What is enough air conditioning?

[camper1013]

So we purchased a used 2015 323 BHS in January. I have spent countless hours cleaning it up, touching up the frame and redoing seals and caulking. This last weekend I was doing the roof I could tell the original AC has been replaced from old marks on the roof.

Closer inspection shows that the old 16k factory AC was replaced by a 13.5k AC presumably to save a few dollars. The date sticker on the unit said 2018, so at least it is new. The original owner was a mechanic and a hack at that. I would never take my vehicle to him after what I have uncovered on this trailer. Something else to deal with. I was so mad I could have ripped if off the roof right there.

We have the prep for the second AC. I was going to get a low profile for the front to keep the height down, but now I am considering putting the smaller AC on the front and replacing it with a larger one the way it should be.

Here are my questions, is the high vs. low profile an issue for the front of the trailer? Also, after losing on our last trailer and setting this one up a new AC is not in the budget. What is the odds we can get by with the smaller AC for now? I know if we are in the sun we will be screwed, but what if we are in the shade?

Thanks in advance.

[TucsonJim]

The original AC on your 2015 323BHS was most likely an Atwood air command unit. They were not 16K units, and to the best of my memory, GDRV has never installed a 16K unit. The Atwood Air Command at the time had very interesting marketing. They advertised it as "equivalent to a 15K BTU unit. But if you read the fine print, it stated it was really a 13.5K BTU unit. The nicest thing about them was that they were very quiet.

Edit: Additional Info. I did some searching. Dometic purchased the Atwood AC line, and their marketing material is even more suspicious than I remember. Check out this capture from their marketing which says "

The Dometic Atwood AirCommand 13,500 BTU (16,000 BTU Equivalent)"

Jim

[Country Campers]

We have always gotten along fine on 1 a/c , in our current and previous units. When it is hoe I usually keep the fan on low or medium cool all the time we are using it. If needed in the evening or morning I will turn it on high or auto. When the temps are high along with the humidity these a/c's do not like to operate on high or auto , they can not dispense the humidity and heat fast enough and will cycle erratically. 2 a/c's would be nice , you can leave one running while being in the other end of the camper where it is quiet.

Brian

[boyscout]

It's subjective - one person's "cool enough" can be another's "gimme more cold". FWIW...

I'm a big guy who can break out in a sweat just looking at pictures of sunny days. We have a Solitude just slightly smaller than your trailer, with two "15K" ACs. However my wife really hates the loud roaring of the main AC (I dislike it myself).

We got through a few humid mid-80s days in Florida by running the bedroom AC with the door closed and not running the main AC. The bedroom AC pushed some cool air into the main cabin via the "racetrack" ducting in the ceiling, and kept the bedroom cool and dry for sleeping which is most important to us. It was a reasonably comfortable compromise.

Good luck.

[Bamaman]

I have a 2015 323BHS, and it is equipped with the 13.5K BTU single Atwood air conditioner unit. It's a very solid unit, and much quieter than most of the competitive units from other manufacturers. But Atwood a/c units have been discontinued after being purchased by Lippert who owns Dometic.

So be very glad you have a completely new a/c unit. You didn't say what brand it is, however. The only quirk that the Atwood unit had was that the slide out filter would get dirty easily and start spitting out a little drainage water when it was dirty. It's important to keep the filters clean on any of them.

If you're going to add a second unit, one of the low profile models works well in the front. Just beware that they're very loud when in such a small space as your front bedroom. Most people will use the rear unit at night and cut off the front unit when in bed. And they'll often cut off the rear a/c during the day when they're in the back of the trailer.

You could put one of the 15K heat pump units in the rear, and move the rear a/c unit to the front end. That would work great.

[camper1013]

Thanks for the responses. The new unit it a dometic. The inside panel looks cheap and I haven’t seen anything like it. Seems to leak a lot of air so the supply is weak to the ceiling vents.

When it comes to noise, we usually sleep with the unit on low fan for white noise and drown out sound for the kids when they go to bed early.

We are going to see how the unit does since it is new and go from there. We don’t need it super cold, but do like to have the humidity out and cooled down for sleeping.

Thanks again all. We are getting super excited for our first trip in a few weeks.

[Country Campers]

Thanks for the responses. The new unit it a dometic. The inside panel looks cheap and I haven’t seen anything like it. Seems to leak a lot of air so the supply is weak to the ceiling vents.

When it comes to noise, we usually sleep with the unit on low fan for white noise and drown out sound for the kids when they go to bed early.

We are going to see how the unit does since it is new and go from there. We don’t need it super cold, but do like to have the humidity out and cooled down for sleeping.

Thanks again all. We are getting super excited for our first trip in a few weeks.

If you drop the inside panel you can get some silver duct work tape at the hardware store and tape up a lot of the leaks you can find. If you search here you will find pics of this being done.
Very helpful and allows the a/c to operate more efficiently.

Brian

[camper1013]

Thanks for the idea Brian. I was trying to figure out how to do that. I happen to have a roll laying around already.

[boyscout]

When it comes to noise, we usually sleep with the unit on low fan for white noise and drown out sound for the kids when they go to bed early.

There are observations scattered around this forum claiming that these ACs actually cool better when run on low. Some say that the units aren't as effective at cooling the incoming air when it's being forced too quickly over the heat exchanger.

As a result we never run either of our units on high; always Low Auto. The unit in the main cabin is still REALLY noisy. The one in the bedroom isn't as offensive for some reason.

(I had a thought for the first time as I typed that... maybe the main AC is mis-wired and runs on high despite being set on low. Given GD's extremely high-quality electrical installation that's probably not the case but I'll check it out.)

[Country Campers]

At the Indiana Rally last year I spent some time in our camper with the "Dometic" man , lots of years experience , ours was cycling a lot. He recommended on the hot and humid days to run on low and it will work just fine , and has been since. He also recommended after traveling when you first turn on the a/c open the dump gate to dump the cold air directly into the coach before sending air thru the duct work, explained that this will cool the air faster , when cooled down for a bit shut the gate and send the air thru the duct work.

Brian