Airstream flawed ducted AC

[KK4YZ]

Guys,
I took a look at the a/c vents on our 2020 FC. It appears that, under the outer louvered disc the plastic vanes assembly is riveted to the ceiling. So it looks like to remove the vent I need to first drill out the center rivet(?) upon which the louvered disc rotates, then drill out the rivets holding the plastic vanes to the ceiling. Is that correct? Am I missing something?

Thanks,

Jim

[Gene]

Jim,

I have never seen the vents, but it seems unusual if the center rivet held it into the ceiling. Drill out the ones at the perimeter, checking whether the assembly is coming loose. The center one is more likely to have to do with rotating it, not attaching it to the ceiling.

[5150mike]

Originally Posted by KK4YZ

Guys,

I took a look at the a/c vents on our 2020 FC. It appears that, under the outer louvered disc the plastic vanes assembly is riveted to the ceiling. So it looks like to remove the vent I need to first drill out the center rivet(?) upon which the louvered disc rotates, then drill out the rivets holding the plastic vanes to the ceiling. Is that correct? Am I missing something?



Thanks,



Jim

Are your vents deferent than the ones above? Can you provide a photo?

[turk123]

Originally Posted by KK4YZ

Guys,
I took a look at the a/c vents on our 2020 FC. It appears that, under the outer louvered disc the plastic vanes assembly is riveted to the ceiling. So it looks like to remove the vent I need to first drill out the center rivet(?) upon which the louvered disc rotates, then drill out the rivets holding the plastic vanes to the ceiling. Is that correct? Am I missing something?

Thanks,

Jim

Look at my pictures again. The center rivet is the pivot point to turn the vent on and off. Do not drill out the center rivet. If you rotate the closing vent to its rightmost position, turn the entire vent, it exposes the rivet you need to drill out.

In the Classic 30 I do not feel you need to swap out more than one vent. I opted for the one by the door. Being wide open, it does add a lot of cold air to the mix. The bedroom is always the most "freezing" room in our trailer (a quote from my wife. I hope it is no reflection on me. ). I would not want the drain vents in the bedroom ceiling as they would blow straight on you. Remember, you run the AC on the highest fan setting to get things cold, then back down to "auto" for regular running. The "auto" speed of the fans is considerably slower.

The Classic 30 has much more insulation "window boxes" and cools down quickly even in hot temperatures. With two 15,000 but AC's, it seems to work very well. The addition of the drain vent just adds the ability to get the front to to cool down fast and stay there.

[KK4YZ]

Originally Posted by turk123

Look at my pictures again. The center rivet is the pivot point to turn the vent on and off. Do not drill out the center rivet. If you rotate the closing vent to its rightmost position, turn the entire vent, it exposes the rivet you need to drill out.

In the Classic 30 I do not feel you need to swap out more than one vent. I opted for the one by the door. Being wide open, it does add a lot of cold air to the mix. The bedroom is always the most "freezing" room in our trailer (a quote from my wife. I hope it is no reflection on me. ). I would not want the drain vents in the bedroom ceiling as they would blow straight on you. Remember, you run the AC on the highest fan setting to get things cold, then back down to "auto" for regular running. The "auto" speed of the fans is considerably slower.

The Classic 30 has much more insulation "window boxes" and cools down quickly even in hot temperatures. With two 15,000 but AC's, it seems to work very well. The addition of the drain vent just adds the ability to get the front to to cool down fast and stay there.

Thanks Turk. I see now what you mean. I went out the the trailer today and took another approach on the vent nearest the door. Working with a Bosch multi tool through the louvers, I removed half of the plastic shutters. It appears to have opened things up quite a bit. It was hard to make a clean cut working through the louvers but who looks into the vents anyway? I’m sure a lot of plastic debris will fly out when I first turn on the unit😀. I’ll see how this works when we take a short trip in a couple of weeks.

[Hart_Rod]

I found some really cool vents here:

https://www.roundlouversandvents.com/

[mythbuster88]

https://www.airforums.com/forums/f42...pe-213341.html

here is a prototype.
rev-

[centennialman]

Originally Posted by Hart_Rod

I found some really cool vents here:

https://www.roundlouversandvents.com/

Very nice! Thanks for sharing!!

[FishByFly]

Two part post:
We have a 25’ FC with a single AC and live in Texas. Two weeks go, after driving in 100 degree plus temps, we arrived at our camp location about 4pm. No shade. While setting up camp, we turned on the AC and two fantastic fans. After an hour and a half, we settled in to prepare dinner. Temps in the trailer were down into the 70s. The cooling potential met our expectations.

Part 2:
I’m all about improvement. See the attached pic. Please don’t judge me on the hack job I did on cutting our the vanes. I took them out with a drimmel without disassembling the vent. This should increase the air flow and efficiency of the system.

It was on this latest trip (have had this unit for four years) our first vent fell. Preferring a mechanical solution over glue or tape, I pre-drilled holes in the tabs and installed three stainless screws. Snap in place.

[BryonJ]

Keep it simple - great solution.

Originally Posted by FishByFly

Two part post:
We have a 25’ FC with a single AC and live in Texas. Two weeks go, after driving in 100 degree plus temps, we arrived at our camp location about 4pm. No shade. While setting up camp, we turned on the AC and two fantastic fans. After an hour and a half, we settled in to prepare dinner. Temps in the trailer were down into the 70s. The cooling potential met our expectations.

