Air Conditioning replacements help request

[John D]

Do you plan on selling your old units and if so at what price. I need a 13,500. Let’s talk. 

[a4epilot]

John,

You can have it, no charge. Works normally.

Biggest problem will be getting it to you unless you're in AZ. I'm about an hour drive south of PHX.

The new units are scheduled to be delivered around the 23rd of this month but I see they have not shipped from Amazon yet. I will make the switch as soon as they arrive.

Gary

[Biljol]

Gary,

You mentioned that the units would get to you round the 23rd did you get them, how did the install go and do they work better. My exe with 2 units are not keeping up also one 15k one 13K at a loss for wat to do.

 

[a4epilot]

I did receive both units eventually. One came damaged, was returned and replaced; Amazon.

Install was smooth without any problems. I had a forklift available. Both are Penguin II 15,000 BTU with new thermostat; CCC II.

Installed new drain trays which came with the extra gasket required; ordered separately. Also, did the interior return air vent noise suppressor/air filter, ordered separately.,  and it made a noticeable difference.

Wiring color coding was same as old units so did not have to make any adaptations. Worked the first time I turned it all on.

MUCH better cooling! Departed PHX when it was about 100 degrees, went to Tampa with stops in TX and MS; hot and humid everywhere. Now on my way to WA. 

I'm delighted with the upgrade and have no complaints. Keeps up easily with the hot and humid weather. Never this good before.

Gary K

 

[Bob Nodine]

18 hours ago, a4epilot said:

I did receive both units eventually. One came damaged, was returned and replaced; Amazon.

Install was smooth without any problems. I had a forklift available. Both are Penguin II 15,000 BTU with new thermostat; CCC II.

Installed new drain trays which came with the extra gasket required; ordered separately. Also, did the interior return air vent noise suppressor/air filter, ordered separately.,  and it made a noticeable difference.

Wiring color coding was same as old units so did not have to make any adaptations. Worked the first time I turned it all on.

MUCH better cooling! Departed PHX when it was about 100 degrees, went to Tampa with stops in TX and MS; hot and humid everywhere. Now on my way to WA. 

I'm delighted with the upgrade and have no complaints. Keeps up easily with the hot and humid weather. Never this good before.

Gary K

 

Good to hear back from you Gary and glad you are having a positive experience with the new units. Our experience has been very positive and the new units do a good job keeping the coach cool on hot days. In 2018 we spent the night in Mesquite, NV on our way to Salt Lake City and it was 105 degrees. Sure was glad we had the new units and hate to think how hot it would have been inside the coach with the old ones.

[Woody O]

Gary K, you mentioned that you ordered "air vent noise suppressor/air filter" separately.  Where did you order it and is that what it is called on their page? 

Woody O

[a4epilot]

 

On April 3 I posted the details of my install with all the specific information.

If you can't find it, here is the URL 

 

[Brad Loehr]

Lots of great information on this topic.  Thanks for everyone that contributed.

I have a 2005 HR Endeavor 40DST with a Duotherm 13.5k in the rear (original) and a Penguin 1 13.5k in the front (replaced by original owner 8 years ago.

I have a few questions.  Instead of going with Dometic is there better brands that are more reliable? 

Has anyone tried Coleman, Advent Air, or others?  Are the Penguin 2 ACs the best and most reliable from Dometic?  

[Tom Cherry]

14 minutes ago, Brad Loehr said:

Lots of great information on this topic.  Thanks for everyone that contributed.

I have a 2005 HR Endeavor 40DST with a Duotherm 13.5k in the rear (original) and a Penguin 1 13.5k in the front (replaced by original owner 8 years ago.

I have a few questions.  Instead of going with Dometic is there better brands that are more reliable? 

How much modification is needed to fit the Blizzard NXT to the Penguin mounting pattern and duct work?  Any pictures or details?

What is the best unit from Dometic?  Penguin 2 or Blizzard NXT or ?  I have read in a few forums to stay away from the Brisks because they are not reliable.

Has anyone tried Coleman, Advent Air, or others?  Is this an option.  It seems like Coleman has decent AC units

This was a double post….as in a duplicate post, copied, and then posted to two different, but similar or exactly the same, older, topics….

