Replaced Ceiling Air Conditioning Vents - Montana Owners Club

pammer · 07-20-2016, 07:14 AM

Yesterday, Gene replaced our ceiling air conditioning vents. It has helped a bit but we are still struggling to get this rig cooled down. We are hot here 90-100+ degrees during the day. Once we finish loading the new rig up, we can put it back underneath the trees in the shade, until then we have to keep it hooked up to 50 amp service on the sunny side of the house.

http://pamngenestraveljournal.blogsp...fications.html

We also bought a sheet of the magnetic floor grate covers and covered all of the floor vents.

WeBeFulltime · 07-20-2016, 09:10 AM

I am sitting in East Tennessee in the full afternoon sun and it is 99 degrees F outside. It is a very comfortable 74 degrees F on the inside. I can only assume you have two a/c units. If you do something must be wrong with one or both of them.

pammer · 07-20-2016, 09:37 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by WeBeFulltime

I am sitting in East Tennessee in the full afternoon sun and it is 99 degrees F outside. It is a very comfortable 74 degrees F on the inside. I can only assume you have two a/c units. If you do something must be wrong with one or both of them.

Do you have the Whisper Quiet Air Conditioning? We have 2 of them on this 5th wheel but they don't seem to blow as hard as the old style air conditioners (the ones with the big box on the ceiling). I think that is our problem.. I just went out and checked. Nice and cool inside right now but it is only 1:35 pm here. Later in the day it struggles to keep it cool. 95 degrees here right now.

navybanker · 07-20-2016, 09:43 AM

They probably have the new "whisper quiet" system. We have a 2017 3611 and will find out how well the new system cools next week in Memphis. It is quiet but hope it will cool! Where did you buy the new vents? We were moving into the new rig last weekend and had the external gen powering one a/c unit and it held the temp from the morning at 79 but would not decrease the temp inside as the day warmed up. Generator will not power both units. I tried to find the thread on this system that went on for several pages but could not get the search terminology close enough!

jcurtis934 · 07-20-2016, 09:46 AM

From the different posting on whisper quiet race track ducted ac being put in new units, i'd say there is a real issue there that we don't face on our older units. Hope you new rig owners figure this out in case we decide to buy a new one someday. As it stands...ain't touching a new rig at this point. John

pammer · 07-20-2016, 10:35 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by navybanker

They probably have the new "whisper quiet" system. We have a 2017 3611 and will find out how well the new system cools next week in Memphis. It is quiet but hope it will cool! Where did you buy the new vents? We were moving into the new rig last weekend and had the external gen powering one a/c unit and it held the temp from the morning at 79 but would not decrease the temp inside as the day warmed up. Generator will not power both units. I tried to find the thread on this system that went on for several pages but could not get the search terminology close enough!

I got mine on Amazon. I hope yours cools better than mine does. Maybe Keystone will come up with a fix?
D & W (8840WH) Spaceport Air Conditioner Ceiling Vent

**DQDick** · 07-20-2016, 10:41 AM

Since we spend most of our time in Kansas in the summer and New Mexico/Arizona in the winter cooling is an issue with us. I don't know about the new rigs, but on ours the furnace return air is under the stairs and lets heat into the living area from the basement. We took black foam board and closed it up in the summer. We were also getting a lot of heat from the vents in the ceiling and got insulated pillows for there from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Camco-45192-S...vent+insulator

pammer · 07-20-2016, 10:47 AM

I am curious. Has the issue with the cooling ability of the new Whisper Quiet Air Conditioners ever been brought up with the Keystone Factory folks at the Goshen, Indiana Rally? If so, what was their response? If not, can someone who has the Whisper Quiet Air Conditioning System do that this year? We aren't going to be able to get there this year but next year we are planning on it.

