HOT IN TEXAS!!!! Upgrade a 13,000 BTU to a 15,000 BTU? Does it help?

[cwf]

Originally Posted by mansaj

What are you using to hold the reflectix material in place?

Cut a little large and jam in the window. It holed in there under its own.

[jcanavera]

From my experience with a 27' Safari and a 13.5K air conditioner, you need at least 15K. We were in 103 degree full sun here in Missouri with that trailer and found that the Safari's inside temps came close to 88 inside at the hottest time of the day. After trips to the dealer and Jackson Center that both found no problems with the A/C, we made one change which helped a lot. Our Safari only had a patio awning so we bought a street side awning that covered the entire street side. That seemed to help but we became also a lot more picky about camping locations, trying to find shade in hot weather.

When the opportunity came to buy our Classic, we upgraded at build time from the standard 13.5K unit to a 15K unit. We've never run into cooling problems since that time, although quite honestly if my home base was Texas, I'd probably would have opted to have a second unit in our rear bedroom area.

Based on your geographical locale, I think upgrading to a 15K unit should be a no brainer.

Jack

[KJRitchie]

We went out the weekend before the 4th at Ray Roberts State Park just north of Dallas. It was a hot weekend and on Saturday it got close to 100F by late afternoon. Our site had no shade. Our 2008 Classic 25FB had all the awnings deployed. The 13.5 btu AC was able to keep us cool enough. 80 to 83 feels cool at 5pm when its 100f outside. Luckily the humidity was down during this heat. We kept the AC on manual so the fan would run when the compressor cycled off which was less and less as the day got hotter and hotter. We kept the transparent window shades down in the dinette area so we could see out. The front bedroom shades including the black out shades were down and the curtains drawn. We didn't cover the Fantasitic Fan vents and we closed the two roof skylight shades. It was comfortable in the front bedroom to take a nap or read during the hotest part of the day as long as the AC fan was still blowing. The rear dinette area was comfortable enough to watch TV also.

Having said this if I ever need to replace the AC I will go with a 15k.

Kelvin

[Snaken49]

I have Max Air covers over my fantastic fan vents and use Reflectix on the skylight.

I also use a small 12VDC fan to augment the airflow into the rear bedroom. I'll post a pic later today.

If anyone is interested a have a slightly used 13,500 AC HP available that I swapped out for a new 15K unit. It would do nicely as a second unit over the front or rear bedroom.

[Ntex]

How do the Maxair vent covers help with the heat? Are they dark or something? I put reflective bubble material over the inside opening of mine using tiny spots of industrial velcro in the corners, but I can think that keeping the sun off the outside of the vent would help even more.

[Silver Goose]

Originally Posted by perryg114

There are some who have experimented with putting water misters on the roof. This would work really good in dry climates.

Perry

Residential window units are designed to collect the condensed water in a tray and the condenser fan is designed to sling this water into the condenser fins which aids the efficiency of the system. The excess water is allowed to drain out the end of the housing. Since the condensate does not contain minerals, it doesn't clog mister jets and deposit a residue. I've wondered why RV rooftop A/C units don't take advantage of this and have assumed it is a design compromise to keep the profile low using squirrel cage blowers. An inventive soul who designs a reliable way to move the condensate to the condenser fins may find a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow.

[Fly at Night]

The twin beds don't help. The a/c is funnelling its blast where you are not laying.

I have an island Queen. During my last hot trip, it was definitely cooler in the middle of the bed. Very nice, actually.

[vswingfield]

Originally Posted by Silver Goose

Residential window units are designed to collect the condensed water in a tray and the condenser fan is designed to sling this water into the condenser fins which aids the efficiency of the system. The excess water is allowed to drain out the end of the housing. Since the condensate does not contain minerals, it doesn't clog mister jets and deposit a residue. I've wondered why RV rooftop A/C units don't take advantage of this and have assumed it is a design compromise to keep the profile low using squirrel cage blowers. An inventive soul who designs a reliable way to move the condensate to the condenser fins may find a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow.

That's what Carrier did on their regular profile models. They called it a "slinger wheel" and claimed it eliminated the need for a drain. (See Carrier Heat Pump for your RV - PPL Motor Homes)

Might work in the desert, but in humid areas you still get drainage down the side.

Carrier exited the RV market a few years ago. Apparently there wasn't a pot of gold there.

The 15,000 Heat Pump model that I have has been a good unit, though.

As far as perry's comment about the misters, Arkansas may not be a dry climate, but it got me by till I got the Carrier unit installed: