A/C in 2011 16' Bambi. Is it working or normal?

[tunnelboy]

So we just fired up this air conditioner for the first time since owning it. It was about 90 degrees outside (Bay Area dry heat). The unit put out cool air, but definitely not cold like the A/C in a car. Is this normal? Left it on high for about 30 minutes and it was about maybe 75-80 inside.

I'm reading on the forum how these things don't do well in the heat. I contacted a local RV parts guy and asked who can look at it, and he said it was just cheaper and easier to replace the whole unit. This seems kind of radical to me if it's just low on refrigerant.

Any opinions?

Thanks

[J. Morgan]

The unit will cool the air ABOUT 20 degrees cooler than the intake air, and then the cooled air has to cool everything else off inside the trailer. In my opinion your unit is working fine, it just takes a lot longer to cool of a hot interior.

[J. Morgan]

Fwiw my thermostat is set at 74 and my 45 year old unit is cycling on and off right now, but I’m using a LOT of cheats to help keep my trailer cool, and the load off of my ancient air conditioner.

That said, I cool my trailer 24/7 in this kind of heat. It takes several hours to cool off my 31 footer if I let it heat soak.

[vintagemotor]

Yeah it doesn't make sense that these units are not serviceable! Welcome to RVing!
On a unit like yours, there are a couple things you can do yourself for cheap that may help.
1. Remove and clean/replace your intake filters.
2. Clean your condenser coils, carefully get on top of your AS, very gently now or you will crush it (walk on the rivets only!), remove 4 screws on the sides that hold the cover on and spray a can of condenser coil cleaner over the coils (follow instructions on the can).

If none of this helps and you are still not cool, replace the unit with a 15kBTU, you probably have the 13.5kBTU. In Las Vegas it is 111 degrees right now I have 2 AC units and its 71 degrees inside my International, you should be fine with 1 excellent working AC in the bay area.
IF you decide to replace, Bay Area Airstream Adventures in Fairfield is an awesome 5 Rivet dealer, they can fix you up!
Good luck!

[GammaDog]

If you dropped the inside temp 15 degrees in an hour, your AC is working. Working well or working poorly? Too soon to say. In my experience, the effectiveness of the AC in a trailer is somewhere between that of a home system (slow to reduce a hot home to cool but efficient at keeping it cool once the set point is reached) and a car (designed to cool a car sitting in the sun to comfortable in a few minutes).

On a hot day in direct afternoon sun our Dometic looses ground. I've been unable to keep the inside temp below 80 on one occasion (I'll never forget Hays, Kansas in July... or revisit it). If you were in the sun, you're AC is running well. If it was 10 pm then you might expect better from the system on a Bambi.

Most folks say the rooftop units on our trailers can not be charged in the field. Replacement is the typical answer for a unit that doesn't perform.