roof air or basement

[pump-dump-go]

Howdy, been busy searching for good used ("our first class A") motorhomes, and finding a lot of good floor plans, mostly with slides.
Some Ford, some Chevy, and some diesel, and all in good shape with good prices. So I stop rambling on, here is my question.
Roof top ac, or basement h/a, pro and cons, noise levels.
Common sense tells me no units on top, lower roof clearance, less chance of roof leaks, but would like to know what others have experienced.
Thanks in advance

[JimM68]

mike brez wrote:

JimM68 wrote:
Our roof air's are horribly noisy, especially if I open the main vent (bypasses the ducting)
Generally at night, we'll run the front only and let the ducts feed air to the bedroom, then we don't have to hear it.

I've heard common basement a/c's used in class A's are obsolete and very hard to get parts and repairs for. Far as I know, Winniebago/Itasca was the only mainstream manufacturer to use them. (note I'm not talking buses here, just regular class A's)

I think even two million dollar Prevosts have roof air. Four or five of them.

I bet those make some noise...

[mike_brez]

JimM68 wrote:
Our roof air's are horribly noisy, especially if I open the main vent (bypasses the ducting)
Generally at night, we'll run the front only and let the ducts feed air to the bedroom, then we don't have to hear it.

I've heard common basement a/c's used in class A's are obsolete and very hard to get parts and repairs for. Far as I know, Winniebago/Itasca was the only mainstream manufacturer to use them. (note I'm not talking buses here, just regular class A's)

I think even two million dollar Prevosts have roof air. Four or five of them.

[RayChez]

JimM68 wrote:
Our roof air's are horribly noisy, especially if I open the main vent (bypasses the ducting)
Generally at night, we'll run the front only and let the ducts feed air to the bedroom, then we don't have to hear it.

I've heard common basement a/c's used in class A's are obsolete and very hard to get parts and repairs for. Far as I know, Winniebago/Itasca was the only mainstream manufacturer to use them. (note I'm not talking buses here, just regular class A's)

Gulf Stream TourMasters also had them in 2007

[JimM68]

Our roof air's are horribly noisy, especially if I open the main vent (bypasses the ducting)
Generally at night, we'll run the front only and let the ducts feed air to the bedroom, then we don't have to hear it.

I've heard common basement a/c's used in class A's are obsolete and very hard to get parts and repairs for. Far as I know, Winniebago/Itasca was the only mainstream manufacturer to use them. (note I'm not talking buses here, just regular class A's)

[427435]

I sure like my basement air (it's ducted through vents in the ceiling) and would prefer another like it. Haven't needed any repairs by a tech on this 15 year old unit, and the guy that does my home heating/AC would work on it. Once someone takes the duct off the unit and slides it part way out, it's just another home AC unit to work on.

I did that once to get rid of the noise a copper tube was making as it vibrated against a blower housing. It wasn't that big a deal-----probably a half hour's work.

[RayChez]

I can't figure how some can say that roof air conditioners are noisier then the floor which is on the compartment right under the bed. According to club members that have the basement air conditioners, they say the humming sound can get to you while you are trying to sleep.

On the roof air, all you have to do is run the front air only and you will never hear any sound. OR if it is like my coach, just close the vent and send the air through ducts. Which makes it real quit.

[Bill_Satellite]

highly recommend roof air. If something goes wrong you throw it off the roof, install another and you are cool again the same day. That's simply NOT going to happen with basement air. You are going to need to find someone familiar with your particular system, schedule an appointment so they can diagnose what the problem is, order the parts and schedule another appointment and then hope for the best that they actually knew what they were talking about, got all the right parts and the right tech. showed up for work that day.
Does that sound like I am talking from experience? I will never own another coach that does not have roof air!

[22WANDER]

Roof or Basement I have had both. Roof Ac's are noisier thats a given,and basement air quieter and are better at cooling.Our rig has basement air with heat pump ( it saves a lot of propane) if you are a full timer. you do lose one compartment,and on my rig it was the biggest compartment.

[Ivylog]

Friend put two roof AC on after the extended warranty ran out. The three repairs on the basement unit were more expensive than two roof units.

[RayChez]

Go with the roof low profile air conditioners/with heat pumps.

I have a friend that just wrote me a private message asking me where can he find a compressor for his basement air conditioning unit. He told me he could not find a compressor alone for his Coleman basement unit and that they wanted $3400. for a new unit.

I done some research for him and I found out from PPL that they could get one and that there were only four in the whole country. They said cost would be around $550.

[mike_brez]

Hate to loose a storage bay.

[bhivetravels]

Hmmm I'd say that's a good question. The roof a/c's like I have (ducted) are much cheaper to repair/replace hands-down. But that's not what you should be thinking about when looking. I don't look for a car based on what I might have as far as occasional passengers, I look for the everyday use. So the basement unit is usually air and heat and I've been in both and the roof a/c's win in very warm conditions (90+) The heat is a draw. The benefit to the gas heat is it works quick and on 12volt

[shaneperch]

I have a Dodge Avco with two roof airs and they cool me really well. I have a Flxible bus conversion that has two roof airs and they keep the bus cool unless it is a real hot 100 degree day it could use one more. I have a GMC RTS bus that is being converted and I am going to use basement AC type system and want to freeze myself out of it . The bus has coach air that freezes me out of there but when stopped i don't want to run the main engine so I am going with a central basement system and there is enough room under the bus to get it installed. Basement type system is much nicer looking than roof air systems.

[rvten]

Basement A/C quitter but cost more for repairs. Most home Heating and Cooling shops can fix it.
Just order parts from MFG. which is what I did on my basement unit when I had one on last MH.

[wildtoad]

Given an option of equally dependable and serviceable units, I'd go with the basement air for a couple of reasons. One is noise, two is leak potential. I've had a few leaks from them.