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Old 07-17-2012, 07:39 PM   #1
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Air Conditioning in trailer

Hi All,

I have a 2011 q304BHK that I had a few issues With but now I'm trying to see if anyone else has experienced the A/C concern. We are camping in Michigan mad as you may know it is really hot here. Todays temp was 98. We have the standard 13,500 btu model. During the day we cannot keep the temp in the camper at our setting of 75. Today it was 88 inside. I contacted the dealer and he said the unit is working fine because there is some cold air coming out and the condensation is dripping off the roof. I replaced the analog thermostat with a Coleman-Mach digital one thinking that might help. The dealer saint the camper is just too hot and the unit is working as hard as it could and it's just too hot. I am doubtful because last year we took it to ft. Wilderness at Disney and it was like a meat locker inside.

Has this happened to anyone else? Does this sound as if it could be plausible? Any ideas would be helpful.

Thanks.
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Old 07-17-2012, 07:47 PM   #2
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We were camping in central PA over the 4th of July with temps near 100. One afternoon I was taking a nap with my daughter and I woke up hot. I switched the ac unit from low to high, but it couldn"t catch up. It took til the sun went down to cool the TT back to a comfortable temp. The next day we put the ac on high when we ate lunch and let it there all afternoon and it worked great. Maybe your unit just got behind and can"t catch up. Just a thought. Maybe this will help.
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Old 07-17-2012, 08:27 PM   #3
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You could have a problem with your a/c but as familybonding said, and as I have experienced in Texas, you need to go ahead and crank it up before it gets hot and leave it on all day to where it doesn't have to play catch-up. Unless you do have a problem with the a/c, it should work much better. Direct sunlight and humidity also play a part in the efficiency of the unit. By the way, Greg, welcome to Jayco Owners Forum. You may want to go to the New Members Forum and tell us about yourself. Good luck with the a/c situation....let us know how it turns out.
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Old 07-17-2012, 09:28 PM   #4
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What I have hear as a rule of thumb is the AC should be able to provide a 20 degree differential between the outside and inside air temperature. If it hits 100 degrees outside maintaining 80 inside is probably going to be about the best you can get, especially if you start with a unit that is already heated up. I'm sure if you have a thermal package or run two AC's this gets improved but there is only so much heat the AC unit can transfer in a given period of time.
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Old 07-18-2012, 05:46 AM   #5
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I think an important point to remember is if you wait to long to turn the AC on, everything in the RV is hot, the bed, couch, cabinets, etc. and the AC is trying to cool them as well as the inside air. Morel of the story, turn it on early. I have a 36BHDS, which is a big RV for a 13,500 AC to cool but it works - turn on early!!!!!!!
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Old 07-18-2012, 07:03 AM   #6
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Living in Florida, we always have the AC on. As others have said, it takes so long to cool all the stuff in the house/TT that its takes quite a while before you feel cool.
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Old 07-18-2012, 07:35 AM   #7
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Originally Posted by 2edgesword View Post
What I have hear as a rule of thumb is the AC should be able to provide a 20 degree differential between the outside and inside air temperature. If it hits 100 degrees outside maintaining 80 inside is probably going to be about the best you can get, especially if you start with a unit that is already heated up. I'm sure if you have a thermal package or run two AC's this gets improved but there is only so much heat the AC unit can transfer in a given period of time.
No, the 20 degree differential is between the discharge and return air. It's also refered to by people in the AC trade as "the split across the coil" or "Delta T". The outside air temperature means little except for the heat that it is pounding the trailer with. Compressor amp draw can be measured relevant to the outside ambient temperature to determine if the system is correctly charged without having to tap into the system, but that's a subject for another discussion.
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Old 07-18-2012, 10:19 AM   #8
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I have to agree, turn it on early and even at that it still runs often. My new 308 will make my AC run for hours if not the entire day before it is able to shut off for the first time, measured the air temp and it was blowing 45* cold aid. Biggest mistake I could have made was listen to the dealer instead of my gut about upgrading to the 15k unit when ordering my new trailer, never again will I do that!!!
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Old 07-18-2012, 01:07 PM   #9
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Make sure the filters are clean. I'm suprised how fast "stuff" collects on them. I clean them in soapy water and blot dry and put 'em back in to finish drying. Be gentle with them as they don't look too sturdy.
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Old 07-18-2012, 01:09 PM   #10
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I have a Eagle 322FKS 2 slides, with a 15,000 A/C. I tinted the windows with film from Lowes, and we keep the shades in the night postion. Also in extreme heat you can cut up a car window sun shield and slide it behind your window shades. Makes a huge difference if the sun is shinning on the glass in the heat of the afternoon. Like everyone else said, cool it down early.
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Old 07-18-2012, 01:30 PM   #11
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I have to agree, turn it on early and even at that it still runs often. My new 308 will make my AC run for hours if not the entire day before it is able to shut off for the first time, measured the air temp and it was blowing 45* cold aid. Biggest mistake I could have made was listen to the dealer instead of my gut about upgrading to the 15k unit when ordering my new trailer, never again will I do that!!!

