AC not working during pre-trip shakedown

[newRVer]

Originally Posted by bob dirt

I pulled the cover off mine today because I was curious why there are so many problems. The double shaft motor is a PSC motor and the unit has a dual capacitor. Mine has a 60/5 mfd capacitor. The 5 mfd side is for the motor. Your fan side of the capacitor may be open or low and that's why it will run when you spin it (probably for a short time till it heats up). The other option is the windings are bad. If you had the right meter you could check the microfarad rating on the cap. My freeze sensor was also just dangling in mid air. I wove it through the coil end loops. All this is for is to shut the compressor off if the coil starts to freeze up. I massaged some of the copper lines so they don't rub anything and I removed the worm clamp holding the reversing valve tightly against the compressor. It was pinching one of the cap tubes connected to it. I don't believe the dealer has a tech that knows how to work on a/c units. If they did, the tech could be out in the field making a lot more money than messing with these RV's. All of the parts are serviceable as long as you can get them.

Bob,

I'd be doing the exact same thing that you are if the unit was not under warranty. I don't want to be told, sorry, we won't replace it because you worked on it. And I agree, the dealer is short staffed and apparently does not have anyone who knows how to work on AC's. They keep saying they are waiting on instructions from Forest River. In the meantime I have contacted Dometic directly to see what they recommend doing.

[newRVer]

I did another test last Sunday when it was considerably cooler out and and the temp inside the RV was only 84. This time the compressor came on but still no fan. (see video)

https://youtu.be/ffEFtHKiXaw

Yesterday Dometic replied that that they cannot assist and I have to contact a Dometic service repair agent or the RV manufacturer. Well since I have no faith that my dealer can get the job done, and FR was not responding to any of my inquiries, I started contacting some Dometic authorized service agents to see if they may be willing to look at the problem and repair it under warranty. The consensus seems to be that if I did not purchase it there or if it was a warranty repair, that they were reluctant to take the job. I.e. If I was willing to pay for it out of my own pocket, they would not have an issue looking at my unit. Talk about being on a merry-go-round!

Finally, late in the day I did get a call back from the FR warranty group after escalating my request in FR. From that call I learned a couple of things. It seems that maybe Dometic might be having a higher incidence of issues with these units than normal and the FR person indicated that this also started happening about the same time Dometic moved their production facilities to a new plant/location. Also, just as another had said, the backlog for getting replacement units is 4+ weeks.

At this point I still don't know what the resolution will be but it is certainly looking like we may not be making any trips to warmer locations this summer if indeed the unit needs to be replaced.

Any chance that there is a similar 15kw w/heat pump unit out there that is made by another manufacturer?

PS. I thought that I might get better/quicker results trying to identify the problem and resolution by making and attaching the video's to my correspondence but as luck would have it, FR corporate blocks You Tube traffic and the warranty person could not watch the video's.

[KatanaPilot]

Check out my post here

If you search for "Atwood 15K" you should find several other posts I made about this installation.

Even though Dometic now owns Atwood, I doubt you will have any success getting them to replace a Dometic with an Atwood. Some posters on this forum have been able to get a different Dometic model than the Brisk Air model originally installed.

If you can afford it, then my suggestion is to pay out of pocket and be done with the frustration, failures and excessive noise of the Dometic.

[newRVer]

Originally Posted by KatanaPilot

Check out my post here

If you search for "Atwood 15K" you should find several other posts I made about this installation.

Even though Dometic now owns Atwood, I doubt you will have any success getting them to replace a Dometic with an Atwood. Some posters on this forum have been able to get a different Dometic model than the Brisk Air model originally installed.

If you can afford it, then my suggestion is to pay out of pocket and be done with the frustration, failures and excessive noise of the Dometic.

KP,

Doing a quick check for the Atwood 15033 gives a couple of interesting results. First, this might be a model they are phasing out since Atwood is now part of Dometic, but where I could find it the cost was as low as $700. The Dometic unit I have is listed on Camping World at $1000+. Additionally, camping world no longer lists Atwood as one of the vendor choices. So even if I bought the Atwood and paid to have it installed, just on principal alone I could not justify paying an additional $1000+ out of pocket to correct something which has never worked. However, based on you findings comparing the two units, I certainly would consider buying the Atwood model over replacing my existing Dometic model with the same.


I will wait to hear from FR today to see what my options are. If they recommend replacing the unit but then I'm forced to wait several weeks until they become available, I will probably press for replacing it with an Atwood unit.

