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Old 04-07-2017, 03:25 PM   #1
vipermanden
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Any quick fixes for A/C

We are on the road from Lake Tahoe to New Orleans, and are in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and The A/C is just not cutting it. We put it on 68 on both front and back, with all the day/night shades closed at 8 am this morning, and now it is 3:30 pm, and it is 89 outside and 79 inside. Yesterday, at the end of the day it was 87 outside, and about 82 inside! We are heading to Texas next, and it is supposed to be 95 for 3 days while we are there??? I thought these A/C units were supposed to give you a 20 degree difference from inside and out?
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Old 04-07-2017, 03:52 PM   #2
bigskyjimmy
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68?? heck I put both mine down to 58 and the fan on auto or high to start out and There has been a lot of posts about improving the whisper air here that work(I have posted a few) but the first thing to do for a quick improvement right now is Take off the louvered vents so the air shoots straight down instead of the hot ceiling then when you get time go to the search function and type in Whisper air mod or A/C mod and you can do the other improvements when you get more time like this notice the PVC pipe in the vents to prop up the duct work ,I also did this to the intakes/return to suck more air IN to the A/C Mine works great now
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Old 04-07-2017, 04:15 PM   #3
kdeiss
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You first need to check air Temp at return inboud to the unit then outbound their needs to be a 10 degree differential this way you can check if the unit is cooling!
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Old 04-07-2017, 04:34 PM   #4
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I put my hand up to the vents, and it is cooler air coming in, but not much force? What the heck do we have 50 amps for? My Truck A/C blows much harder than this!! Do the round vents just pop off, or should I use some special tool? I don't want to break one, and have DW bitch at me for the rest of the trip. Thanks

Dennis
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Old 04-07-2017, 06:33 PM   #5
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Originally Posted by vipermanden View Post
I put my hand up to the vents, and it is cooler air coming in, but norft much force? What the heck do we have 50 amps for? My Truck A/C blows much harder than this!! Do the round vents just pop off, or should I use some special tool? I don't want to break one, and have DW bitch at me for the rest of the trip. Thanks

Dennis
Do you have the fan on high speed?
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Old 04-07-2017, 04:37 PM   #6
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Now it is 4:30, and it is 91 outside, and 81 inside. I have the ceiling fan going, and a turbo fan blowing on me in the kitchen, to at least feel like there is cool air circulating on me! We even blocked the skylight in the kitchen with thick white paper bags, to reflect the sun back on that skylight.
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Old 04-07-2017, 06:33 PM   #7
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If you noticed the three indents on the vents, you can insert a small screwdriver near one of these and slip it under the cover. You should be able to pry a little and it will pop open a little. Then move to another spot and do it again...then it should come off. You will now be able to see the piece that is screwed into the ceiling. If it sticks up into the duct too much, airflow will suffer. You can cut these down pretty easy. Also take note of how well this piece is sealed to the inside of the duct mine were crappy and leaked a lot of air into the attic. Retape any with adhesive backed aluminum ac duct tape which you can get at home depot, lowes, etc. On the air returns, take the covers off and take a picture inside the return with the ac running. It should be very open, but more than likely will need something to hold it open like a short piece of pvc tube. Hope this helps you.
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Old 04-07-2017, 06:36 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by vipermanden View Post
We are on the road from Lake Tahoe to New Orleans, and are in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and The A/C is just not cutting it. We put it on 68 on both front and back, with all the day/night shades closed at 8 am this morning, and now it is 3:30 pm, and it is 89 outside and 79 inside. Yesterday, at the end of the day it was 87 outside, and about 82 inside! We are heading to Texas next, and it is supposed to be 95 for 3 days while we are there??? I thought these A/C units were supposed to give you a 20 degree difference from inside and out?
Open and run a ceiling vent. The hot air has to escape somewhere. That will leave more room for the cooler air.
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Old 04-07-2017, 09:07 PM   #9
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I discovered one culprit of stealing cool air, and that was the bathroom ceiling vent. When I got out of the shower, and I was wet, my feet were being blasted with cold air coming under the door, because the fan is so strong in the bathroom, it just shoots that cold air right up and out of the RV. So I turned the fan off, and just had the vent open, and there was no more cold air rushing under the door. So that particular situation was robbing all of the cold air that drops to the floor in the RV.
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Old 04-08-2017, 10:18 AM   #10
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Yep that fantastic fan in the bathrooms really does work well for sure like ya said you can feel the air being sucked under the door and up they are great except you are right they will suck all the cold air out
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Old 05-01-2017, 12:13 PM   #11
Bill.vannuys
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I have 2 pieces of foam insulation that my wife covered with nice material. Each piece is cut to size and fits tightly into the basement (heater returns?) under our bedroom steps to stop the cold air from pouring into the basement. Saves the lost cooling that sinks and goes to the basement.

