.

X2!

Wise words uttered many yrs ago..

"
The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.

- Benjamin Franklin "

Thanks to all for the responses...

Mine hasn't died, yet - and I'm going on 12 years. I just think at some point I'm going to have to replace it - much like my dometic fridge (though I'll put a 12v compressor from jc refrigeration on my dometic shell when it does).

Many years ago professor95 took a 5k window AC unit and retrofitted it into a shell of a dometic unit he got from his local RV repair shop (the unit was dead).

It was quieter than his stock unit - and from what I remember, worked well for his needs. I often wonder why we've never improved the AC units utilizing off the shelf parts that are more efficient designs - and at a lower cost because the parts are off the shelf.

Enough ranting!

thanks again!