Hot Interior Temperatures in 2017 View 24J With Coleman Mach AC

[TimothyPaul]

Visiting Nashville, it's hot outside but you would think the AC would keep up better than this.

2017 View J / with stock coleman mach

Any thoughts

 

[Waterbug]

Check to see if foam filters in vents are not blocked and start precooling early in the day BEFORE there are high outside temperatures. EDIT: I bought a brand new 5th wheel in northern Michigan. It is very unusual to get 95+ degree days in northern Michigan. The RV was parked on black tarmac. The stealer went out and turned on the AC an hour before our 2 PM arrival. The ducts were still blowing warm air after an hour. I refused to take delivery until the dealer installed a second AC at cost, with NO installation fee.

 

[deckape]

put both , blk out and solid window shades down and bring in slides . Cover your front window if possible . Mag a shade or even a blanket if you can . Use small fans to move the air inside to help A/ C move air .

 

[bigbAZ]

How long has it been running? Did you start it when the interior was already hot? If so it can take awhile for all the thermal mass to cool. In hot weather we always start the AC in the morning even if it means running off the generator while driving. If you let the interior get heat soaked it will get away from you and you will have a tough time bringing the temps down.

The true test will come after sundown, if you can't get it down into the low seventies after sundown something is wrong. If you have a temperature gun you should see a differential between 15 and 22F when measuring supply vs return. You must measure it right at the plenum for accuracy.

We have a Coleman Mach 13.5 and our Via is slightly larger than a View and we have never had the interior that hot even in 100 plus temps parked in full sun. We do cover the glass and start cooling very early like I mentioned. Our roof is white also.

One thing that can also help when struggling to bring the interior temp down is to keep the slides in till things cool down, less space to cool and more airtight.

 

[creativepart]

I’d say it looks like your A/C unit has failed and you likely need to replace it. Get a mobile RV tech to test it and see.

 

[TimothyPaul]

Previous owner had a noise baffle installed, the portion that blocks the dump seems to very difficult to remove. Is it glued in or something ? I wanted to try removing it without ruining it. Just removing the top cover seemed to help airflow - a lot. I also think it may be running a bit cooler. Temp gun when pointed at duct was about 61 with it being about 85 outside.

 

[creativepart]

I also think it may be running a bit cooler. Temp gun when pointed at duct was about 61 with it being about 85 outside.

If it's cooling then I take back my response above.

I've had two Coleman-Mach A/Cs fail on a previous RV and in both cases when they failed they stopped cooling all together. The fan worked but the compressor failed due to pin hole leaks in the refrigerant line. If your A/C is capable of cooling then it's not that kind of problem.

 

[IOS 3]

Previous owner had a noise baffle installed, the portion that blocks the dump seems to very difficult to remove. Is it glued in or something ? I wanted to try removing it without ruining it. Just removing the top cover seemed to help airflow - a lot. I also think it may be running a bit cooler. Temp gun when pointed at duct was about 61 with it being about 85 outside.

If you are getting 61 at the vent against 85 outside, you are probably good. What matters is the vent temp (61) vs ambient in the camper. Should be 20-22 degrees differential.

I can't comment on that "noise baffle" as it looks homemade so the installation may be the same.

 

[bigbAZ]

If you're trying to get into the plenum section where the ducts are connected you need to remove all the screws from around the edge. The piece of foam does not need to be removed, it is just glued to the sheet metal cover. Here's what it looks like without the foam.

 

[bigbAZ]

Once you open up the plenum it will look like this:

The design does not allow optimal airflow. There are kits made that connect to the supply opening and to the duct openings to direct the air more efficiently, the most popular one is made by KoolRV. Unfortunately it doesn't fit many of the small Winnebago motorhomes because our plenums are shallower than others, by about an inch if I recall. I took some sheet aluminum (old license plates), some foam and some Nashua 324A foil tape which is the best made, and made my own, basically eliminating the dead spots and directing the dump into the ducts with a small inverted vee on the bottom. (For the vee I used regular sheet metal and a brake)

Here are the top sections that eliminate the dead corners:

And here is the vee as viewed from the bottom (before the bottom cover was re-installed), which diverts the air evenly into the ducts instead of it splattering directly onto the flat plenum cover.

It has improved airflow enough that I can now feel it from the driver's seat while driving which I couldn't before.

Leftovers

 

[MDJDCarter]

It has been very hot in Nashville these last few days, we are from Knoxville, TN. Heading out west soon, Southern Texas area. In preparation, I cleaned the fins in Coleman Mach unit to improve air flow through them. Also saw videos on diverters to push cold air out vents and bypass the dump gates on A/C cover. I made same with 3d printer, see photo, and taped seams with aluminum tape. It has made a noticeable difference. Also, while not an ideal solution, bringing in one or more slides will reduce the volume of space A/C must cool, and that will also reduce the surface area exposed to the high outdoor temperatures.

 

[bigbAZ]

It has been very hot in Nashville these last few days, we are from Knoxville, TN. Heading out west soon, Southern Texas area. In preparation, I cleaned the fins in Coleman Mach unit to improve air flow through them. Also saw videos on diverters to push cold air out vents and bypass the dump gates on A/C cover. I made same with 3d printer, see photo, and taped seams with aluminum tape. It has made a noticeable difference. Also, while not an ideal solution, bringing in one or more slides will reduce the volume of space A/C must cool, and that will also reduce the surface area exposed to the high outdoor temperatures.

Very nice, what RV do you have, does it have the shallow 3" plenum?

 

[MDJDCarter]

We have a 2016 Itasca Cambria 30J. The interior sticker on the A/C unit says "15 Mach 8". The circular areas are 100mm in diameter. I was going to use 4" dryer hose to join them together, but when I nailed the alignment, I made the center one 96mm and the one from the vents 102mm and extended them a total of 25mm to join up. I went through 3 prototypes out of cheap PLA and then what is pictured is PETG with 20% carbon fiber and 3mm thick all around.

 

[RayIN]

Previous owner had a noise baffle installed, the portion that blocks the dump seems to very difficult to remove. Is it glued in or something ? I wanted to try removing it without ruining it. Just removing the top cover seemed to help airflow - a lot. I also think it may be running a bit cooler. Temp gun when pointed at duct was about 61 with it being about 85 outside.

The outside temperature has no bearing on air inside the RV when measuring return air and chilled air being exhausted into the RV.
Use a standard thermometer, "heat guns" do not perform well trying to measure air temperature. I have both, and often see a significant difference when checking the delta of air conditioners.

 

[DNC-WO]

I purchased my 2016 Journey used in 2000. The AC's worked, but not well enough to cool to a comfortable temperature when the RV was in the sun. I decided to replace the air filters and to clean the condenser coils. When I removed the front AC unit's cowling I found about 40 percent of the coils were plugged with little styrofoam beads. I assume these came from the container they were shipped in and the installers didn't notice that they were clogging up the condenser coils or didn't care. I brushed and vacuumed them out of the coils. The unit cooled better after that. You might check your condenser coils; it's easy to do and doesn't cost anything unless you fall off the roof.