Installing an Atwood AC unit

[WayneG]

Last weekend I installed an Atwood air conditioner unit on my Airstream motorhome and I figured I would share my experience with you.
I am also curious if anyone else has installed one of these units? I will say my experience was not 100% satisfaction, but it is up and keeping me cool.

It has several pages and has quite a few photos, so I did not want to clog up the discussion board with all that material so I created a web page to display my experience with this installation.

http://theouterlimits.ws/Atwood/AtwoodInstall.htm


If one of the admins here thinks it is worth the space here, you are more than welcome to copy it over here.
Thanks
WayneG

[247stream]

thanks for sharing. I find every bit of info I read helps me figure it all out.

[WayneG]

Thanks for reading, I hope it is helpful. I did contact Atwood about the problems I encountered and they are passing them along to the appropriate departments.
With the Ninety plus heat out there, I wish I could be testing out the AC unit now, but the Motorhome is parked at the festival site where it will be used in a few weeks.

[Betterinblue]

Thanks for the info! I just purchased an Atwood myself and am looking at installing this afternoon. I know I will be definitely scratching my head and pulling out my phone to reference your blog during the install.

[WayneG]

I need to update my article on the Atwood. I ran into a few problems that I should mention:

1) The problem with the rod on the top of the compressor being too short was not the case, the brace that it passes through was actually bowed upward from shipping damage, allowing the compressor to rock more than it should.

2) The swivel mounts on my control panel broke off last fall so for now I am using duct tape to hold it up. I need to find a better solution to hold it in place.
I dont need it to swing down because it is right at forehead height. Maybe I can find a way to extend it to move it to the wall?

3) Last year I noticed that sometimes when I would turn on the AC, the unit would not cool but turning on and off a few times it would work.
I think I found the problem. The display was reading a temperature of about 55 deg F when it was not working. I went up top and pulled the cowling and the cover off of the electronics. I unplugged and replugged all the connectors to the sensors then buttoned it back up and it was working again. I hope it was just a bad connection and it will keep working.

Other than that, it has been a good unit and even when it has been over 90 outside, it keeps the inside comfortable with a single unit in a 27 foot Airstream.
This year the Atwood has a little help via some shade provided by 4 solar panels on the roof, that does help keep the inside a little bit cooler.

Since I have several articles online now, I moved the Atwood one to this link: http://theouterlimits.ws/projects/ai...oodInstall.htm
My Airstream projects link is here: http://theouterlimits.ws/projects/
Some of those topics are still works in progress.