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Old 08-14-2015, 09:04 PM   #1
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AC problem on 2015 Columbus 325RL

Ok new to this forum and just bought a 2015 Columbus 325RL on Wed 8/12/2015. At dealer walk through we had a few little things that needed addressing but our two big concerns are as follows.
1)Took a shower only to find bottom track was installed backwards so water drained into room not tub. Dealer said they will fix that.
2) AC on walk through was not blowing much air.

With your hand over vent you can barley feel any air coming out of vents. We only have 15K rear air ducted into roof. No bed room AC on this unit when we bought it. There is nothing but duct work no square around bottom of AC unit. They had us come back while they fixed it. They took out bedroon vent and put tin Tape around the whole. Told me it was fixed. We brought it home. Plugged it in yesterday and was a nice 70 degrees this morning. It got to 96 degrees out side an AC is still on from yesterday no one in the camper and all shades pulled. The inside was 86 degrees. Called back to let them know this was unacceptable and will be bringing back Monday morning. They tell me this meets factory specs and I would need a 2nd unit installed in bedroom if I want it colder. I traded in a 2012 evergreen 32' long and on a day like today they ducted unit would be 65 degrees all day long. Its a demetic AC. You would think after reading this whole post from start to last post that by 2015 I would not be having these issues.

Has anyone had this low air flow problem with ducted AC and if so what was the cure?

Thank you for any Help. Wally
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Old 08-14-2015, 09:15 PM   #2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wallyuph View Post
Ok new to this forum and just bought a 2015 Columbus 325RL on Wed 8/12/2015. At dealer walk through we had a few little things that needed addressing but our two big concerns are as follows.
1)Took a shower only to find bottom track was installed backwards so water drained into room not tub. Dealer said they will fix that.
2) AC on walk through was not blowing much air.

With your hand over vent you can barley feel any air coming out of vents. We only have 15K rear air ducted into roof. No bed room AC on this unit when we bought it. There is nothing but duct work no square around bottom of AC unit. They had us come back while they fixed it. They took out bedroon vent and put tin Tape around the whole. Told me it was fixed. We brought it home. Plugged it in yesterday and was a nice 70 degrees this morning. It got to 96 degrees out side an AC is still on from yesterday no one in the camper and all shades pulled. The inside was 86 degrees. Called back to let them know this was unacceptable and will be bringing back Monday morning. They tell me this meets factory specs and I would need a 2nd unit installed in bedroom if I want it colder. I traded in a 2012 evergreen 32' long and on a day like today they ducted unit would be 65 degrees all day long. Its a demetic AC. You would think after reading this whole post from start to last post that by 2015 I would not be having these issues.

Has anyone had this low air flow problem with ducted AC and if so what was the cure?

Thank you for any Help. Wally
It sounds right.

We experienced similar when the front AC Dometic (crap) low profile blew on our Columbus 320. They are insulated poorly despite all the propaganda from the factory.
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Old 08-14-2015, 09:44 PM   #3
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That.s been my experience too. I've added a lot of reflectix to my coach.
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Old 08-15-2015, 02:58 PM   #4
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I have a 2012 325RL and had similar problems. Surely their quality control has solved this by now, but maybe not. On mine, my dealer found that some of the ducts in the roof had not been properly connected to the a/c unit. Also many of the ducts had alot of styrofoam pellets in them. I have two a/c units on my trailer and in the hot Texas summer, I just can't get it very cool. I don't think any trailer has enough insulation in the walls to handle 95-100 degree heat.
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Old 08-15-2015, 03:17 PM   #5
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If you have handheld thomometer measure the incoming and outgoing (cool) Temps. Should be about a 20 difference. We are in FL and main account unit is Out. Only running bedroom at and outside temp is 89 inside Is 73 with a set on 70. Your unit is not working correctly. Do you not have a dump vent on the ceiling housing
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Old 08-15-2015, 06:41 PM   #6
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If you have handheld thomometer measure the incoming and outgoing (cool) Temps. Should be about a 20 difference. We are in FL and main account unit is Out. Only running bedroom at and outside temp is 89 inside Is 73 with a set on 70. Your unit is not working correctly. Do you not have a dump vent on the ceiling housing

No We don't not have any dump vent on ceiling below unit. Just the round ducts. I'm going to ask if they can put that in as then the main room can cool and we can use a fan to blow toward bedroom.

Also we don't plan to have washer and Dryer so may just get a stand up room AC unit and duct it out dryer vent in the closet for the hot days.

Unit is still running can only get it to go 10 degrees colder that out side air temp. We have had 5 campers and never had any of them act like this does.
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Old 08-17-2015, 09:24 AM   #7
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Also many of the ducts had alot of styrofoam pellets in them.
What is the deal with the Styrofoam pellets? Our new 325RL has been spitting them out every time the ac runs.

