My Life with Henri (or, Taming the '74 Sovereign)

[bolerama]

Fantastic job. It looks beautiful! The cork effect works so well in small spaces.
Lisa

[Gene]

Aage,

The floor looks great, but the pillowcases don't match—diagonal stripes on one and horizontal on the other. And the colors are different too!

Gene

[Aage]

I was afraid someone would notice, Gene, and somehow, I knew it would be you.

[Gene]

Originally Posted by Aage

I was afraid someone would notice, Gene, and somehow, I knew it would be you.

Aage,

Sorry about my superior vision, but someone has to keep you in line. One decor demerit; expires upon getting matching pillowcases or one year. Henri deserves better. Maybe pillowcases matching the very nice floor.

Wish I could get my wife to cut the flooring when I replaced mine.

Gene

[Aage]

Last summer Mrs. Aage and I put some of the Allure planking into Henri the Sov to get an easier-to-clean flooring. I was worried that the horrid winter we had up here would cause enough shrinkage / expansion to give us some problems with this product. The is the solid vinyl 3' by (IIRC) 6"W planks, sticking only to each other and not the floor. In other words, a floating floor.

We installed it from the very back (the bathroom) to the door separating the sleeping area form the galley. After a fair bit of consideration, we decided to go across the floor instead of lengthwise, in other words, left to right and not front to back.

Now, this winter was exceptionally cold, with long periods of extreme cold to -40C even touching -50C for nearly a week, at one point. To give you a reference, at -44C the two scales Celsius and Fahrenheit are the same. Yes, -44C and -44F are the same temperature: dang C-O-L-D!

Well dear reader, I won't keep you in suspense any longer; the flooring came through with absolutely no visible faults at all!! That's right, four months in the ice chest, and no problem. Yay Allure!

I would post more pictures, but the flooring hasn't changed. I did notice though that we missed a small pebble that made a tiny bump in the floor and is prematurely wearing a bit. Not to worry, but when we do the rest of Henri's floor this summer, I will make sure that doesn't happen again!

Just thought you would like to know that solid flooring

[Steve Bryant]

Aage,
That's good information on the Allure. I suppose that you could say resistance to shrinkage due to extreme cold is one of the more alluring aspects of the product!

Steve

BTW, this past winter, we had an extremely cold winter here in Wichita. Probably one of the two or three coldest in my 38 years as a Kansan. However, we didn't approach anywhere near -44° (C or F)!

[DKB_SATX]

-40C = -40F. That brief -50C = -58F!! Something to think about while I grumble about the high temps and humidity in Fort Worth this week, at last over the last few decades I've learned to deal with heat. The very concept of -58F boggles my Texan mind.

[Aage]

I know this is going to be tough to do a comparison with you, but I am surprised at the amount of energy the Dometic refer uses in a season.

When we bought Henri-the-Sov, he had a small compressor-type refrigerator in him, and we were actually quite satisfied with it. Here`s a link to a photo of it, in case you`re interested:

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f221...tml#post686072

Well last summer, I finally got around to installing a proper Dometic AC-LPG model in it, a Dometic RM-2812 IIRC.

Again, we were happy, and of course, it fit perfectly into the opening that the original refer had sat in for many years. So to sum up, last year was the first full season we used the Dometic, and I nearly fell off my chair when I looked at the electic bill for the season. We usually pay about $150 a season for power for Henri, and this time the bill was $425!! ps: we are NOT happy now!

I`d like to hear if any of you have noticed that the Dometic models are super power hungry.

[rmkrum]

Running on AC power instead of propane, it's not too surprising...


Sent from my pocket Internet using Airstream Forums

[Aage]

Originally Posted by rmkrum

Running on AC power instead of propane, it's not too surprising...

Not quite sure what you mean here. Obviously, running on propane would help my electrical energy costs, but that wasn't my point, really. Although this year I will do some tests on running on LP for the refer.

What certainly did surprise me was that two different refrigerators running on the same energy source could have such a huge difference in use, and therefore costs.

I have not yet read any comments on that here on Airforums. I suppose I'm wondering if this is just how the ammonia type of refer is quite a bit less energy efficient than the compressor type.

[Gene]

I recall that there was a comparison between RV refrigerators and residential ones a few years ago here. It may have been done by Lewster—he's certainly qualified to do so with a master's degree in electrical engineering. I vaguely recall a ratio of 5 to 1 in power usage with the RV style fridge being far less efficient. If the RV style was as efficient or more efficient, we would have a lot of them at home. So Aage, you are doing well at 3 to 1.

Gene

[Piggy Bank]

Just be glad the govt. doesn't require the rv fridges to be more energy efficient. If that happens we won't be able to afford them and will be using blocks of ice.

Re-engineering = cost

[Aage]

One thing I found odd about the model I have is that I can't find any controls to adjust my refer. It just runs full-blast 24/7

It has the little "panel" across the top, but that only allows me to choose LPG or AC120V, or off.

Would you please let me know where, assuming they have them, your refer's temperature adjustment are?

Thanks to Gene and Piggy Bank.

[Gene]

Aage, check it with a thermometer and see if it changes. If it ran all the time, it would get a lot colder at night and on very cold days. Ours has a panel behind the door at the top and there are settings for temp., gas or automatic and on/off. Temp has 5 settings. We keep ours cold-around 40˚ F seems best to keep things for a long time. That may be "3" on the settings.

If you don't have that, it must be set at the factory. Check at the back for a a thin tube with a bulb—that would check the temp for a thermostat somewhere.

Also, check the manual for information and you could contact Dometic to find out more.

In Ottawa at this time of year I'd think you'd need a furnace in there to keep it from freezing alcohol (–40˚, C or F).

Gene

[Aage]

Yeah, those are good actions to take, Gene. I remember reading somewhere that it's a good tool for repairing or adjusting the refer's system.

In fact, two are better, so that the freezer section can be monitored as well.

Yeah, we've had the coldest winter that I can ever remember, and I am old.

[Steve Bryant]

Aage,
The jump in your electric bill is sort of shocking! The continual running of your Dometic on AC may the be culprit!

The refrigeration cycle using and ammonia-based system versus a compressor and conventional refrigerants is far less efficient. The beauty of the Dometic's ammonia-based refrigerant is that it can run with no electricity (only the heat provided by propane) when you are traveling/boondocking. I know that you went to Florida in 2010, but do you plan to take some more road trips in the foreseeable future? If not, you might want to consider going back to a small 110 VAC refrigerator.

If you do plan to do some travel, I'd keep the Dometic. Also, what if you leave the Dometic off unless you folks are there using the trailer? That will greatly shrink your electric bill. The only downside will be not being able to use the refrigerator for several hours when you first return to Henri.

Steve

[Aage]

I put the Dometic in for two reasons: to be able to travel, yes, but I had another reason, more important to me.

I am a light sleeper, and the compressor-type refer we had before produced a fair amount of noise.

So, in the absence of any other reports of surprise at the AC consumption of this type of refer, I will keep my Dometic and enjoy the sleep.

Anyone?

[walleye001]

brass trim insert? Did you find a roll of the insert into the brass trim? I just removed my tub and sink and would like some new material, I also destroyed some getting it out.