Dometic 15,000 BTU A/C Failure

[Super 8]

Originally Posted by Herk7769

While your camper is out of warranty I would call the AC manufacturer.
Perhaps there is a "silent recall" or they might comp the service call.
You won't know until you ask.

If you are going to the Rally I would send a service request.

Thanks. We like to ride our cycles out after the Rally, early Sept.

[Super 8]

Had my neighbor shoot some R410A refrigerant into the system which has helped. Dropped the difference in air outlet temp from 17F difference to 27F difference from the intake air temp.

[davel1971]

warranty on AC unit is 2 years, but if you already had someone add service points and charge it, warranty is void

[WolfWhistle]

To reduce the heat load in your campers, why not add one or two Maxxair ventilators. It can be set to come on a temperature and can run without rain getting in. There are other products, but these are pretty cool. You do have to have a window (or vent) cracked open, but these are the best things since sliced bread. I did not check prices, just found it; cut and pasted the link.

Maxx Fan RV Ventilator-White - with Remote Control-pplmotorhomes.com

[DocGTO]

I got told Friday from my service dept that my ac is crapped out and is calling Dometic Monday to get a warranty replacement.

[Crockett]

Originally Posted by Super 8

Had my neighbor shoot some R410A refrigerant into the system which has helped. Dropped the difference in air outlet temp from 17F difference to 27F difference from the intake air temp.

if he put in a temporary tap, it will leak. soldered in port??...will leak as well only slower. need to get proper charge and crimp and cut port and solder, the charge is so minimal...

[Sagecoachdriver]

Do these 15,000 btu Dometic have the heat pump feature or just regular?
Are the 13,500 btu units having problems too?

[WolfWhistle]

Originally Posted by Sagecoachdriver

Do these 15,000 btu Dometic have the heat pump feature or just regular?
Are the 13,500 btu units having problems too?

My 13.5K Brisk Air II crapped out... Camper's Inn replaced it... took 2 days to get it done. Delta was about 7 degrees.

[buffett2000]

I've been away from my posts for a while. Went on our first camping adventure! but that is another story in itself.... sounds like a lot of people are having the same issue i had. Since i started the thread and people were kind enough to support me, i feel i need to pipe in with my 2 cents worth. (worth less than a penny!!)

anyway, my advice is for people to keep calling Dometic with their issues. Domestic was the entity that finally resolved my issue. Above FR and above the dealer. Evidently, the dealer is the one who can provide the info to Dometic to get a unit replaced. So if they won't work with you, keep after Dometic.

also remember, as hard as it is sometimes, "you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar."

db

[Thurman]

I called Dometic a month ago and talked to a very nice lady about my new unit not cooling with a differential temp of 8 degrees. She told me she was "very surprised" to hear that one of their units was not working correctly. When I told her that I had read posts on this forum as to this Dometic A/C problem she didn't know anything about this forum, which may be true. She did agree that IF a factory authorized service center checked the unit out and the unit needed to be replaced then Dometic would be glad to authorize a replacement unit shipped to the service center. The only problem with that, as I have posted at on this forum, is that there are no service center anywhere near me and the two she gave me info for are backed up six to eight weeks. I cannot even take my unit to the selling dealer until about July 15th or so. I have to call to see if they have room for my unit before I haul it the 90 miles back to them. With all the posts I see on this forum about Dometic A/C units failing within six months I cannot help but wonder why Dometic has not put out some type of notice on this problem. I read on another site that Dometic has received some 2000 A/C units from a Chinese manufacturer that were low on freon. IF this is true why hasn't Dometic done the right thing and let the owners of these units know this?

[Crockett]

Originally Posted by Herk7769

While your camper is out of warranty I would call the AC manufacturer.
Perhaps there is a "silent recall" or they might comp the service call.
You won't know until you ask.

If you are going to the Rally I would send a service request.

This is prolly your answer Thurman. By doing a silent recall, the demand is less. Heck, maybe 6 or 7 percent will never see it. With a recall, everyone with a new unit that catches wind of it will question it and want it checked. As far as getting a mfg to fess up, good luck. Cant say that i ever git that to happen...

