Any thoughts on misbehaving A/C?

[Ag&Au]

First of all, I AM going to contact the dealer and get this problem taken care of under warranty, but I am curious if anyone knows what the problem might be.

This is our third trip with our 2010 Classic 31D. However it is the first time we have had a need for the air conditioner except for testing. It is a Dometic Penguin.

The air conditioner seemed to operate normally for the first couple of hours. Since then, it has been acting abnormally. When first turned on it runs about 10 minutes and then shuts down for a few minutes. This is without the trailer being anywhere near the temperature set on the climate control unit. It keeps cycling like this, with the on periods getting shorter, and the off periods getting longer. It is my guess that some sort of protective circuitry is causing the unit to shut down. Since I am afraid that the protective mechanism might eventually fail, and whatever it is protecting against may occur (Fire, for instance), I am reluctant to run it at all. Since we have two cats traveling with us, we cannot shut the trailer up and leave to do anything, because of the possibility of returning to roast cat. If we left the windows open there is a real danger of them discovering that they could explore the campground, by shredding the screens. Due to this we are going to cut our trip short and head home tomorrow.

We are in a RV park hooked up to 30 amp service. The voltage is 123 without the A/C running and drops to 118 when the A/C turns on.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

Regards,

Ken

[2airishuman]

ken

1. have u tried the "fan speed" on HIGH instead of AUTO?

it should run continuously if NOT on auto.

2. it's unlikely but something may be blocking return air flow...

so remove the foam filters INSIDE and see if this improves things.

3. is it ICING UP (ya gotta LOOK at the fin/coils outside) , this will shut it down.

4. HOWz the voltage in the rv park?

LOW voltage happens in summer time in many places and the heat associated with low voltage may cause issues.

5. does the unit put out REALLY COLD air when set to the lowest setting?

try this, if it doesn't CRANK cold air there may be a pinch in the cooling circulation or a LEAK somewhere.
__________

2 fantastic fans OPEN and moving air PLUS the bathroom vent OPEN is the way too go for pets...

even IF the AC were working fine, many things can happen to shut it down...

the fans are a better failsafe for pets imo.


cheers
2air'

[Jammer]

Be sure you have the fan on high if it's fairly cool outside or you'll ice up the evaporator and get exactly the behavior you describe.

[Ag&Au]

Thanks 2air and Jammer,

I think that may be what is causing the problem. I am testing now to see what happens. Being a techno-geek, if anything has a auto setting, I seem to always choose that.

Also 2air has a good point. I need to try the fans only, when we get home and see how high the temperature gets on a hot day.

The manual of course, gives no direction about how to run it. it just tells what the choices are.

In any case we are going to stick it out and not stray far from the trailer until we figure out what it is going to do.

Regards,


Ken