Part 2:
I’m all about improvement. See the attached pic. Please don’t judge me on the hack job I did on cutting our the vanes. I took them out with a drimmel without disassembling the vent. This should increase the air flow and efficiency of the system.

It was on this latest trip (have had this unit for four years) our first vent fell. Preferring a mechanical solution over glue or tape, I pre-drilled holes in the tabs and installed three stainless screws. Snap in place.

Attachment 377088

[BryonJ]

Has anyone tried to separate the two systems? In other words, block off the ducts between the front and the rear so that you have an even number of registers on each unit. Doing this would seem to actually create 2 zones.

My only concern would be the potential to freeze up the units. I suspect that if you combine separating the two units with opening up the air flow that you would end up with the best scenario?

We have two air conditioners in our house and they do not share the same duct!

[soling917]

I had the same problem in a 27 foot Flying Cloud. Found the A/C was recirculating from the cold to intake at the AC unit. found it by taking down the intake screen and feeling for cold air coming from inside the intake box. Airstream dealer could not find it either. If you have this condition, have the AC unit removed and have the the missing gasket installed.
Pull up the installation instruction and find the part where the unit is installed.

[BryonJ]

Originally Posted by soling917

I had the same problem in a 27 foot Flying Cloud. Found the A/C was recirculating from the cold to intake at the AC unit. found it by taking down the intake screen and feeling for cold air coming from inside the intake box. Airstream dealer could not find it either. If you have this condition, have the AC unit removed and have the the missing gasket installed.
Pull up the installation instruction and find the part where the unit is installed.

I clearly have air from the front unit blowing out the intake of the rear unit. Easy to test by just using a paper towel. It sucks up to the front intake, but blows away from the rear.

I'm trying to schedule a factory visit now and will address it with them at that time.

Thanks for the reply.

[mythbuster88]

Originally Posted by soling917

I had the same problem in a 27 foot Flying Cloud. Found the A/C was recirculating from the cold to intake at the AC unit. found it by taking down the intake screen and feeling for cold air coming from inside the intake box. Airstream dealer could not find it either. If you have this condition, have the AC unit removed and have the the missing gasket installed.
Pull up the installation instruction and find the part where the unit is installed.

What gasket?
What instructions?

[ROBERT CROSS]

Originally Posted by jacobspva

That is only partially correct. Taken to extreme, reducing the air flow to zero would make the air as cold as possible, but wouldn't do much to cool the trailer. The higher the flow rate means more cooling air is distributed to the trailer. If you have a car with automatic a/c and you select maximum cooling, the fans immediately go to high speed.

Yes...but they don't stay there. And it's a much smaller area with much more efficient circulation.

This 'not cold enough syndrome' must be a new improved system problem. Our 11000 BTU Penguin Dometic works great in 'Cloudsplitter'.

Bob
🇺🇸

[Mollysdad]

Originally Posted by FishByFly

Preferring a mechanical solution over glue or tape, I pre-drilled holes in the tabs and installed three stainless screws. Snap in place.

Attachment 377088

Brilliant!
I love a simple, elegant solution.

[franklyfrank]

Originally Posted by BryonJ

I clearly have air from the front unit blowing out the intake of the rear unit. Easy to test by just using a paper towel. It sucks up to the front intake, but blows away from the rear.

I'm trying to schedule a factory visit now and will address it with them at that time.

Thanks for the reply.

I have the same issue with our 2017 30' Classic. Air blowing out of the intake at the rear AC unit. Contacted Airstream and was told that it is normal.
It seems to me that it is taking away some air volume from the front unit.
Is the gasket issue the culprit for sure ?
On which unit ? I had the front removed and reset due to a leaking anchor bolt.

[soling917]

Originally Posted by soling917

I had the same problem in a 27 foot Flying Cloud. Found the A/C was recirculating from the cold to intake at the AC unit. found it by taking down the intake screen and feeling for cold air coming from inside the intake box. Airstream dealer could not find it either. If you have this condition, have the AC unit removed and have the the missing gasket installed.
Pull up the installation instruction and find the part where the unit is installed.

I should clarify, I have a single AC unit, the cold air was passing from the cold air side directly into the return side. I put a strip of closed sell foam between the two sides and volume was added to all registers.
Just a side note Airstream did not find this!

[MangiaMangia]

Hello and thanks to BlueCollar for the thread, and thanks to 5150Mike, Wulfraat and John & Roberta for Dremel mods and versions. Here's mine...

My version removes half of the vanes in their entirety without taking the vent apart. I stacked the plastic vanes and used an oscillating Dremel with the finer metal blade to cut out 2 of the 4 "spokes", both layers at the same time - the frame and the thinner shutter.

After cutting out the two spokes, I used a sanding wheel attachment on the rotary Dremel to remove the remaining rough material and smooth. The heat of the removal and sanding tends to partially fuse the two plastic layers, but I was able to free them using the blade from a utility knife, passing the blade between the layers were it was free and sliding it across the fused area.

This method of leaving two complete vanes allows some material to remain, keeping some of the airflow modification function. And with only two spokes, its easy to line them up horizontally with the louvers to maximize airflow when needed.

I have a 2020 Globetrotter and our vents are rivetted in like others, so removing them was a bit more involved, but they should be easy to re-install with new pop rivets or small screws.

Images:

[Lucky Tom]

What I like to do is keep one unit on a/c and the other on fan. Then I switch sometime, try it, you will like it!