Current temp 98 degrees in the shade, so much, much hotter on the 5th wheel in the direct sun. Temp in the 5th wheel is 78 degrees right now. We added the vents and put the magnetic covers over the floor vents yesterday. Seems to be helping some. Fingers and toes crossed.

richfaa · 07-20-2016, 01:29 PM

We have the same A/C system. We are in a KOA in wellington, Kansas.It was 105 degrees when we got here .It is 103 Now as per the Wellington, Kansas weather station.We are in a pretty dark colored Big Sky in the direct sunlight.No trees, no shade. We are in a 40 foot long 400 square foot cooker oven.

We installed the same ceiling vents last month and they made a big difference .Our inside temp is 84 degrees the humidity is wrung out and we are comfortable. We do have a fan on the floor of the front bedroom blowing the cool air down into the rear of the RV. I can feel the cool air blowing on me when I stand under the ceiling vent. The cool air blowing out of the vent measured with a digital thermometer is 58/60 degrees with a strong flow.

Measured with a IR thermometer the temp on our black paint gelcoat in the direct sunlight is 119 degrees on the gray paint 113 degrees.

If you can get a 20 degree difference outside to inside temp the A/C is working perfectly.

These are ovens and the A/C systems can not keep up.

pammer · 07-20-2016, 01:45 PM

My last, very unscientific, check this afternoon at about 4:30 pm: 100 degrees in the shade says our indoor digital readout that is in the stick house with the thingy magig in the shade outside under the patio cover. I have a small digital thermometer in the rig...that read 84 degrees at 4:30 pm. Just for fun....I put the same digital thermometer outside in the direct sun, where the 5th wheel is parked, and it read 115 degrees and then it errored out. At that point, I went and jumped into the pool.

Conclusion: Camp somewhere cool in the summer because this new fangled air conditioning system will NOT keep you cool in high temps! Very disappointed Keystone! I think I will drop them a note and express my disappointment!

pammer · 07-20-2016, 01:46 PM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by richfaa

We have the same A/C system. We are in a KOA in wellington, Kansas.It was 105 degrees when we got here .It is 103 Now as per the Wellington, Kansas weather station.We are in a pretty dark colored Big Sky in the direct sunlight.No trees, no shade. We are in a 40 foot long 400 square foot cooker oven.

We installed the same ceiling vents last month and they made a big difference .Our inside temp is 84 degrees the humidity is wrung out and we are comfortable. We do have a fan on the floor of the front bedroom blowing the cool air down into the rear of the RV. I can feel the cool air blowing on me when I stand under the ceiling vent. The cool air blowing out of the vent measured with a digital thermometer is 58/60 degrees with a strong flow.

Measured with a IR thermometer the temp on our black paint gelcoat in the direct sunlight is 119 degrees on the gray paint 113 degrees.

If you can get a 20 degree difference outside to inside temp the A/C is working perfectly.

These are ovens and the A/C systems can not keep up.

I feel your pain.

mhs4771 · 07-20-2016, 02:00 PM

Here's something to try, remove the filter (if there's one) on the return vents, stick your cell phone up there and see if you can get a picture of the inside of the return vent. On our SOB Forum with the same type of system there has been a problem of the vent material not staying up and wires running thru the vent, thus restricting the return air flow.

richfaa · 07-20-2016, 03:32 PM

If there is good flow and the temp at the vents is @ 55/60 degrees the A/C system is working as designed. The issues is we are in a 400 square foot oven.Mine is very pretty with the dark colored paint.It is now down to a mere 94 degrees now and our inside temp is down to 80 degrees.Yesterday in Kansas MO the A/C ran nearly constantly day and night. It turned on this AM at 7AM with the set point at 78 degrees.

The outside humidity is 54% which makes it livable.

