difference between ducted & non-ducted A/C

[quickrod66]

getting close to making a decision on a new trailer. Question has come up, what difference does it make when the A/C is ducted or non- ducted.TT will be from 24 to 29 ft.

[Pauljdav]

I would go for ducted. The non ducted is much louder. My vents all work great and the bedroom gets lots of cool air.

[Mark_and_Linda]

Our Puma has a ducted system, we love it. We can set the direction of the outflow to where we need it. We stay comfortable in it, even in high outdoor temps.

[chr_]

Ducted. I converted a Motorhome from free blow (non ducted) to ducted. What a difference in cooling and noise. Good un obstructed ductwork is key too. I had to re-seal the ducts in my TT at each register as the factory did a lame job of it.

[quickrod66]

everyone has given me food for thought, when I go to the 2 dealers looking at the new trailer we are considering I will run those A/C

[Z1derful]

Ours is ducted as well, with the option to open the vents on the main AC to "dump" all the air in the main living space or any combination therein. My brother-in-law commented on how quiet our TT was compared to his. His TT AC isn't ducted and is much louder.

Our vents also rotate so we can direct the air flow.

[PA12DRVR]

I'm with Miltville: I won't have another RV without ducted air. Had 2 TT's without and the A/C definitely cooled the trailer but: a) you couldn't shut the bedroom door or the bedroom wouldn't cool; b) Wind tunnel effect; and c) too much noise to sleep through.

Good quality ducted air is a requirement for me.

[miltvill]

I will not get a TT with out ducted A/C. I like having a duct in my bathroom to help remove the moisture. I can also aim my ducts in any direction I want or close one off if it blows on DW. I have two ducts in my bedroom so I sleep nice and cool. I have 5 ducts in my 23' TT. Sit in the TT you are thinking about getting and see if you are happy with the air flow. If you are serious about purchasing a TT and and are finished shopping around. Make the dealer plug it in and sit in it for a while. I was in mine five hours on a hot humid Florida day before I signed the papers.

[mlts22]

I'm happy with my ducted system. My A/C is pretty loud, but when I close the sliding door to the bedroom, it allows for cool air to blow but without the noise. Great for reading and such. Without it, I'd definitely have to choose between cool or quiet, but not both.

[wmoses]

P3TC wrote:
Non-ducted only cools you if you are directly under the AC.

Ducted is an indicator of overall unit value.

Bill

This is not my experience.

In my RV the whole area is cooled especially the areas away from the AC unit, as the louvres shoot the cooled air towards the fore and aft ends of the RV. In a hybrid this can be an advantage of a non-ducted system over a ducted system.

Someone mentioned less noise already - definitely an advantage for the ducted system.

[LarryJM]

spike99 wrote:
Like a few folks, I also converted my AC duct TT to a non-duct system by removing its chamber plate. A few screws and the AC now only blows air into our TT's main open floor area. Much better than trying to push air through small air ducts in the attic. IMO, our TT gets cooler much faster. One of the best mods I've done to my TT.

I did a variant of what you did by adding a register right at the junction of the main air plenum and the duct run on each side of the A/C so that I could get a much colder and higher air flow in the vicinity of the main A/C unit and still get some air to the extremes of the trailer. Not quite as good as the units that have registers in the main air plenum proper, but I didn't want to mess with cutting holes in the main air plenum and messing with it's engineered design. It gives me IMO the best of both systems w/o loosing either.

I also almost doubled the number of registers since the manufacturer only installed the minimum and closing any of the factory configured registers would actually reduce the overall cooling capacity so now I can somewhat redirect where the ducted air is concentrated.

Larry

[brulaz]

I think it depends upon how well the ducting is done.

It has to be well insulated so you don't lose heat to the roof, and the ducts have to be big enough and well designed so you get good air flow through out the trailer.

From what I'm reading here, a cheap or poorly designed ducted system is worse than a unducted one.

Our current 24' trailer is unducted. It cools the whole trailer down well, but it's like living in a wind tunnel when it's on; noisy and windy. We're looking at larger trailers and a good ducted A/C is at the top of our list of essentials.

Visit a dealer that has the trailers plugged in on a hot day and try the A/C. We did that at LazyDays in Tampa Fl and were sold on the ducted A/C in a Laredo 240MK. Like many, it allowed you adjust the air flow to the ducts or directly into the main cabin.

[spike99]

Like a few folks, I also converted my AC duct TT to a non-duct system by removing its chamber plate. A few screws and the AC now only blows air into our TT's main open floor area. Much better than trying to push air through small air ducts in the attic. IMO, our TT gets cooler much faster. One of the best mods I've done to my TT.

[71stang99]

I run one ducted and one non ducted (it had the option to be ducted as the ducts are in place) Both are 15k, the ducted runs the rear bedroom and moves forward into the bathroom and kitchen with two final vents by the living room. By the time the air hits the living area the air flow is paltry, the second unit is in the kitchen area and between the two they do well in 112 temps already encountered. After the sun goes down usually the louder unducted unit can be shut off and the much quieter ducted can handle the trailer (~40' with 5 slides)

[ScottG]

jamnw wrote:
Mine has ducted and honestly they are not very good.
Now my unit also has vents at the bottom of the unit I can open which dumps all the air into the TT and not into the ducts.

My ducts are run thru the ceiling, and I believe they are probably smashed going to my bedroom, cause I get little to no air out of it. My back ones going to the bathroom and my bunks blow very well.

Don't get me wrong, my AC cools my 28ft TT well.

Same story here. It just doesn't work very well and I suspect a lot of "cool" is lost in the hot attic.
For a smaller trailer I would rather have non-ducted again.