Roof Air Replacement

[alfaguy]

My 1975 24 ft Argosy has its original roof air unit, and it is still working, but who knows how long it will work when i start camping in the coach. I have an opportunity to buy two roof air units from a 1995 Airstream, that are supposed to have heat pumps in them. They have Penguin on the cover.
The 95 does not have a furnace so perhaps the seller is correct. Is it a good or bad idea to take out my dangerous furnace and use one of these roof air units?
The price is right at $150 each.

[DryFly]

'95 is 20 years old, close to the end of life cycle. My understanding of the "newer" units is that they are not designed to be rebuilt or even serviced, so once they go they are gone. Your older unit may actually be able to be rebuilt/serviced. Find out what the brand name is on the existing unit and do a search here on the Forum - I think you may find a lot of good information.
Even if the existing unit dies, my opinion would be that the '95 AC's aren't worth the cost.

My 2c

[idroba]

Even the 95's were build after the ability to service was essentially eliminated. The heat pump AC units in that era were not especially loved by their owners from what I have read.

If you can do all your own installation work, I guess the $150 price is good, but if you have to have someone else put one on, I would think that a new unit is a better deal.

The new Dometic HP on my 2014 is a good unit, heats down to below 30 F vs. the minimum of 35 to 40 of the older HP AC units. But, it is pretty noisy.

I would use the original Argosy AC unit as long as it works well for you, and not replace it at all until you have an actual failure.

If you have the original furnace, it well may be dangerous simply due to combustion chamber rusting. However, a new propane furnace is not dangerous. You can replace the original furnace pretty easily.