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DHollister's avatar
DHollister
Explorer
Jun 09, 2018

Loud Penguin II Heatpump

Hello All -

My 2004 Holiday Rambler motor home has 2 heat pumps, one original Dometic (Zone 1) and now one Penguin II (Zone 2) that I installed about a month ago. I kept my 5 button CCC and swapped out the circuit board in the Penguin II with the conversion board for the 5 button CCC.

I keep the fan set to Auto so that it is not on constantly. When the unit is Cooling the fan speed is always Hi and is louder than I would like. The Penguin II motor has 3 speeds, Hi, Med and Lo. The 5 Button CCC can support only Hi and Lo. The instructions for the conversion circuit board said to abandon the Med Fan Speed wire from the motor and only connect the Hi and Lo wires.

In an effort to make the unit less loud, can I abandon the Hi Fan wire from the motor instead of the Med Fan wire and connect the Med Fan wire at the Hi Fan location on the circuit board without causing any damage?

Greatly appreciate the help!
Dana

9 Replies

  • dougrainer's avatar
    dougrainer
    Nomad
    Jun 10, 2018
    S Davis wrote:
    dougrainer wrote:
    j-d wrote:
    Agree with the Freeze Warning. Our Coleman Mach15 has fan speeds marked Low and High. I call them Extremely Loud and Even Louder. It routinely freezes on Extremely Loud, so we always run on Even Louder.

    I wonder if you could bring wires out to a convenient switch, to let you choose High instead of Medium in case it frezes.


    Do you still have the 2003 model?. Do you have roof controls or a wall tstat? AS I STATED, HIS model has a Freeze control and as long as it functions CANNOT ICE/FREEZE up. YOUR model if wall tstat also cannot freeze up. If it does your freeze control system is not functioning---get it fixed. If you have ROOF mounted controls then you can freeze up. Doug


    It might not freeze up solid but it does have to start to freeze to trigger defrost and it will affect the output of the a/c as it has to cycle into defrost, either by turning off the compressor or cycling the reversing valve.


    The reversing valve has no function in COOL mode in regards to a defrost type operation. ALL it does is allow the flow of Freon/410 to flow for cooling and not heat. The FREEZE control just shuts off the compressor for a few minutes to allow the evap to warm up where the freeze thermistor is located, you will not have a real loss of cooling. Doug
  • S_Davis's avatar
    S_Davis
    Explorer
    Jun 10, 2018
    dougrainer wrote:
    j-d wrote:
    Agree with the Freeze Warning. Our Coleman Mach15 has fan speeds marked Low and High. I call them Extremely Loud and Even Louder. It routinely freezes on Extremely Loud, so we always run on Even Louder.

    I wonder if you could bring wires out to a convenient switch, to let you choose High instead of Medium in case it frezes.


    Do you still have the 2003 model?. Do you have roof controls or a wall tstat? AS I STATED, HIS model has a Freeze control and as long as it functions CANNOT ICE/FREEZE up. YOUR model if wall tstat also cannot freeze up. If it does your freeze control system is not functioning---get it fixed. If you have ROOF mounted controls then you can freeze up. Doug


    It might not freeze up solid but it does have to start to freeze to trigger defrost and it will affect the output of the a/c as it has to cycle into defrost, either by turning off the compressor or cycling the reversing valve.
  • dougrainer's avatar
    dougrainer
    Nomad
    Jun 10, 2018
    j-d wrote:
    Agree with the Freeze Warning. Our Coleman Mach15 has fan speeds marked Low and High. I call them Extremely Loud and Even Louder. It routinely freezes on Extremely Loud, so we always run on Even Louder.

    I wonder if you could bring wires out to a convenient switch, to let you choose High instead of Medium in case it frezes.


    Do you still have the 2003 model?. Do you have roof controls or a wall tstat? AS I STATED, HIS model has a Freeze control and as long as it functions CANNOT ICE/FREEZE up. YOUR model if wall tstat also cannot freeze up. If it does your freeze control system is not functioning---get it fixed. If you have ROOF mounted controls then you can freeze up. Doug
  • j-d's avatar
    j-d
    Explorer II
    Jun 10, 2018
    Agree with the Freeze Warning. Our Coleman Mach15 has fan speeds marked Low and High. I call them Extremely Loud and Even Louder. It routinely freezes on Extremely Loud, so we always run on Even Louder.

    I wonder if you could bring wires out to a convenient switch, to let you choose High instead of Medium in case it frezes.
  • wa8yxm's avatar
    wa8yxm
    Explorer III
    Jun 09, 2018
    To answer your question as asked: YES you most likely can but if it freezes up on Either mode Heat the outside coils or Cool the inside coils) you may need to go back to HIGH.

    IF you set teh fan on HIGH and leave it there (I am assuming ducted0 your brain may well block the sound after a period.. That is how *I* do it .
  • DHollister's avatar
    DHollister
    Explorer
    Jun 09, 2018
    Doug -

    Thanks for the speedy input and good advice on marking my tstat so I know what I did! :-) I am anxious to try this out!

    S Davis -

    Thanks for making sure all the corner cases were covered! Appreciate it!!!

    Dana
  • dougrainer's avatar
    dougrainer
    Nomad
    Jun 09, 2018
    S Davis wrote:
    If in a humid area watch for the evap coil icing up, lower the fan speed the more likely.


    This system has a FREEZE control that will prevent icing and freeze ups. Doug
  • S_Davis's avatar
    S_Davis
    Explorer
    Jun 09, 2018
    If in a humid area watch for the evap coil icing up, lower the fan speed the more likely.
  • dougrainer's avatar
    dougrainer
    Nomad
    Jun 09, 2018
    Should be no problem. ALL the motor has is the 3 speed wires. You are not using the medium speed wire. The board just sends a 120 signal for that winding speed. The motor windings do the speed. So just cap off the Hi speed black and connect I believe the unused yellow for medium. I would put a tag by the tstat stating what you did, in case in the future you forget or someone else needs to work on the system and it would be helpful to KNOW that a modification has been made. Doug

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