We are in TX too and even with 2 units it doesn't stay below 82 during the day. Hopefully the 100+ says will be over soon.
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Old 08-17-2015, 10:15 AM   #8
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Something that has been part of the Columbus line since it began…our 2013 had the same issues, just crank them out as quickly production.
The prior recommendation on Reflectix is a good one. We did all the walls in the cap closet, including the back of the doors.
Really big difference by putting a piece in the frame of your bathroom skylight. Huge heat generator. We did this and spray painted the exterior of the skylight gloss white.
Here is a Forum link:
http://www.forestriverforums.com/forums/f222/reflectix-insulating-closet-81623-2.html
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Old 08-17-2015, 10:45 AM   #9
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Good luck on getting your leaking shower fixed,Don't know where you bought it from but they knew before they sold it to you that the shower was leaking,FR is aware of their leaking showers on the Columbus model but are slow about getting the dealers the new track to fix it with,Took me five months to get mine fixed,As far as the AC that is about the only thing that works on my Columbus,Good Luck on getting it fixed.
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Old 08-17-2015, 06:21 PM   #10
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Good luck on getting your leaking shower fixed,Don't know where you bought it from but they knew before they sold it to you that the shower was leaking,FR is aware of their leaking showers on the Columbus model but are slow about getting the dealers the new track to fix it with,Took me five months to get mine fixed,As far as the AC that is about the only thing that works on my Columbus,Good Luck on getting it fixed.
The track is just installed 180 off so drain holes go into room not the tub area. I'm sure they will just pull it and swap it around. Thats what I would do.

I just dropped it off today and gave the the fallowing information from my own decetive work.

Problems to be addressed
1) 1) Shower track on bottom is installed backwards and Drains into the room not the bath tub.
2) 2) Refrigerator door hits on bottom corner when opening and closing on handle side.
3) 3) Missing two shades on Drivers side rear window next to sofa. Both room dark and sun screen.
4) 4)Light out over Bed by where your head goes on small lights.
5) 5) AC unit is not pushing enough cold air. Its 90 degrees outside and 85 inside camper with AC running nonstop for 2 days.
5A) First choice is to Check AC unit to make sure its functioning the way they should.
5B) Can we have a dump vent on the ceiling housing below AC unit like most campers have installed. My old one did with slides to go to ducts or open up just straight out bottom of unit. Or add a duct fan to move more air flow. It’s like it has no air movement.

5C) I did some testing this weekend with a cell phone camera & flashlight. The vent in bath room is ice cold. Took it down and found 1/8”-¼” gaps in corners of Styrofoam plus gaps around wires coming through. If you put a light in ac duct you can see it coming out into fan/vent in bath room. I then took out all AC vents going to rear of camper where Ac unit is. The two vents in center kitchen have the ¼” gaps in Styrofoam duct you can feel them with your hand. (I left the vent louvers off on these vents) The two center drop lights base is ice cold. I slid my hand on roof and from kitchen to rear of unit the roof is cold going down the center of roof. The last two glass LED lights are ice cold. This leads me to believe that the fan is blowing cold air into the “Attic” roof where AC unit is mounted. If it had the ceiling dump vent like normal units we could drop it to see what’s going on. I would like to add the inside ceiling dump vent grill so we can at least get it to dump the cold air into the main room. Then slide them at night to get air to bedroom area.

5D)Found this Info off internet forum.
One thing to watch on the ducted returns, where they meet under the AC unit, our manufacturer installed a foam type insert in the truss to separate the supply and return, and some have shifted causing a breach between the two. This really reduces efficiency and you can actually feel supply air coming from the nearest returns. Aluminum tape cures the issue - you have to access from the top by removing the cowling. Off net forum

I have a 2012 325RL and had similar problems. Surely their quality control has solved this by now, but maybe not. On mine, my dealer found that some of the ducts in the roof had not been properly connected to the a/c unit. Also many of the ducts had alot of styrofoam pellets in them.
6) 6) We do not want a 2nd unit installed in roof as it’s so tall now.
7)Missing the water filter cartridge.

Will see what they come up with. So far they have been very nice and I'm not giving them a hard time. I did say we have put noting in camper but bedding on mattress so if they cant get it fixed correctly I'll be back to get my trade in back and a check for what we gave them. That raised some Eyebrows.
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Old 08-18-2015, 09:52 AM   #11
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I had no other choice but to install a 2nd AC unit, Anything over mid 80's got ahead of the single unit - AL frame structure just seem to conduct that heat.
Something to note, when I installed the 2nd unit, I made it point to shove some insulation into the duct work closing off the ducts that would have been fed by the optional AC unit (Note: I took the advice of a fellow camper and installed a "non ducted unit" for my bedroom) Since I closed off the duct work that would have been fed by the 2nd AC unit, I seem to get better flow from the main unit. (crazy but true)
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