Some Second Air Conditioner questions - Page 2 - Montana Owners Club

Art-n-Marge · 07-21-2009, 09:47 AM

Excellent. Thanks for all the information. The plan will be to not worry about the ducting or additional wiring beyond what provided by the prewire and install the A/C in the BR and simply use its controls to control the temp/air flow.

The info has been great!

dsprik · 07-21-2009, 04:06 PM

Not sure if someone already mentioned this? Zone 1 and Zone 2 on our 2007 3400RL is meaningless. Zone 2 was not functional on any Montanas until 2008 as mentioned above.

Then why did we have them? Keystone bought this thermostat when problems started flooding in to the home office about the remote thermostats that were supposed to be the cutting edge of RV technology.

They switched to this one. Other higher end 5vers were using these and there were probably a ton of them available on the wholesale market - read inexpensive and readily available. Keystone/Montana bought a bunch and just started putting these in all units. Many dealers were not even notified of this sudden change. They worked much better than the remotes that they replaced.

My 3400 has no additional ducting but was "prepped for 2nd A/C".

rames14 · 07-21-2009, 05:06 PM

Maybe a little off topic, but this is one of the reasons when we ordered our new Big Sky - we ordered it with the factory second A/C. We had experienced 100+ days and couldn't get it below the high 80's. So, with the twin A/C's, no problem. Both use the same ducts, so you have the advantage of being able to run the bedroom unit when you're watching TV and the Living Room unit when sleeping to avoid the noise.

Texas Firefighter · 07-21-2009, 07:26 PM

Art, one more thing, the front a/c unit when it is on, sure drowns out all the outside noise and helps you sleep at night. It does help cool our trailer off quick. I think Glenn stated they use a fan to blow the air towards the rear, and we do the same. I had this unit installed at the dealer when we bought the trailer. Be safe!

SlickWillie · 07-22-2009, 12:39 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by Texas Firefighter

Art, one more thing, the front a/c unit when it is on, sure drowns out all the outside noise and helps you sleep at night. It does help cool our trailer off quick. I think Glenn stated they use a fan to blow the air towards the rear, and we do the same. I had this unit installed at the dealer when we bought the trailer. Be safe!

The noise is the thing we like about the unit right over the bed. Our lot is right near the lighted fishing pier. Lots of night activity. No problem; while the neighbors complain about party's, we sleep.

On our unit, it was optional for the prewire for the front AC. We paid the $100, and there was no wire.

ChuckD · 07-22-2009, 03:04 AM

I can't give any advise, but I will say I installed a Carrier in the BR last year (unducted) and we are very happy with it.

Art-n-Marge · 07-22-2009, 10:43 AM

Thanks everyone. Having the noise won't bother us because I like to camp in the cold and the furnace is usually running at our BR all night. So we have will have some noise in the heat too. No big deal.

sreigle · 07-23-2009, 09:48 AM

Art, you asked about a thermostat in the nonducted AC. Yes, it has its own thermostat right on the box under the ceiling. It has no numbers, though. It looks like an automotive heat/cool control with the red and blue lines that get larger and smaller, if that makes any sense.

There is also, on ours, a control for "high cool" and "low cool" and more for "high fan" and "low fan." So, if we have noisy neighbors but it's too cool for AC, we can always run it on low fan to get the "white noise" so we can sleep.

blamb · 07-30-2009, 02:32 PM

I have the ducted AC in the living room and the non-ducted, separate AC unit in the bedroom. I actually prefer it this way as opposed to having the one in the bedroom ducted and working together with the other one as well. Even if my thermostat worked correctly I would still prefer it this way after having lived with it like this for almost a year.

It got up to above 110 degrees several days in a row just a couple of weeks ago and the last two months have had more 100+ days than under 100. I find that I appreciate that my BR AC is an individual unit that works like a window unit... because I can shut the door and hole up in there and stay relatively comfortable. It is so much cooler in the bedroom than the rest of the unit that when you open the bedroom door it is like walking into a wall. I have health problems that are made much worse by heat so I am glad that I can have at least one small area where I can stay comfortable even if it means spending the day in bed. If the one in the bedroom were a ducted unit there is no way I could cool the bedroom off that much, not to mention to do so would require a lot more electricity since you'd have to run both units to even try. At least this way if I need to save money I can just turn off the main AC entirely and open the windows and use much less AC for one room, and to be comfortable at night. I haven't done this yet, but it's nice to know if I am ever restricted to just one AC I won't be entirely miserable. Just bored.

The non-ducted bedroom unit works just like a window unit would in a stick house, mine has 2 dials on the unit itself, one for different settings (high, med, low) of cool, a setting just for a fan (also 3 speeds), and even heat option! Yes, it works like a space heater in the winter. The other dial is the thermostat, it works like window units AND space heaters, you turn it on full blast until the room gets to a comfortable temperature and then slowly dial it down until you hear/feel a click. Then it does a decent job of keeping it at that temperature by cycling the cool or heat off and on and using the fan to blow the air around in between cycles. The entire unit itself is basically dropped in through the ceiling, and is not connected to anything else or wired or ducted or anything like that except for whatever feeds it the electricity. It hangs down from the ceiling by about an inch, maybe 2. It really isn't that noticeable and since it's right above the bed it doesn't get in the way and you don't bang your head on it. On 2 opposite sides of the part that hangs down a bit, there are vents. So the air blows sideways, not straight down. On both vents mine have the ability to direct the airflow much like you would for the vents in a car. The intake vent is in the middle so the air goes straight up into the unit.

