Jump to content

Duo-therm roof a/c not cooling


Lolo1034

Recommended Posts

Hi all, 

I have a 2006 Monaco Cayman.  The rear a/c is the original unit and it is not cooling.  I took it all apart, cleaning coils and straightening all the fins.  Does anyone know if this type of unit and be fixed? Or should whole unit be replaced.

Thank you!

Lolo

20210416_160248.jpg

20210416_155428.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would say yes - can be fixed. 

Ours wasn't working so good so an HVAC friend installed a tap and recharged the freon.  If it's a slow leak no problem.  If it's a monthly recharge a good tech can locate the leak and repair . . . . or replace at a much higher cost.

Best,

- bob

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just tapped all three of my units and one used stop leak with a charge of R22, send one was full and third one need a top off.  Been working great for 4 months. The taps are 4.50each on Amazon. The stop leak works great. I paid 90 for a tech to climb  the roof and check and charge what was needed.

05 sig

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I might be missing something myself. I am pretty sure the refrigerant for my units was R22. The coach dash air conditioning takes r 134 as my Chevy 2002 trailblazer does. My son in law bought the refrigerant for me. I will ask him tomorrow and correct if I am wrong.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

OK, my bad.  I just looked at some old photos of the Coleman Mach III from the roof of our 02 Fleetwood.  R-22 on the plate and compressor.  It was built 46th week of 2001. 

Sorry to waste a lot of bandwidth!

- bob

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, Lolo1034 said:

Hi all, 

I have a 2006 Monaco Cayman.  The rear a/c is the original unit and it is not cooling.  I took it all apart, cleaning coils and straightening all the fins.  Does anyone know if this type of unit and be fixed? Or should whole unit be replaced.

Thank you!

Lolo

 

What is it doing exactly?  I've had to replace my hard start capacitor a couple of times and that worked.  Is the compressor kicking on and running?  Could be refrigerant, but there are other possibilities too.  

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey just a note, units that run low on freon have a tendency to overheat the pumps, what can happen is inside the pumps are the copper windings that are coated to prevent electrical issues, I have found during the overheat it get hot enough to break off the shellac, it then travels with the freon flow and clogs the restricter tube, that was with the Colman units that were AC only. Im not as versed with the Duo therms an there reverse flow for heating, Im just stating it can be a 50/50 chance if your unit survives a low charge state.

Though both my older units are still working (knock on wood) the first of the year I had decided to paint my roof, and in doing that I had to remove my covers on top which were brittle to say the least. Though I was able to "fix" the old ones I had first tried locating replacements, what I found was another expense that would have added to the overall cost. If I was to make a suggestion, if your planning on charging recharging your old units use the old cover and operate your AC units first to determine if its worth spending more $$$ for a new cover.

Every AC unit I have worked on should be able to achieve a 25 degree difference between ambient and outlet temps, if its less than that it has issues. (I found when testing AC temps rather than wait for the ducting to cool down to give you a temp reading I measure it right at the dump area  on the face of the cover), You get a faster read of the temps there...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, Lolo1034 said:

Steven, fan comes on and just blows warm air.  I’m going to check the compressor and see if that might be it.  I have other options to check now thanks to you all

Lolo

By warm, is it hot air after a while like the heat is on?  Assuming yours is a heat pump like mine,  it could be your reversing solenoid which is an easy fix.  My understanding is that they run as heat by design and the reversing solenoid has to switch them to AC.  This happened to me. You can test it with a strong magnet to try to make it reverse.  When mine did that, I didn't test it.  I just replaced it and it worked again. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When we first got Bullwinkle the front Duo-therm AC died while we were in Florida, lucky it was winter. The first Mobile RV service tech quoted us $3,000 to replace, but said we need to get two of them and a new thermostat because they moved the circuit board to the controller all for just $7,000. I recommended they try a new startup capacitor, but he wasn't interested in doing that. I called a second tech, basically the same story, but the next day he showed up with a startup capacitor. A few moments later there was a loud pop up on the roof and he said he'd come by the next day and fix it. Cost $100 (he only wanted $80)

I am really considering installing a SoftStartRV or a EasyStart 364 Soft Starter to keep the startup capacitor from blowing.

Edited by fredelkamp
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 4/20/2021 at 6:47 AM, fredelkamp said:

When we first got Bullwinkle the front Duo-therm AC died while we were in Florida, lucky it was winter. The first Mobile RV service tech quoted us $3,000 to replace, but said we need to get two of them and a new thermostat because they moved the circuit board to the controller all for just $7,000. I recommended they try a new startup capacitor, but he wasn't interested in doing that. I called a second tech, basically the same story, but the next day he showed up with a startup capacitor. A few moments later there was a loud pop up on the roof and he said he'd come by the next day and fix it. Cost $100 (he only wanted $80)

I am really considering installing a SoftStartRV or a EasyStart 364 Soft Starter to keep the startup capacitor from blowing.

Just an old cheap guy here but you can replace the soft start capacitor yourself 6 or 7 times for the price of the SoftStart system. It is less than a 20 minute fix. Just a cheap guy thinking out loud.

 

Have a great week,

Ken

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...