Here the the response….so it answers, on both topic, your questions….

YOU have to make a call.  You have the standard Duo Therm Multiplexed control system.  If you don’t put in Penguins then you cannot control your furnace.  You will have to install a separate thermostat, one for each furnace….or one if you only have one.  You will need to find units that have remote thermostats (wireless or BT).  

There is not any other system that will work with the existing Duo Therm MPX control system.  

A few folks have installed Houghtons.  But you have to keep the old thermostat and the control units from the Duo Therm to make the Furnace functional…but the Houghton AC units will not work with the Duo Therm thermostat.

A few folks have totally rewired their MH and used Colemans.  They had to run a 5 or 7 wire cable to the Roof top unit.  Wiremold or figure out how to snake the wire up the wall or use exterior wiremold to the rooftop likewise run cables to the furnaces.

That’s the basics.  Monaco chose the single or double thermostat, in some cases, Duo Therm system.  It only required a data cable (think phone line….with different connections) from the thermostat.  You ran 120 VAC and 12 VDC to the units.  Easier install. Also, you had one simple system and the thermostat controlled many zones.  It was a selling point or a “high end feature in a lower end” MH.

There are probably  10 different topics that have been posted here.  All the same….keep the central features and install new Dometic’s or go with other brands and run wires or snake  them or run wire mold up and down the walls and on the ceilings.

Put Duo Therm in the search box…..click on everywhere….chose topics.  Probably 25 plus pages….

Please do the research on this…lit is all in here….

Thanks….

[Brad Loehr]

2 hours ago, Tom Cherry said:

There is not any other system that will work with the existing Duo Therm MPX control system.  

A few folks have installed Houghtons.  But you have to keep the old thermostat and the control units from the Duo Therm to make the Furnace functional…but the Houghton AC units will not work with the Duo Therm thermostat.

Thanks for the info Tom,  I have been reading and researching like crazy.  So from what you are saying is that I am stuck with Dometic because of control system having a different data link control system than other brands.  I am not really interested in snaking and running the 7 wire thermostat cables to each unit.  I also want to keep both furnaces under one control with the AC units.

So that being said, has anyone had any experience with the different Dometic models?  Which ones have been more reliable?  From reading some of the forums, the Brisk has refrigerant loss issues.  What about the Blizzard NXT or new Penguins?

 

[Brad Loehr]

On 3/1/2023 at 1:25 PM, klcdenver said:

I have finished the installation of the Houghton. In the black box attached is only 12 volt wiring and temp sensor and the RJ 11 communication lines. I bought the box off Amazon. I had to modify the return air and forced conditioned air separator, picture attached. I had to make the attach bolts out of some all thread rod (#8x1.25). I made them  9” long and just welded a nut on one end to have a hex head. 
 

Now for the good part. My old penguin 13,500 BTU with a wacko silencer was 58 decibels. It would heat to 106 degrees and cool to 39 degrees in the duck work. The Houghton is 53 decibels. It heats to 112 degrees and cools to 33 degrees in the duct work. I took the temps in the same place for both. It is much quieter on the outside versus the penguin's also.

Thanks for all the info.  I will be going with the Recpro replacements for both my old AC units and keep the 5 button CCC for the 2 furnaces.

[Dr4Film]

9 hours ago, Brad Loehr said:

Lots of great information on this topic.  Thanks for everyone that contributed.

I have a 2005 HR Endeavor 40DST with a Duotherm 13.5k in the rear (original) and a Penguin 1 13.5k in the front (replaced by original owner 8 years ago.

I have a few questions.  Instead of going with Dometic is there better brands that are more reliable? 

Has anyone tried Coleman, Advent Air, or others?  Are the Penguin 2 ACs the best and most reliable from Dometic?  

Anything is possible providing you have the time and money to circumvent the factory wiring and control systems for your AC/HP and furnace and install all new wiring and control systems for the new AC's, etc.

[saflyer]

On 4/3/2020 at 2:38 PM, a4epilot said:

A HUGE thank you to those who took the time to respond to my many questions regarding air conditioners! 👋

There is no way, other than through the help of this forum, that I ever could have learned so much and been able to be confident that I am making the correct decisions for my installation.