If you'd like, I will take a picture of it and post it here for you to see. Just let me know.

KathyandDave · 07-30-2009, 03:24 PM

Our main AC has a duct mode and a dump mode. If the future bedroom AC works the same way, then we could adapt to suit any of the circumstances described here.

Glenn and Lorraine · 07-31-2009, 01:49 AM

Noise? What noise? The front AC noise is just like living next to a railroad. In just a couple nights we were use to it. With outside temps in the high 80s mid 90s and humidity to match it's almost like sleeping in a frig. LUV IT!!!!

Clemson1881 · 07-31-2009, 01:02 PM

Agree with everyone else. The noise from the A/C is awesome to allow peaceful sleep when everyone wants to stay up all night around you.

vickir · 07-31-2009, 03:57 PM

And, when the front A/C is running, you can leave the thinking room door open a couple of inches and enough cool air gets in there to keep it from being so bloody hot yet doesn't interfere with the air flow to the rear!

Scottyscott · 08-24-2009, 05:09 PM

I just installed a front a/c on my 2006 315rls. I had to run a seperate wire since I was not pre wired for it. I chose the Coleman Mach 3 with manual controls. I am in Missouri right now, the 2nd ac works great. No more sweating in the monte! Plus... if you leave the bedroom door open and close the bathroom door to the living room.... gets breezy in the bathroom! lol. Overall.... I am very happy with the new ac!

dsprik · 08-24-2009, 05:38 PM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by vickir

And, when the front A/C is running, you can leave the thinking room door open a couple of inches and enough cool air gets in there to keep it from being so bloody hot yet doesn't interfere with the air flow to the rear!

Geez, Vicki! I can tell who you are married to...

Steve always has the funniest bathroom/black tank humor. He really makes me laugh. Although, sometimes I don't think he's trying to be funny...

sreigle · 08-25-2009, 08:47 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by dsprik

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by vickir

And, when the front A/C is running, you can leave the thinking room door open a couple of inches and enough cool air gets in there to keep it from being so bloody hot yet doesn't interfere with the air flow to the rear!

Geez, Vicki! I can tell who you are married to...

Steve always has the funniest bathroom/black tank humor. He really makes me laugh. Although, sometimes I don't think he's trying to be funny...

Dave, I haven't laughed this loud and long in a very long time! I just read your comment to Vicki. You should see her blush. She'd like to amend her comment to read "air flow to the rear of the coach."

Oh, that's great, Dave. Good one!

dsprik · 08-25-2009, 10:21 AM

Sorry, Vicki. Did not mean to embarrass you. The phrase was a little vague and that's all my imagination needed...

No dobt about it, "air flow to the rear of the coach." sure presents a different visual...

corncob · 08-26-2009, 01:29 AM

I put a 13.5 Carrier low profile in my 2008 3465SA. It is not ducted, just dumps air in bedroom but does spray the air mechaanically.

KathyandDave · 08-26-2009, 02:47 AM

Steve, I wasn't aware that you're a coach. What sport - basketball, football,...?

Driftwoodgal · 08-31-2009, 06:48 PM

We have a 2006 3400RL and live near Austin TX. We lived in our rig 9 months last year from July through April. Summer months were in Harlingen and Sept-April in Kemah. Have camped in 106 degree weather this summer too! When we first bought our Montana we only had one AC. Even with the silver sunshade panels on the windows we were unable to cool our RV so the second year we added the BR unit.

Just thought I would add a few comments about our bedroom AC. I love it as it drowns out all of the campground noise. I use it as a white noise machine and run it on fan mode during the winter. We can have a diesel truck start up in the early morning and not hear it. I love the fact that I can freeze during the summer by having it on high or just set it on low and close the bedroom door or leave it open to regulate the temperature. Closing the bedroom door allows you to really get it cold in the BR. We are like Glen and set the LR on a higher temperature.

The first thing I do once we plug in the 50 amp cord is to turn on our refrigerator and then I turn on the bedroom AC even before I put out the slides. This AC will start to quick cool our Montana. Our AC has to vents on it, one pointed towards the closet and the other toward the LR. I close the one closest to the closet and force all of the cold air down to the LR. The toilet area does get hotter with the door closed, so when it is real hot I open the door all of the way so air filters in there. We also keep the vent open in the LR almost all of the time. Hubby got tired of having to use an umbrella to open the vent so he put a file folder clip on it to hold it open.

Once we cool our rig down we are able to run one or the other unless it is over 100. The cooling down process can take 12 hours depending on when we setup.

One last thing, I have found that if you cover the vents to the basement with something you can keep the hot air from the basement from rising up into the rig. We don't keep anything down there that has to be cooled so the AC is better off keeping me cooler. I also keep the floor vents covered with a small mat so keep cat litter and debris from falling in there.

Colleen

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