I just replaced the bedroom AC vents with ones that allow me to close them to shut off the airflow. That allows me to increase the airflow to the living area during the day by running both ACs with the bedroom vents closed.

Ours cools well in warm weather, but we keep the thermostat at 70 day and night!

Not sure if it is good for others, but works great for us.

Must remember to remove the return covers before using heater though.
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Old 05-01-2017, 07:37 PM   #12
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In my experience Bill closing the stairs off All year long is the way to go I have had mine blocked off for 6 years now of fulltiming in 3 Monty's with no Problems there is So much air in the basement and underbelly there is no need for vents in the stairs for the furnace to work just fine
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Old 05-01-2017, 08:14 PM   #13
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Pure and simple, the new style AC units suck! Mine has been back to the factory for this and the break in the nose, and I've really been unable to test them adequately since it came back. One thing, as already mentioned that I did was to take off the vent covers. Then take them down and cut the long part going up into the duct off with a knife or dremel tool. OR you can go to Walmart.com and order these just like the factory just put in mine.
http://https://www.walmart.com/ip/JR...-Vent/55486025

The necks on the factory ones are too long and do not let enough air flow into the coach. Mine is better with the new vent covers. I have a thread in this section about the saga I've had with these dang things.
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Old 05-01-2017, 09:23 PM   #14
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I'm thinking you picked the ones pictured on the left in your link, right?
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Old 05-01-2017, 09:35 PM   #15
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Originally Posted by vipermanden View Post
I'm thinking you picked the ones pictured on the left in your link, right?
Correct. Those are the ones the camper came back from the factory with.
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Old 05-02-2017, 05:13 AM   #16
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Here....It'll save you a couple bucks AND you don't have to give WalMart your money.

https://www.amazon.com/JR-Products-G...SSCWQWWA2&th=1
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Old 05-02-2017, 10:04 PM   #17
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Trying to figure out why one giant online retailer that puts small local stores out of business is so much better than a store also puts small local stores out of business? At least one of them lets many folks boondock overnight.

Of course, neither would be a factor if people really cared more about small local business than finding the absolute lowest price available.

FWIW, I shop at both.
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Old 05-27-2017, 04:32 PM   #18
vipermanden
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Big Daddy,

OK, I purchased one from Amazon, and it fit right in and has a much shallower sleeve, so now I need to paint the foil insulation that shows when you look up into the vent. Plus it is a dull white compared to the color of the ceiling in my Monty. Anyone know what color the ceiling is? The vent covers were about 1/2" less in total diameter, so i will need to spackle and paint the crazy saw marks that are not a very nice circle underneath the stock OEM covers. I ordered more, but if anyone knows what paint color the ceiling is on a 2016 3820FK, I'd love to know. Thanks
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Old 05-29-2017, 08:00 AM   #19
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Perhaps you could borrow or buy an air temperature device, the kind that can properly measure the temps at each vent (I don't recall their actual name). At the ambient outside temps you describe, two ACs should easily keep you comfortable, and high readings would be indicative of air handling problems specific to your rig.

As an example, at 90 degrees and relatively high humidity in FL, my ACs do not run continually to maintain 72 degrees, and I have a front LR that is supposedly difficult to cool. I've made no mods to the ACs.

I recall a couple of threads about the need to better seperate the incoming air at the AC unit; perhaps someone else can chime in with that fix. I had a problem with the previous Wildcat; techs told me the ducting was "crushed" resulting in lack of air delivery, but I can't recall a single complaint about Montanas having that problem.
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Old 05-29-2017, 09:22 AM   #20
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There have been a bunch of threads about A/C units not working, and it seems to be a hit and miss thing like you said. I am taking it in to the service center in a couple of weeks, when it will be around 88 degrees in Reno, and let them determine if it is my actual A/C units that are not working properly, or the ducting is crushed like you mentioned. I did put 1-1/2" PVC in the return vents, and I am going to do it to all of the round vents, but after they take a look at it.
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