Adding (back)air conditioner

Stars101 wrote:
Sunburning if covered? I've never heard of this. Do you mean that it gets too hot under a tarp or cover? That's a nugget I need to file away.

Ha...no I meant if sunburning covered by warranty.

Removing the sealant, both butyl and dicor self leveling caulk. Mostly time and patience, perseverance. Take into consideration that it wont be enjoyable and it wont be over quickly and trudge thru it. The sealant is the chore, the putty or butyl tape not too bad.

Separating the vent was suprisingly more difficult, ours is/was a Fantastic which has plastic flange that I didnt want to crack. Or cut my roof. I had installed mine so it was a bit neater than factory (not as piled up). Laid some towels on roof to protect. I was able to see where screws were and push screwdriver thru to remove.

Slowly going around and around pushing plastic putty knives under till I got perimeter dicor cut, then going round again going deeper to cut the butyl tap, then going round again insert knifes but then slide a THIN small pry bar on top to lever-slowly pry apart but almost not noticeable, insert another putty so it didnt restick, move down a bit, repeat, round & round till it finally started lifting. Spent a good hour just getting separated.

Getting the dicor off EPDM roof, carefully pushing plastic knife cut bulk off, then used thumb to push, roll and pull off. I used acetone primarily when I got it pretty clean, I did use paint thinner as that actually works better but BAD for the EPDM. Tried to confine to sealant area, lots of clean rags lightly dampened with thinner to scrub off sealant then light wipe with acetone. Avoid getting the rubber wet.

If I never see the back side of a sealed app on my roof as long as I live I will not be unhappy. Its a chore on the rubber roofs. Single most reason that reinstalling AC was made with great reluctance and only reason I almost decided not to. But its done. If only 10% of the project its still by far the real chore in my opinion.

On a fiberglass, painted aluminum or plastic roofs after cutting off bulk you could just wash with paint thinner (acetone will remove paint, dissolve plastics not sure but I wouldn't use on fiberglass or gel). Paint thinner is fairly mild solvent but not on EPDM, can cause it to soften & swell. All that said I might have spent another hour maybe 1 1/2 cleaning. But as you might glean...I hate it, my rant. Course because the AC uses a gasket and not sealed cleaning more critical verses reapplying a sealed fixture.

Cant tell you how glad Thats done...if it took another 2 weeks to reinstall the AC, still Im on the downhill side IMO, the rest is gravy.

What / how did you remove the gobs of sealant around the vent? What seemed to work best for you?

Sunburning if covered? I've never heard of this. Do you mean that it gets too hot under a tarp or cover? That's a nugget I need to file away.

KUDOS to Fan-Tastic Vent!
Just got off the phone with Fan-Tastic Vent. As I didnt know about the lid and sunburning if covered but they are shipping me a new lid! Not even a hesitation. Just pay shipping, oh wait its under 4 years -we pick up the shipping. Hokey smoke.

What can you say when a company responds like that. Im just amazed.

Some confusion on the color. Ours was clear but had a slight blue tinge. FTV clear is water clear, he was pretty sure I had smoke lid. I am pretty sure i dont (grey). But discussing further I learned that some of the offerings are not directly available from FTV. Similar to some 'store' brand items where they have a mfg. build a product but put there own spin on it, change case color-put a different handle and have it badged with store name. Apparently a lot of that happens in the RV world, OEMs have product built to there spec. At any rate mine is an OEM-who unknown. Interesting conversation, unsure what color lid will be, as long as it isnt opaque it really doesnt matter, stoked.

Oh yes power is still in box though I had disconnected lead to AC. Just need to reconnect. I am wondering about the holes from the vent though. If I had some eterana bond tape I would run around hole.

I have considered taking my AC off in the past but then the day comes where I exclaim "OYE am I glad I didn't take the AC off the roof!!" ...

I assume the power is still there from when you rebuilt the roof? As for the FVF, they are SUPER about stuff like this and I would bet dimes to donuts that they will ship you another cover for free... I'd be surprised if they don't.

Good luck on the work!

Dak

Looks like you have a bit of work to do to get the unit back on.

It also looks like you got it figured out pretty well . I'm sure it will all fit just right .

Good luck with the project, I will probably add an a/c unit to mine one day.
Thanks to members like you who take the time to post a project, I'll be paying attention to the mechanics before me . :)

Bob