[KatanaPilot]

Originally Posted by newRVer

KP,

Doing a quick check for the Atwood 15033 gives a couple of interesting results. First, this might be a model they are phasing out since Atwood is now part of Dometic, but where I could find it the cost was as low as $700. The Dometic unit I have is listed on Camping World at $1000+. Additionally, camping world no longer lists Atwood as one of the vendor choices. So even if I bought the Atwood and paid to have it installed, just on principal alone I could not justify paying an additional $1000+ out of pocket to correct something which has never worked. However, based on you findings comparing the two units, I certainly would consider buying the Atwood model over replacing my existing Dometic model with the same.

I will wait to hear from FR today to see what my options are. If they recommend replacing the unit but then I'm forced to wait several weeks until they become available, I will probably press for replacing it with an Atwood unit.

Keep in mind you will also need the ceiling assembly - I assume you priced that in to your comparison.

I agree that in principle, you should not have to be out-of-pocket for anything under warranty. That being said, none of us should have to bring our new motorhomes home and re-seal the roof, clean out all of the construction debris, build a weatherproof enclosure for the Curt controller, wait weeks/months to replace a Dometic 15K A/C for the second or third time, beg a dealer to do warranty work, beg FR to get involved,etc. Spending half or more of the first year in the repair shop waiting for parts or the dealer to do their job is unconscionable. Yet every day there is a post on this forum indicating that someone has done exactly that.

We seem to be our own worst enemies - because we allow this to happen. We continue to purchase and praise the manufacturers for "stepping in" to help us when that should be done without question. Dealers should perform warranty work in a timely manner and the manufacturers should support the dealers in every way possible. Unfortunately, it does not appear that this is truly the case - so we fix this stuff on our own. Personally, I'm tired of fixing all of this stuff and it is frustrating reading about the difficulties so many folks are having with their RV's. It's too bad because the travel experience can be really enjoyable.

[TURBS]

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[newRVer]

"Keep in mind you will also need the ceiling assembly - I assume you priced that in to your comparison."

If I am having it replaced under warranty, that is a cost FR would have to pick up.

BTW, your quote about the first year is dead on. So far my RV has been in the shop for last 7 weeks out of 12 and it seems it's only going to get worse.

[newRVer]

" It's too bad because the travel experience can be really enjoyable."

I should mention that the few days we have been able to actually get the RV out on the road were indeed awesome!

[KansasFR3]

When we had a similar issue on our house AC, we found a bad run capacitor on the AC unit. So I think if you haven't already, install a hard start capacitor along with checking the condition of your run capacitor. Ours was bulging on the top/bottom when it should've been flat. Its a cheap enough gamble that if it doesn't work, just us the capacitor on your next AC unit.

This manual has some PNs to reference.
http://manuals.adventurerv.net/Domet...308733.009.pdf

Hope you get to the bottom of your AC issue.

[newRVer]

Originally Posted by KansasFR3

When we had a similar issue on our house AC, we found a bad run capacitor on the AC unit. So I think if you haven't already, install a hard start capacitor along with checking the condition of your run capacitor. Ours was bulging on the top/bottom when it should've been flat. Its a cheap enough gamble that if it doesn't work, just us the capacitor on your next AC unit.

This manual has some PNs to reference.
http://manuals.adventurerv.net/Domet...308733.009.pdf

Hope you get to the bottom of your AC issue.

Good suggestion however since the unit is fairly new and under warranty I do not want to risk voiding the warranty. At this point I will continue escalating within Forest River for corrective action.

[newRVer]

Good news! Finally got confirmation that my AC unit is going to be replaced and that Dometic can have a new unit at the dealers ready to install in a couple of days. So the summer may be salvageable after all! #FingersCrossed

[benagi]

Originally Posted by newRVer

BTW, your quote about the first year is dead on. So far my RV has been in the shop for last 7 weeks out of 12 and it seems it's only going to get worse.

Ours has seen the shop at last 10 weeks out of 12 months we have had it and we have only been on 4 camping trips in that time. A/C still working though .

[newRVer]

It's been a long time coming but after 3 full months of a failing AC and trying to get it repaired it finally works! We eventually came to a point where the only fix left was to replace it and it passed the critical test this week when we had it sitting out in the sun for several days at a campground on 95+ days. So hopefully we can check that one off the repair list and move on to the other outstanding issues.

RVr