Air Conditioner

[marpel]

Sitting in the trailer (smallish with single AC unit), after a long days drive, with ac on, as it is a gazillion degrees outside, and am wondering - why are the RV ACs so darn loud? I was up on the roof the other day, cleaning it and from what I can see, the only moving part(s) is the fan, so what makes the noise. It is like sitting next to a jet engine.

And do they not make them so they can be run with a little less output? Ours is either on full blast or not at all (we can close one or all of the three outlets but that does not reduce the output of the unit, itself).

I have been in houses where they have a, somewhat, whisper quiet built-in (the smallish kind that sit in an exterior wall,), and our fridge keeps things cool without the jet engine, so why can’t they do the same for a rooftop?

Marv

[way2roll]

Ac's in homes are quiet because the handler is usually someplace out of the living space and insulated. The ducting massive and is also behind walls and insulated and a house has a lot of floorspace and walls to deflect and absorb sound. Your AC in your RV is literally on top of your head with very little insulation and no real ductwork and your RV interior is about the size of standard home kitchen with an open floorplan with no walls to deflect noise. They move a lot of air to try to cool a space with very little R value. And they are cheap and less efficient. Our last FW had a true ducted system and was actually pretty quiet. The AC on our new MH is a GE (never knew they made RV AC's) and it's not the loudest I've had. When I'm outside - even at a quiet SP I can hardly hear it.

[wa8yxm]

They are noisy because they move a lot of air and are not ducted.

Ducted are not nearly as noisy

And some are even less noisy

But mostly it's the lack of ducting

One thing you can do is set the fan to high constant. Your brain will soon filter out much of the noise and the fan noise will cover/block/hide other noises as well.

[CA_Traveler]

Well lets see: They are noisy, check. They are inefficient, check. 2 checks are irrelevant because they are cheap, check - winner!

[ktmrfs]

many rv AC units do have two fan speeds,
Noise, well I agree, however there is a way to reduce the noise level dramatically. It does mean it is ducted only, but noise reduction is amazing.

Now the solution isn't inexpensive, but it is well designed. And if you install the unit as per the directions you will also get improved airflow

https://wackoproducts.com/