Portable Air Conditioning fit for a B

[PSW]

I no longer have a B but we had them for many years....three of them and we loved them all. One problem common to Bs seems to be the air conditioning on really hot days. This is not a "total answer" but if I still had my Roadtrek, I would think about getting one of these to supplement the AC in the rig.

http://www.icybreeze.com/

I saw it today at Sam's Club and it was virtually out of ice and water but was still blowing pretty doggone cold air. I was surprised at this little gadget. Well made and made in the USA, too.

Paul

[drsolo]

Admittedly I dont have a regular B, but a converted conversion van where I installed a shelf along one side. I slipped the LG under the shelf and tossed the hose out one of those little windows that open. It worked very well to supplement the AC. Then my husband took it into his tent when we were down in Florida in the summer and it worked tolerably well to keep it cool enough for sleeping. It is now in his teardrop where it works fine.

[Vulcan_Rider]

Davydd wrote:
...and much bigger considering we are talking about use in a small Class B camper van.

All portable A/C units are quite large really.

The ones with two hoses are only slightly larger, IIRC.

I haven't found a retail outlet yet that actually keeps them in stock; only the cheaper models.

[Davydd]

...and much bigger considering we are talking about use in a small Class B camper van.

[Vulcan_Rider]

1775 wrote:
A portable air conditioner needs to be vented out a window -

I see my little tirade was in a different thread so here goes again:

Portable A/C units with a single hose are a cruel joke.

It takes air from inside the "room" and blows it out the single hose.
The REPLACEMENT air comes in through cracks and such through out the structure.

Thus your NET cooling turns out to be very little when the outside air is, for instance, 95F and very humid. It effectively cools only a small area and would actually make the rest of the structure warmer if there was no other A/C system in use.

A similar unit with TWO hoses doesn't have that drawback. Alas, they are quite a bit more expensive.

[1775]

A portable air conditioner needs to be vented out a window - and they are made to vent out house windows and not RV or vehicle windows. The units are also very heavy - and in a B I can't figure where one would fit. We find the CoolCat A/C in our Roadtrek does a good job of cooling down the inside - even on very hot days. There is very little space to cool and mostly it gets too cold inside rather than not cold enough.

[drsolo]

I got a small clamp on fan that seem to move the AC from up front into the back. It runs off the DC to AC converter just fine.

[sprintstream]

Have you looked at the roof mounted 12v a/c systems. I've thought a lot about these because my wife does most of her riding laying down in back because of her legs. Gets hot back there even with the front a/c going full blast. Would be nice to have both.

Seems like most are some kind of custom install and they aren't cheap. But I like this better than running my genset down the road to run that 120v a/c.

[Vulcan_Rider]

hitchup wrote:
For just a little more you can get a portable AC on rollers from Home Depot or Lowe's.

Did you read what I posted about those units ?
Did you understand it ??

They are only slightly better than nothing.

[drsolo]

Davydd wrote:
This is a Class B question. I don't think one of those Costco portable roll around air conditioners is going to work with limited space.

Well I got a used LG on wheels for my DH and another kind for my friend's Shasta. (Craigs list, $100ea). And they work very well indeed. In fact, DH used the LG in a tent before we got the teardrop. It really does help to be able to run a hose to a door and let it dribble out in dehumidifying mode.

[drsolo]

PSW wrote:
Dry ice, anyone?

A caution: dry ice is CO2, not good for in an enclosed place.

[eric1514]

It's not an evaporative cooler, aka swamp cooler. It has a heat exchanger (radiator) in it so it's not going to depend on low humidity to work.

[PSW]

Well, I saw it and I was shocked at how cold the air was coming out of it. No, I did not have the equipment to check the humidity dispersed in the air. No, it does not blow right on you. The hose can be fully articulated on a semi-sphere radius.

I live in a very hot part of the country. Not everywhere everyone goes has high humidity (think Arizona, NM, Utah, etc.).

I was also shocked at the quality of the build. This is no Styrofoam cooler and it is not a Coleman cooler. I have been in full sun in Colorado when the ambient outside temp was 85 and humidity less than 20% and the inside of any of three Bs we owned would be in excess of 100 with the genset and AC running.

This is not appropriate for everyone, but I posted it because with my 20+ years of owning Bs I knew of many trips when it would have worked for me. Dry ice, anyone?

🙂

[Davydd]

This is a Class B question. I don't think one of those Costco portable roll around air conditioners is going to work with limited space. 🙂

That cooler looks more like a cold fan for personal comfort. I doubt it would contribute any cooling to a space. At $299 the cooler itself would have to be as efficient as a Yeti type cooler with 5 day ice cube holding time to be worth it. And then people question the value of those kind of coolers as well.

[hitchup]

For just a little more you can get a portable AC on rollers from Home Depot or Lowe's. When 2 of our 3 AC's went out in Albuq, NM 2 wks ago, DH bought one for us.

Thank Goodness, because the 3rd one in the BR went out 5 days later. They can be set to remove humidity.