**Rondo** · 07-20-2016, 05:33 PM

I recently purchased two of the new ceiling vents that can be close if needed. Will be putting them in up in the bedroom to see if it make any difference and I'm sure it will. The OEM ducts have a 1 1/2 to 2 inch tube running up into the ceiling A/C ducting. This causes the air to be forced around and over the duct thus not letting the cool air out as it should. One of our MOC members (Ozz) had a post here on the Forum a year or more ago on how he eliminated this blocking of the air flow coming out of the vents. If you click on Search at the top of the page and type in A/C vents you should be able to find his postings and he even included photos of what he did to the OEM vents to make them let more air from the ducts.

bigskyjimmy · 07-20-2016, 07:13 PM

OK Gang I just posted 2 days ago on how to make the Whisper air work good with pics and it makes a world of difference I took mine out turned it upside down then cut the louvers out of the cover with a dremmel cut off wheel then cut out a round piece of larger wire mesh and glued it in there in it's place and painted the mesh white looks good works great ,,WAY better air flow.. ALSO what helps is get some 1-1/2 inch PVC pipe cut them into 6 inch pieces and push them up in the return vents AND the outlets and that helps the flow as well ,Here are my pics of the mod http://s1275.photobucket.com/user/to...remw6.jpg.html

guru1961 · 07-22-2016, 07:31 AM

I got one fix for the 2014 Big Sky Montana that we own and it is cinder box like richfaa speaks. I installed a 3rd AC non-ducted unit (removed fantastic vent in kitchen) and routed the 120V cable in wire mold to the power panel area. Most of the service centers stated that I couldn't add a 3rd AC because the 50A service wouldn't handle it. Might I explain to them that 40-45' units have the same 3 AC's and same 50A service as most larger RV's do. We got to 100 degrees outside in Stillwater OK recently and it maintained 74 degrees inside with 3rd unit on medium speed. We were in non-shaded lot. It costs $700 for the 3rd AC (13k btu) but so far a well spent endeavor. We have a ongoing warranty claim with Keystone on the "non" cooling aspects of this RV. We live in ours while working in different locations so we were miserable for a few weeks till the fix got completed.

richfaa · 07-22-2016, 11:54 AM

We are in Shawnee,Ok at a FCRV rally. Today the temps is 98 degrees humidity 38% our inside temp is 80 Degrees. We are in a shaded area and not in the direct sunlight. We are comfortably cool both A/C's are running. We added the ceiling vents that direct the cool air straight down and that made a big difference in cooling.

richfaa · 07-22-2016, 11:57 AM

[quote]Originally posted by richfaa

We are in Shawnee,Ok at a FCRV rally. Today the temps is 98 degrees humidity 38% our inside temp is 80 Degrees. We are in a shaded area and not in the direct sunlight. We are comfortably cool both A/C's are running. We added the ceiling vents that direct the cool air straight down and that made a big difference in cooling.

BTW bigskyjimmy's solution may be even a better fix.

mlh · 07-22-2016, 12:30 PM

If thesis campers are insulated the way Keystonr says they are why does it take 30,000 BTUs to cool them? I have 24,000 BTUs in my house. My AC might run 15 minutes an hour and keeps the house at 72.
Lynwood

Virginia Young · 07-22-2016, 12:37 PM

guru1961 - we have the same unit you have. Just returned from 5 days in Bossier City, LA. The actual temps were 98-100 with heat indexes close to 110. I had both a/c's on with the fans set to Hi, so the fans ran all the time. Set the thermostats to 75 on both a/c's. We stayed comfortable the whole time. I will admit, it was a little warm in the middle of the day, but a small fan sitting on the floor at the end of the couch by the desk took care of that problem. We did have part of the fiver shaded in the evening by a medium sized tree.

I do love the color scheme of our campers, but it does make them hotter. We have one of those thermometers that gives you outside and inside temps. On the East side of the camper, late morning, the outside temp registered 119 and inside 89. That was on the wall. If I put my hand on the wall by the thermometer, I discovered why it registered 89. In the middle of the fiver, it was comfortable.

One question - Have you had trouble with your refrigerator? PM me.

Gina

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