Air Conditioner size

[davidlaxson]

I've recently bought a 1972 29' International land yacht. The orginal armstrong air conditioner is shot. I'm not sure what BTU unit is on my Airstream now, but wonder if it would be wise to upgrade to a 15,000 BTU vs. a standard 13,500 ? I live in Texas and want it cool inside. Any recommendations on Duo-Therm vs. Coleman.

[Pahaska]

I would go with 15,000 BTU. Mu 13,500 BTU will drive us out of my 22', but friends with larger trailers and 13,500 BTU complain about insufficient cooling. Better too much too little.

[Inland RV Center, In]

Drain pans are not avaiable for any 15,000 BTU AC.

However, we will have a pan for the Carrier 15,000 unit in about 2 weeks.

Also the Carrier AC has oscillating front and rear vents that adds a great deal to the circulatuion, and it also has an "air shower" that you can turn on, to get a fast straight down current of air, so that you can quickly cool off when coming in from the hot outside.
And most importantly, the Carrier costs less than the other brands.

Andy

[JPAIRSTREAM]

There is a 15,000 btu air that dometic makes and Airstream does supply a pan for this A/C it is an option on there new Classic trailers. if you go to there online parts book you can get there part numbers there.

Parts Book Look at this PDF file and it links you to the A/C and there part numbers from Airstream

Pan number is #961270
A/C number is #690323-37 This is a 15,000 with heat pump but Dometic does make same style A/c without.

When my Armstrong goes bad I will be putting a 15,000 btu on.

I have already confirmed they can get the above items. I did this by calling there tech line and parts department. They told me I had to go to an Authorized dealer to order them though.

[Inland RV Center, In]

Airstreams price for the 15000 BTU heat pump is almost $1900.00, plus installation, plus the cost of the pan.

You can have almost 3 Carriers for that price.

Andy

[Chas]

Or two axles and shocks, delivered

Chas

[davidlaxson]

Thanks for all the great information. I'll definately put a 15,000 but on my trailer.

David

[LLB21]

The A/C pan is about 60.00 retail from an Airstream dealer.

You can get the A/C at Camping World for retail at about one-half the Airstream quote. Dometic A/C's are used on many types of RV's and are not an exclusive Airstream part. They can be bought from any RV Service establishment.

You or your local dealer just have to order the pan from an Airstream dealer.

[davidlaxson]

Does anyone know if the Dometic A/C is the only unit that will drain through to the holding tank. I've heard that if you put a coleman or Carrier on that the water will drain off the outside of the trailer.

I've talked to 3 different people at Camping World and got 3 different answers to the question above. They do, however, have the best price on 15,000 btu units.

David

[JPAIRSTREAM]

Dometic is the only one Airstream makes a drain pan for.

LLB21, Thanks for the heads up. From more research it appears dometic makes a 15,000 with out heat pump. which would be even cheaper.

[dtbw]

I was unaware that A/S installed any AC units that actually drained condensate into the holding tank. My factory Dometic AC/Heat Pump does have a drain line that runs the condensate thru a tube that opens on the bottom of the A/S (ie no water dripping down the side of the A/S, just underneath it). At rallys, everyone's AC seems to have the same drain setup. Having the condensate drain into the holding tank has potential as in heavy humidity and certain soil condition, you wind up with a mud puddle on the roadside of the A/S below the drain. My home AC units both drain directly into the home sewer lines (with overflows to the outside) and I do like the absense of a constant wet area outside the house so common with installations draining to the outside. The downside of doing such an installation on a RV AC unit is that an AC unit produces considerable amounts of water a day and that would be filling your gray tank with otherwise perfectly clean water. Lots of state parks have electricity, but no gray water dumping at the pads, so I would want a way to valve the condensate to either the holding tank or to the outside drain. If the condensate drain line can be easily found, it could be diverted to Y-type drainline at the lavatory or sink so that it would drain into the holding tank, but not actually be connected to it (along the lines of a dishwasher connection). I sense a potential DIY project.

[davidlaxson]

Another question for you fellow Airstreamers !

I called Camping world to schedule a time to have a 15,000 btu Duo-Therm installed. I was told my this person that only the low profile "Penguin" would work. They said they could try to use the standard Duo-Therm Dometic, but couldn't guarntee it would match up to the drip pan. Anybody come across this ? I've put a call into Airstream and haven't gotten a respose yet.

David

[Safari Tim]

My understanding is the drain pan only works on the Penquin model. Which is the lower profile model.

It matches up to the Penquins footprint perfectly.

My Camping World would not install on mine. They were too busy and pefered to give me another $100 off instead of tackling the older trailer.

There are pics on my website of this project.

Mine is the 13,500 btu unit.

[davidlaxson]

Tim, from what I gathered from your web site you installed the a/c yourself. Besides taking off the old unit was it difficult to install ?

David

[Safari Tim]

Originally posted by david laxson
Tim, from what I gathered from your web site you installed the a/c yourself. Besides taking off the old unit was it difficult to install ?

David

Not at all. Of all the projects I have tackeled, and there have been many on my basket case of a trailer , the a/c replacement was pretty tame.

I did have to have a little help getting it up on the roof. My brother and I used two ladders and walked it up and set it on the roof. Next we got on the roof and lifed the a/c in place in the drain pan. I had already set the drain pan in place with a nice thick bead of vulkem around the opening.

Just a few bolts and the wiring....

BTW, the drain pan works great! Our last trip was hot enough out to use the a/c and create a lot of condenstation. There was a big puddle under the trailer that worried me for a moment until I realized it was supposed to be there

I love it when a plan comes together....

[jcanavera]

Originally posted by david laxson
Another question for you fellow Airstreamers !

I called Camping world to schedule a time to have a 15,000 btu Duo-Therm installed. I was told my this person that only the low profile "Penguin" would work. They said they could try to use the standard Duo-Therm Dometic, but couldn't guarntee it would match up to the drip pan. Anybody come across this ? I've put a call into Airstream and haven't gotten a respose yet.

David

There is a 15,000 BTU Penguin unit available. Maybe Camping World doesn't stock this model.

Jack

[davidlaxson]

Tim, I've purchased the 15,000 dometic penguin and have ordered the vulkem, which should be in early next week. I'm going to install it my self since CampingWorld wanted $300.00 + to do it. You were right about the 100 rivets to remove the old Armstrong unit. Did you just re-rivet the old holes to seal them up ? Also, did you run a bead of Vulkem anywhere else besides the 14 x 14 opening ?

FYI I was able to pick-up the 15,000 btu Penguin from an independent dealer with all the accessories for $900.00 . Airstream wanted $1,800 without installation for the same unit.

[Safari Tim]

Basicly the answer is yes.

I put in olympic rivets with vulkem on each one as I put them in. I did not use the ones with the built in gasket as they seem to not seat right to me.

I put a nice thick bead of vulkem around the 14" opening and squished the drain pan straight down on top of it. The a/c was carfully set in the drain pan with no more shifting. Pick it up and move it if you need to correct the alignment.

The a/c has its own gasket which you tighten the mounting bolts to compress it evenly as the instructions say.

No other vulkem was used on my install.

You should also blow out the drain tube before installing with an aircompressor just for good measure.

Good luck. Let us know how it turns out.