[Crisg1]

We have been fighting a Dometic A/C problem in our 2015 Columbus 375RL running for 6 min then shutting down. Same kind of issues as have been posted here. They have replaced the board and thermostat. Now the interesting part, while replacing the thermostat we discovered the AC was blowing straight down the wall and onto the thermostat(could feel cold air blowing out of hole) thus the unit was cycling off as temp was showing much cooler. So we think there is also a design issue here. Thoughts?

[kc5mhb]

I'm on AC unit number 3. The first one lasted about 6 months, the next one, 3 months and the new one is currently working fine. I keep my Cherokee plugged in and generally keep the thermostat at about 78 - 80 during the summer so it doesn't get so hot inside. Twice I've gone out to prepare the camper for a trip and had hot air blowing out of the ducts. Both times the repair center I took it to was really quick about replacing the unit. I was told that the Dometic units were made in China and apparently they were not putting enough refrigerant in them or something to that effect. Hopefully the new one will work properly. Was also told that one customer had his replaced 4 times for the same issue. I believe it was more than 2000 units affected; maybe 20,000 or 200,000 would be more likely. In any case, I had it at 70 this Labor Day Weekend and it worked fine.

[WolfWhistle]

My 13.5K bit the dust. It was covered under its 2 year warranty. 2 years is going to prove grossly inadequate, I am afraid.
WW

[Horntown]

We purchase a Forest River 2013 Grand Lodge in April 2013. In May 2015,
we had a problem with our Dometic 15000 AC. Dealer sent technician after I was gold we had to pay a $100 fee for diagnosis. The technician said unit
was running but not cooling. Since it was a closed unit and could not be repaired, we would need a new unit. Warranty was 2 yrs and of course we were outside of the 2 yr warranty. Trying to save money, we bought a new
Dometic 15000 unit from Brass Sales and had it installed on 6/24/2015. On May 23, 2016 we turned on the unit for the first time this year and it refused to cool. We checked filter, all electrical connections and found that again the closed unit was not working. We called Dometic and Brass Sales and have been in a phone run around about replacement of the unit. After reading about other owners problems with Dometic, I wonder if they have a problem with these units????? Right now, I am waiting for a call back from a supervisor to find out if they are going to honor the warranty. I don't feel I should have to pay a technician to come here and tell me the unit is not cooling?????

[Horntown]

Originally Posted by slapshot12

I dropped mine off at an authorized Dometic service dealer today. Based on the symptoms, they think the unit will be replaced and said Dometic is very good about standing behind their stuff. I will post an update when I get it.

Was the unit replaced?

[Horntown]

Originally Posted by kc5mhb

I'm on AC unit number 3. The first one lasted about 6 months, the next one, 3 months and the new one is currently working fine. I keep my Cherokee plugged in and generally keep the thermostat at about 78 - 80 during the summer so it doesn't get so hot inside. Twice I've gone out to prepare the camper for a trip and had hot air blowing out of the ducts. Both times the repair center I took it to was really quick about replacing the unit. I was told that the Dometic units were made in China and apparently they were not putting enough refrigerant in them or something to that effect. Hopefully the new one will work properly. Was also told that one customer had his replaced 4 times for the same issue. I believe it was more than 2000 units affected; maybe 20,000 or 200,000 would be more likely. In any case, I had it at 70 this Labor Day Weekend and it worked fine.

I am on my second Dometic 15000 AC with closed unit problems. When I called Dometic, they seem to be reluctant to replace unit. Appears I will have to jump through a lot of hoops before they will honor their warranty. From what you say, my unit must be one of the China units with little cooling inside. Why would Dometic not recall these units and save some customer aggravation? I am very upset right now as I am sitting in 80
degree weather with no air conditioning and having to play phone tag to get the warranty recognized.

[kc5mhb]

After my last posting, the unit was AGAIN replaced. Kudos to Blanchard's Trailer Sales in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and their service department for quick turnaround and quality work on getting this resolved. As of yesterday the current unit is still functioning. I had to go back and find this letter that I got from another site. Dometic knew that there was a problem but in my opinion well underestimated the number of units affected. In fact, they didn't want to believe that this was the fourth replacement and that the previous unit had failed so soon. Hope the PDF helps.

[slapshot12]

Originally Posted by Horntown

Was the unit replaced?

Yes, replaced under warranty

[dwhit]

I have found a couple owners that have replaced the 15k unit four times. I'm on my third. All failed before warranty period ended.