Best Air Conditioners? Driving myself crazy.

[rtate]

I am replacing both air conditioners in my Big Horn RL 3055. Dont ask why but it will be covered under my insurance. I have been researching Dometic, Coleman and Attwood. I am primarily interested in durability, best cooling and how quite they operate in that order. Looks like the are all loud, have durability problems and marginal cooling. What do you recommend and why?

[RJsfishin]

Duo therm ?? Must be a dometic.
Its been all Colman for 40 yrs, till my current Dometic.
I know they must all cool about the same, (btu wise) but for some reason
this Dometic seems to cool better than all the Colemans.
Doesn't really matter, when its hot, I stay home, but now and then we'll get caught in hot weather, and have to run A/C/gen,....sucks !

[dougrainer]

reed cundiff wrote:
Depending on size of rig and temperature extremes, a lot of small rigs have gone to split-level air conditioners.

How much more efficient are the "efficient" Dometics. Our 13,500 BTU takes almost 2 kW from our solar/battery suite and we really cannot run more than 4 hours a day.

We pretty much go by MexicoWanderer's advice : north or up in elevation in summer/reverse in winter. It was 105 at son's place in Fort Collins 3 or 4 years ago. We went up to 10,400' near Long Draw Reservoir and it was 38 F at night and 75 F during the day "Just Right!"

Reed and Elaine

Explain what you mean by "Split Level" machines. Doug

[reed_cundiff]

Depending on size of rig and temperature extremes, a lot of small rigs have gone to split-level air conditioners.

How much more efficient are the "efficient" Dometics. Our 13,500 BTU takes almost 2 kW from our solar/battery suite and we really cannot run more than 4 hours a day.

We pretty much go by MexicoWanderer's advice : north or up in elevation in summer/reverse in winter. It was 105 at son's place in Fort Collins 3 or 4 years ago. We went up to 10,400' near Long Draw Reservoir and it was 38 F at night and 75 F during the day "Just Right!"

Reed and Elaine

[Chris_Bryant]

A point- both Dometic and Coleman (RVP) make commercial grade units- the performance is no better, but the construction will typically be heavier all around.

My only reservation with the Atwood is whether it will stick around- the unit itself seems great, with a reasonably long history in Australia. Now that Dometic owns Atwood, I'm not sure what will happen. Otherwise I would recommend the Atwood.

[joelabq]

I replaced my Dometic (died in 2 years) with an Atwood. I even had to buy a new control board since I hooked it up wrong and was able to get parts no problem. The unit is much more quiet, the 15k comes with a heat pump too. The fan doesn't turn off (that turns some people off), but goes to such a low speed that it doesn't bother us. Power usage is way better, I can even run it off of a Xantrex Prosine 2000 on my 4 Golf carts for an hour after installing a Hard start cap I had put in the Dometic.

I am not sure how the insides of a Dometic or RVP/Coleman that aren't "builder grade" look, but the Atwood had insulated linesets, the duct insulation appeared much higher quality and better engineered, and it came with two seperate fan motors for the Condensor and blower unlike the Dometic and colemans I've owned/seen.

I did upgrade from a 13.5k btu to a 15k when I bought the Atwood, but I feel it cools better than if I would have just bought a Dometic 15k. No data to back it up though.

Joel

[brulaz]

As a snowbird, I like MexicoWanderer's solution.

If it gets too hot move to a cooler location.
If it gets too cold move to a warmer location.

But I'm not sure whether the energy spent moving from location to location is more/less/equal to that spent heating/cooling and staying put.

Probably moving up from the desert to some close-by mountains and return is more energy efficient than moving from Canada to Florida and return.

[steveh27]

I replaced mine with the Dometic high efficiency model and it is great. I can easily run it with my Honda 2000 or off a regular 15 amp house plug.

[j-d]

I never thought I'd care about "efficiency" in an RV A/C unit. After all, power's free at nearly all campsites, so why care? It may not matter on a 50A coach with two 15000 units, but it does matter on a 30A with one. I won't replace our Coleman Mach 15000 till it fails, but I got to looking on the RVP (Coleman Brand) site. There ARE high efficiency 13500 units but they don't offer that in 15000.

If you get to places where available AMPS, and of course the related Volts, is an issue, then the current it takes to start an A/C and of course to keep it running can become a point to consider. A "Start Kit" will help it get going, and we have one, but we often trip our 30A service during the day, even practicing "load shedding."

[MEXICOWANDERER]

MY SUMMER A/C
NO HUKE-OOP NEEDED. Quieter than your A/C

[MEXICOWANDERER]

I would be tempted to have all three capable of "hard starting" a true AC killer regardless of brand or type.

[dougrainer]

You only have 2 choices. RVP (Coleman) and Dometic, Atwood is a newcomer and there is no history on them. Carrier exited pretty quickly a few years ago after trying for a few years. RVP and Dometic probably have 98% of the RV market between them. When replacing, Either is just as good, I would replace with what you had originally. IMO, Chevy versus Ford argument. BOTH are equally as good. Doug

[Chris_Bryant]

rtate wrote:

Chris,
What do you think of the new dometic blizzard? Worth looking at?
Thanks

I haven't seen one yet- I'm hoping they will have some along with info at the next training class, though they don'e have any info yet.

I would be a bit hesitant at being a test subject for it- no real reason, but there are often changes made fairly quickly on new products when problems crop up, but usually the changes are minor assembly adjustments.
Other than that, all I know is what is in the video on my blog.

[wa8yxm]

If it's being replaced by insurance can I assume 12 foot bridge and A/C stuck up 12'3" before you removed it?

Do not answer that:

A rooftop A/C consists of 2 or 3 modules Depending on the specifics of the install you choose different modules.

Upper module: This is the part that is ABOVE the roof, consists of all the "Guts" COmpressor, blower, fan, condenser, evaporator, all the plubming and one or two pieces of the electronics (The start condensers).

Lower control unit. as the name implies it contains the controls. (Knobs buttons and such) mounds UNDER the ceiling.

In-Roof unit.. This unit contains the electroincs if not mounted on the lower unit, it also is where the ducts hook up if it's a ducted unit.

Now: all 3 units vary from brand to brand so if you change brands in most cases you need to replace everything.. BUT if you damaged the UPPER unit, but the lower 2 modules are still good.. You can replace the UPPER only for about 2/3 the price of a full replacement. PROVIDED you use the same or compatible brand.

IF your OEM was Carrier Air V Same brand replacment with new is not going to happen.. But Advent Air (Made in China I do not recommend.. And I have one) and I think Coleman, make drop on replacements.

in the case of Advent air I had to change one socket on the control module (middle unit) RV tech did not know how to install the new MOLEX socket.... But I'm an electronics tech by training and hobby and MOlex products are very common where I hang my soldering iron so I showed him.. (it's about a 2 second procedure).

Saved me about 500 dollars doing just the upper unit.

[rtate]

Chris Bryant wrote:
A lot depends on what you are replacing- if you have Dometic right now, replacing will mean running thermostat wiring if you switch. 99.9% of the problems you cite are due to bad system design and installation, not at all the fault of the air conditioner.

Chris,
What do you think of the new dometic blizzard? Worth looking at?
Thanks