Loud dometic bedroom a/c in Columbus

[eisbell]

Talked to Bryan and he told me that he spoke to our dealer on Monday and approved a new a/c unit since some of the dometics are very loud. I contacted our dealer on Wed and they told me that they spoke to him and had to call dometic, blah blah blah. I called again yesterday and she told me that dometic said they would have to contact another person there about the grommets and the dealer has not heard back. I told her that Bryan told her to get a new unit but she said that dometic has to approve this. Has anyone else encountered a problem with the factory tellng your dealer to do something and they put it off to the a/c place? Of course they say you can pick up your unit and use it and bring it back - I feel after 7 weeks the dealer should have everything complete. We have a trip planned next weekend so we will have to pick it up and take it back or does anyone know if we can take it to another RV shop that handles dometic and get them to warranty it for us? Jeane Ann the wife

[B47]

Originally Posted by eisbell

Talked to Bryan and he told me that he spoke to our dealer on Monday and approved a new a/c unit since some of the dometics are very loud. I contacted our dealer on Wed and they told me that they spoke to him and had to call dometic, blah blah blah. I called again yesterday and she told me that dometic said they would have to contact another person there about the grommets and the dealer has not heard back. I told her that Bryan told her to get a new unit but she said that dometic has to approve this. Has anyone else encountered a problem with the factory tellng your dealer to do something and they put it off to the a/c place? Of course they say you can pick up your unit and use it and bring it back - I feel after 7 weeks the dealer should have everything complete. We have a trip planned next weekend so we will have to pick it up and take it back or does anyone know if we can take it to another RV shop that handles dometic and get them to warranty it for us? Jeane Ann the wife

Slightly OT - but we are going to have a Dometic PII 13,500 BTU A/C installed in our bedroom next week. Before we signed the papers, I checked around and was told to make sure that our A/C was one manufactured after 03-01-12. There were a lot of vibration problems with the PII units manufactured before that date.

This was also confirmed by a person in FR.

[eisbell]

Just got a call from dealer and dometic is overnighting grommets to put on the unit and if that does not work then in two weeks they will send out another type of fix it kit. If that does not work I will tell them that they need to put on a new unit. Standing in the hallway it is so very loud and the vibration is terrible - try sleeping to that. Keeping fingers crossed that this will solve or problems before we take it out again. Good luck with yours.

[eisbell]

Picked up our unit yesterday and the a/c in the bedroom is a lot more quiet since they added the grommets to it. You do not hear the vibration in the hallway and standing in the bedroom it is a lot more quiet. The floor under the table is better since they fixed it also. The only problem now is the steps are so very hard to get in and out - has anyone else had this happen - I assume that the steops have been out for the last 6-7 weeks at the dealer so could that make it very hard to move the steps? Other than that we are thrilled to be leaving in the morning for Bastrop SP

[amxpress]

WD-40 works wonders on the hinges of the steps

[rjshiflet]

I'll be calling our dealer tomorrow -

At night, we simply shut down the bedroom unit and set the thermostat cooler in the living area. Since it's all ducted, it has kept us quite cool even with 100+ daytime temperatures here in North Texas.

But - I want to quieten down the bedroom unit as soon as possible.

[eisbell]

I used some silicone spray yesterday and this morning the steps were a lot better. Being new you expect them to take some time to break in. There was no way my wife could have raised or lowered them. Hey, all is good. I have a FR RV.

[lgray]

Contacted my dealer, who contact factory then Dometic. Dometic are sending a new unit, it will take about 2 weeks to arrive.



Amxpress,

Heading to Willow Creek 7-3 for 5 nights. Thanks for the tip.

[amxpress]

Have fun at Williow Tree. Let me know how you like it

[rockwood06]

FYI, for some that are not a wear of this Rv dealers do not stock a/c units and the reason for this is because once a unit is made that is when the warrenty begains, it's all about the date code, but there is a small time frame.

A word of WARNING... if a dealer installs a unit from stock check the date code, if the date code is months prior to your installation reject it and make them order you another one and the reason for this is because lets say the date code was 3-10-2012 and you just had it installed this month 6-28-2912 this means that 3 mounths of the warrenty is all ready gone from the manufacture so now you are SOL. At this point it would be good to get the dealer to take care of it, but make sure it is on paper.

