A/C quite blowing cold air- suspect freon leak

Stclairm wrote:
Wow that is pure crap.

And so is a lot of the air conditioner advice you are going to get here from people who mean well, but do not know anything about air conditioning equipment.

A good shop should not break the bank with a diagnostic fee. Ask up front what the charge is. The tech should check to see if the compressor is running. if it is not, he can trace bace to the source of voltage for the compressor and check for an open hot or neutral wire. It could be anything from a faulty compressor to as simple as a bad connection.

If the compressor runs, he can check, if he is a competent tech, for proper charge without having to tap into the system simply by measuring current draw on the compressor. That will tell if the unit is properly charged. These units only use a pound of refrigerant, so any leak will result in a loss of charge.

If the compressor runs and he determines it is out of freon, he can sweat a "T" and a shrader valve into the suction line and start looking for a leak. Piercing valves can tap into a system to connect gauges, but then the hole has to be repaired and a service valve sweated in anyway, so he might as well do that from the start.

If there is a problem with doing all of this, it's going to be that it's a newer unit and is charged with R-410A as opposed to R-22, You can't charge that gas by pressures and it either has to be weighed in using a scale. or charged by super-heat, which is going to be beyond the ability of the average RV tech. At any rate, going by what I have seen and read, you would be looking at around $1200 for a shop to replace it, so with that, repair starts looking pretty good.

RV A/C same as window shaker, no access, They have taps that either soldier or clamp on, like a ice maker tap, but they tend to leak in the long run. Check the condenser , no restrictions excessive dirt, cottonwood, etc. Look for oil spots on the external areas would indicate a leak. Make sure the compressor is working on the call for cooling, T-Stat operation is ok.

They are repairable; however, if the leak is in a place other than easily accessable tubing it may not be cost effective. An A/C servicer would probably charge around $200 for a simple leak repair.

From a friend who does HVAC work: A vampiric tap can be installed, but invariably they will start leaking no matter how good the sweat job is.

Farmcamp had an evac and charge done on his truck. I know about how that works firsthand.

My brother has a roof unit on his newer 5th wheel and yes it's really crap. (I think it's a brisk air but, I'm not sure about that) It hardly makes any cold air and when I took the cover off to clean it I found it was impossible to clean the evaporator with out taking the whole thing apart. Then I found that the air is pulled, not pushed, through the condenser and then the hot air has to blow over the compressor and out through small slits in the side of the cover to escape. Stupid, Stupid, Stupid, design.

go to the dealer that farmcamp went to and have them do it for you. so far that dealer is the only one I know who ever recharged one. as stated they are throw away items and 99.9999% of the dealers will not recharge. for one thing they don't have recharge parts, and the dealers don't have the kits required to do the job. Most furnace A/C sheet metal dealers are the only ones who might do the job, but you would be money ahead to buy a new A/c unit.

Is is possible it simply froze up resulting in blowing warm air instead of cold? Happens on every RV A/C unit I've ever had. On humid days if I try to run on medium or high it would often freeze up and quit blowing cold air. Shutting it off for a few hours then trying it again usually worked.

Check private messages...:)

Stclairm wrote:
Ill get up there and check for comp op at our next trip. I'm sure it wont run on battery power.

NO it will not run on battery.......needs AC power for fan blower & compressor