Here is what I decided to do. 

1) Replace both 2006 Penguins (1, 15,000 BTU &  the other 13,500) with 2, 15,000 BTU Penguin II's. 

2) Replace the drain trays and add the extra gasket needed to obtain clearance.

3)  CCC II thermostat.

4) WackO Products DA100 Dometic RV A/C Silencer Kits

Thanks again to all of you willing to share your experiences and knowledge on this subject!

Always sends shivers up my spine to think where we'd all be without each other. Undoubtedly, there would be many coaches parked permanently.

Gary K

Rather than the Waco A/C silencer you might look into two other products, RV Airflow Systems and KoolRV. They seem to work on the same principle of improving the airflow to the ducts. I installed the Wacko and didn’t measure any reduction of sound level. Save Solberg of RVTravel.com looked into the Wacko and concluded the sound reduction they report is mainly due to improving the taping inside the box of the A/C units a job the RV manufacturers are supposed to do but don’t do it well. You can do this without buying the Wacko item.Does anyone else have experience with these three products. The RV Airflow and KooRV items appear to have very similar designs but the latter is half the price os the former.

https://www.rvtravel.com/ask-dave-how-can-i-make-my-rvs-roof-air-conditioner-quieter/

 

Edited Monday at 01:22 PM by saflyer
Add link.

[Scotty Hutto]

I have first hand experience with Wacoo and RV Airflow. In my experience, both products do what they advertise.

Below is my post on the Wacko where I used a sound meter to check sound levels before and after. I’ll also comment that part of my logic was that the original plastic covers were yellowed, warped, and looked awful  the Wacko product was a vast improvement in appearance.

I recently installed the RV Airflow product on the units with the Wacko already installed.  My goal was better airflow, not necessarily noise reduction. The units provided a minor decrease in sound from 84dB down to 82dB. The major improvement was in airflow. I did not test with an anemometer, but airflow, particularly at the ends of the duct run were dramatically increased.  When driving, I can actually feel the roof air blowing in hot weather.  🥶 

I find there are many issues where I disagree with Dave Solberg.  This is one of them, and given my degree, training, and much of my experience is in HVAC system design I’ll stick by my guns. 😁 You’ll find that a lot of the wisdom of those who have participated in the forum for many years will conflict with his advice from time to time. I’m not saying he’s wrong, it’s just that much of his advice is very generic (by necessity) and has to be applicable to everything from a pop-up to a Prevost.  

[Tom Cherry]

1 hour ago, saflyer said:

Rather than the Waco A/C silencer you might look into two other products, RV Airflow Systems and KoolRV. They seem to work on the same principle of improving the airflow to the ducts. I installed the Wacko and didn’t measure any reduction of sound level. Save Solberg of RVTravel.com looked into the Wacko and concluded the sound reduction they report is mainly due to improving the taping inside the box of the A/C units a job the RV manufacturers are supposed to do but don’t do it well. You can do this without buying the Wacko item.Does anyone else have experience with these three products. The RV Airflow and KooRV items appear to have very similar designs but the latter is half the price os the former.

https://www.rvtravel.com/ask-dave-how-can-i-make-my-rvs-roof-air-conditioner-quieter/

 

Word of caution.

Dometic warns  folks as well as does Lazy Days in their “Everything you need to know about your rooftop AC” seminar….do NOT put in a fancy air filter system without testing it. Wash and clean the original dometic filter.  Then run the AC unit for an hour so so to get the room stabilized.  Measure the temperature of the inlet (filter) and the closest register or vent.  The difference (Delta T) should be between 18 and 22 Degrees.  If you have a clogged or dirty filter, it will increase to as much as 26 degrees (difference or Delta T). That means the air movement is being blocked and you will have poor cooling or little dehumidification.

SOME of the homemade or the commercial units actaully block or impede the air flow….like a clogged filter.  If you have one of these, then the system is working harder and you are not getting 100% MAX Cooling efficiency.

Folks say….mine is better than new or it’s a super cooler and report high Delta T but the air flow is impeded and that’s the reason for the high or out of range Delta T…which reduces the cooling ability to cool.