Improved Airflow on Ducted A/C

[pontzdav]

Modified vent covers to increase airflow on my single unit ducted A/C FC30. Gave up the ability to turn off/reduce a vent. Drilled out rivet, opened up plastic piece, removed plastic piece used to cut off/reduce flow, carefully bent the vent openings to make them a bit bigger. I’ll report on performance on next outing.
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[pontzdav]

Originally Posted by pontzdav

modified vent covers to increase airflow on my single unit ducted a/c fc30. Gave up the ability to turn off/reduce a vent. Drilled out rivet, opened up plastic piece, removed plastic piece used to cut off/reduce flow, carefully bent the vent openings to make them a bit bigger. I’ll report on performance on next outing.
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[wulfraat]

Nice job.

There is another thread active on this topic that has some other good approaches.

I chose a similar approach, using a dremel. I can confirm that after 3 days of testing airflow and cooling is much better...

On my 30’ I chose to only open up the vents in the lounge. I purposefully left the bedroom and bathroom vents with the louvers to try and push more air to the lounge where I needed to improve cooling (bed / bath was always nice and chilly [emoji4] )

Mind you I have 2 AC units.... I could see how one would seriously struggle with a ducted 30’....

https://www.airforums.com/forums/f42...ac-211344.html

[pontzdav]

Nice looking modification. What did you use to so perfectly remove the plastic? I still have 6 vents to go and admire your work.

[pontzdav]

I live in Michigan and mostly travel to the southern states during the winter. In this scenario, a single A/C on the FC30 is fine. Last month it was 109 degrees when we pulled into our campsite in Amarillo. One A/C with awnings out and a shade tree and a setting sun could get maybe a 12 degree differential from outside in an hour or two. The desert cools off rapidly at night so no issues after 8 or 9 pm. During the daytime hours, if it’s 100 outside the single unit will cool to maybe 89 or so. What am I doing in Texas in July anyway? We are OK with one A/C but if I was regularly in the south during the summer I would prefer two.

[wulfraat]

89° inside a metal tube sounds absolutely miserable.

Check out the link thread above for full details and tools used for the modification…

[journeydog]

Lots of good info on improving the A/C airflow, but, my TB seems to be OK in the flow world. Two problem areas with my 2 cents thrown in:


1) The vent covers seem to have a habit of falling - even when not traveling. Nor would it be very welcome on someone's cranium. I heartily concur with a couple of airflow fixes but, that's not Mr. TB's problem. (Yet.) I notice there is a thick rubber gasket-type material "shim" inside the perimeter of the hole in the ceiling that accepts the vent cover. Thus, the snap-in "wings" of the cover are held supposedly taught by the connection between the "wings" and the thick rubber. Note that while rubber is a pretty good material for preventing moisture penetration, rattles, etc., it is pretty crappy at holding a few plastic "wings" tightly in place due to flexing.



2)The Dometic CCC2 controller requires further consumer-oriented training and/or Airstream documentation. It took me a fair amount of time to figure out that both A/C and HP integrated units respond to Zone 1's preferences. Zone 2 is n/a as one should imagine, since the interior is one big room (Zone). Why does the Dometic controller call out 2 zones?


Why isn't there better communication between Airstream and Dometic on these issues?


As Wally (RIP) would say: "Quit making more models. Make the units you have better." Or, something like that...