Basement A/C Reliability and Parts

[Too Slow 90]

I am considering an '03 Journey with basement a/c. From reading posts on other forums I have gleaned that some say the units do not cool. Others say that if it's a Coleman unit that parts are not available if it breaks. How big of a deal is this? How long do the units usually last and if it goes will I be able to have it repaired?

Thanks form the new guy.

[KJD]

First off welcome from one newby to another one. I have the basement air in mine. If or shall I say when it does give you problems you will have a hard time finding an RV dealer to look at it...but....... If you call a regular a/c place and explain to them its not like a roof top a/c they will and can work on them..... I had a problem with mine last year and called about every RV repair person in the yellow pages and everyone of them said nope we dont work on them buy a new one...... Yea right have you priced them? So in desperation I call ABMAY and explained it to them they had a service person come out and he hooked up is guages just like its a home a/c unit and had it up and running in less then an hour....... It had a bad compastor on one of the thing a ma jings inside the service panel......Hope this helps some.KJD

[krautkamper]

I have the basement air on mine and it cools great. I think you will find a lot of people in the forums that absolutely love the basement air. There are of course the horror stories about how difficult it may be to get fixed, but I found the benefit worth the risk. KJD is a case in point. Mine has not had too much use but has worked well for over 10 years. Given that it is more typical of a residential unit, it may in fact be easier to repair. I understand that the rooftop models are considered disposable by many.

[Keith K]

Ours has run almost daily (either cool or heat pump) without a problem since we started full timing in 2005. The only problem we've had is with the thermostat, and they're easily replaced. I went to the RVP website and downloaded the technician's manual. If I ever have a problem, I'll call a home A/C repair service and furnish him the info if needed. Our current RV is our 8th, the first with basement air, and I much prefer it to rooftop units.

[Marinelender]

Too Slow 90,

We've have had our '03 Journey with basement air for 18 months and 14,000 miles. Didn't need the A/C too much in Montana last summer but here in FL and up and down the east coast we've used it a lot. Had one problem (bad starting condenser) and had no problem having a regular A/C guy find and fix. In 105 degree weather in AZ it worked as well as any roof unit, and makes less noise (IMHO). Don't be afraid of basement air.

[Too Slow 90]

Sounds like good news. Thanks for all of the help.

[Hikerdogs]

We've been using the basement air for heating and cooling for 11 years and the only maintenance so far has been a couple bearings in the fan. We've used it to cool the coach in temps as high as 100* and heat it in temps down to the low 30's. We have almost 100,000 miles on the coach and have found it to be more than dependable.
We have been looking to replace the coach but not having basement air in the new ones is somewhat of a show stopper. Our garage has a 12' door which works well with this 11'6" coach. The new ones won't fit through the door since the roof air raises the overall height to 12'9"

As for parts they're still available through Coleman and Winnebago. Any competent home AC technician should be able to do repairs. It's a excellent system. I hope Winnebago goes back to it before our current coach wers out.

[bachler]

We have had 2 coaches That had Basement air 7 that had that big 500 lb wort upon the roof.. The basement air is much superior to the roof top air;; Some of the new Provost busses have as many as 5 Air units up top.. Why not a good basement air. They cool our 2000 square House. Why not a 400 Square Foot Motorhome, Just the facts..