And the 15,000 btu unit is only a 143.00 option over the 13,500 unit on MSRP, less then that with the usual 30% discount to MSRP. Mine was a 100.00 option according to the RVdirect final price build sheet. So getting the larger AC should be encouraged by dealers, in fact it should be standard in the larger ones IMO.
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Old 07-18-2012, 10:08 PM   #12
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The outside air temperature means little except for the heat that it is pounding the trailer with.
The outside air temperature means a lot given the heat from the outside gets transferred to the inside heating up the inside of the trailer. The AC unit's job is to absorb and transfer that heat back to the outside, along with any heat generated by the humans, lights, televison set, etc. inside the unit. There is a limit to how much heat the AC unit can transfer in a given amount of time. The BTU rating of an AC unit expresses how much heat the unit can transfer in one hour.

Delta T (difference in air temperature of air coming in and out over the cooling coils) is one method of measuring AC performance BUT you could have a very high Delta T here and yet not achieve sufficent cooling (what you feel) depending on the volume of air moved through the coiling cool and cooled in a given period of time. If the heat transfer capability of the AC unit cannot keep up with the BTU's being absorbed by the trailer and generated by the occupants the Delta T (difference between the outside and inside air temperature) may be small even though the Delta T of the air coming into and out of the cool coils is large. It's not just a matter of Delta T between inflow and outflow over the coiling coils but the volume of air and btu's absorbed by the cooling coils in a given amount of time.

Air conditioning units are sized based on the size of area being cooled which is related to the volume of air that needs to be exchanged and cooled to provide sufficient cooling. Having said you can have a properly sized AC unit that will not keep up with heat exchange as the outside air temperature increases. This is where the rule of thumb 20 degree differential is judged a reasonable amount of cooling an properly sized AC unit should provide.
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Old 07-19-2012, 05:36 AM   #13
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buckeyejim hits a good point, as well as advice to leave your unit on high and run it early. I own a 31FS Greyhawk and during this summer heat it is tricky to keep 75 inside without doing some things to conserve cool. One, get your rig to a shady spot, if you cannot, your battle for cool during the day is going to be worse. I will tell you, my A/C unit was blowing 38F at the register, but temp on the concrete pad was 140f, with no shade I was battling to keep 78. Nothing was broke, I was just demanding to much of my gear. Ambient temp means little when you are sitting in a metal and plastic box in direct sunlight. You can reach much higher tmps than ambiant. A closed car in Texas can reach 170F.

Tips

Find Shade and park there (no brainer)
If you cant find shade, think about how your rig is oriented to the afternoon sun, use your awning to cut down the amount of your rig getting direct sunlight.
Close your window shades. Use sun shade material to reflect in your windows.
Do not go in and out a lot. Every time the door opens you dump cool air out.
Use a nice fan to circulate air around your trailer. (same reason some put those little fans in the fridge)
If it gets way hot, close off a portion of your rig and cool just the area where your A/C unit is. (if your floor plan allows)
We do this in the RV to cool down the living room faster.
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Old 07-19-2012, 06:30 AM   #14
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And the 15,000 btu unit is only a 143.00 option over the 13,500 unit on MSRP, less then that with the usual 30% discount to MSRP. Mine was a 100.00 option according to the RVdirect final price build sheet. So getting the larger AC should be encouraged by dealers, in fact it should be standard in the larger ones IMO.
That's what I thought too and the reason I wanted it, what is an additional $143 on a $40,000 trailer? Turns out that the way it works when the dealer described it to us is they get a discount off the customer value package when ordering units from Jayco because it is a mandated option; so what lists as a $2200 or whatever option the dealers may only be charged $1300 for it and that is where part of the "customer deal" from the dealer comes from. The downside is when the dealers change the standard order package to up the AC, Jayco charges them full pop and a $143 option turns into $1000.
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Old 07-20-2012, 05:02 PM   #15
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We leave ours on auto fan, generally at 80 degrees. It seems to do all right. Although at least three or four times when we have come back the darn thing is froze up.
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Old 07-20-2012, 05:33 PM   #16
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I was at Myrtle Beach 4th of July week. Sweltering hot! High 90's near 100. No shade. Our AC kept the TT very comfortable. I use the AC ceiling vents to cool. I almost close the one in the bathroom, leave the one in the front bedroom open as well as the sliding doors to the bedroom, open the one in the bunkhouse all the way as well as the one just outside the bunk house door. I turn the ceiling vent just outside the bunk house so that all the air from that blows into that room. I also use the boot in the bunkhouse roof vent so that no sun comes through. All the shades are also kept closed. It is nice and comfy. I close off the main unit in the ceiling. We also use small fans in all 3 areas. Someone stopped while I was at the beach and my wife was at the camper. They loved the TT, and was wondering how we kept it so cool. They were not happy with there AC. I don't know what make they had, and the wife didn't ask. Mine is a 32TSBH and we do have the 15000 BTU unit and the thermal package. I think the fans help as well to spread the cool air around. BTW, my wife has fans running in our home all the time as well. We live in South Carolina, and actually have 2 heat pumps/central air. I freeze, but she is happy and that's what counts!
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Old 07-20-2012, 09:00 PM   #17
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If your trailer is over 28 to 30 ft a second AC really helps with the cooling.
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Old 07-22-2012, 07:53 AM   #18
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In addition to all the good advice above, we decided to try opening the front Fan-tastic automatic fan with the thermostat set to about 80 degrees. Theory was that hot air rises, so maybe we could exhaust some of the hot air for a few minutes, while the A/C unit replaced it with cold air (which falls). That really did help - our unit that could not seem to get the temp below 83 degrees, got it down to 75 in about 15 minutes, and was able to keep it there after closing the Fan-tastic. As mentioned above, it is crucial not to let the A/C unit get behind on a hot day.
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