If a dealer has one in stock, then it was ordered for someone else and may have changed there mine and the dealer can not send it back, he is now stuck with it and then try to pass it on to the next customer and then not extend the warrenty for what ever was used while setting in his stock room.

[eisbell]

We have been camping at bastrop state park since last Thursday and are really enjoying it. When we arrived strip on the bottom of slide by door had almost all the screws come loose. Managed to get slide out and called Bryan at fr. He said we could remove it but be careful when putting slide back in. We chose not to remove it and will be careful when putting in slide. They had fixed our springy floor and think things were not put together correctly. The other problem that dealer said was fixed was hooking satellite to connection but we cannot get satellite to connect unless we bring if in through window. So we have two things to take if back to dealer for and hope they do not keep it Long. We would like to take another trip in a couple of weeks.

[eisbell]

Forgot to say the grommet fix to bedroom a/c really worked. Quiet now

[rjshiflet]

Sorry you had the problems on the slide, but glad to hear the grommets worked on the bedroom A/C. Ours goes in tomorrow. First they'll try grommets and if that doesn't work they said they would replace the bedroom A/C.

Those air conditioners do cool very well even in 100+ degree heat (as we found out last week) - but, the one in the bedroom is VERY LOUD!!!

[fice]

Very first time Rver's and our very first trailer is the Columbus 385. Question about A/C's. We have had our BH385 for about a week. We are in Oklahoma and temps are running about 100-103 in the afternoons. Both A/C's on with fans running on high and the temp in our trailer is running between 85-90 until after the sun goes down and then it will cool down in the trailer at night. It appears to me the A/C's cannot keep up with 100 degree temperature's. Is anyone else having similar problems? Wondering if my units are working correctly. Both units are also very loud and vibrating the whole trailer. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

[B47]

Originally Posted by fice

Very first time Rver's and our very first trailer is the Columbus 385. Question about A/C's. We have had our BH385 for about a week. We are in Oklahoma and temps are running about 100-103 in the afternoons. Both A/C's on with fans running on high and the temp in our trailer is running between 85-90 until after the sun goes down and then it will cool down in the trailer at night. It appears to me the A/C's cannot keep up with 100 degree temperature's. Is anyone else having similar problems? Wondering if my units are working correctly. Both units are also very loud and vibrating the whole trailer. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

I have always been told that about the best amount of cooling you can expect from a properly performing residental A/C is 20 degrees. I haven't heard what the diffence in a RV unit might be..

So if your figures are approximately correct (85-90 is 5 degrees) then your units are just about right in the ballpark for a residental unit.

Check the temp coming out of your units vents with a thermometer to get more accurate readings.

[rjshiflet]

We were out in our Columbus 320RS last week in North Texas where the temperatures were in the 104 to 106 range, and I had the bedroom A/C shut off most of the time during the day because we weren't up there (and it's ducted from the living A/C into the bedroom). On occasion I had both running during the day - and like you, they ran most of the time. Occasionally they would cut off (I think I had the temperature set at 73 degrees).

At night because we hadn't had the vibration in our bedroom A/C unit fixed we kept the bedroom unit off and stayed PLENTY cool with the living room A/C running.

Our Columbus is with the dealer right now having the A/C vibration fixed. They're going first with the grommet - but said they would replace the bedroom A/C if that doesn't quieten it to our satisfaction.

We had a single A/C in our Sandpiper 305RLW and we reached the point we simply wouldn't go camping in the heat of the summer because it couldn't keep up and it would honestly get to be 80 to 85 degrees in the trailer.

[lgray]

We are currently camping. Our dealer has a new front AC on order and should be here in a week of so. Last night, we were watching a movie and had the rear AC off but left the front on. At about midnight, the trailer filled with steam/condensation. The front AC bit the dust. Today the fan is running, but no cooling. The rear AC here near Myrtle Beach, SC, temp. in the upper 90's will only cool us down to 85, not much fun. If the unit is making that kind of noise, better ask why what else might go wrong?

[redfinaddict]

We have just returned from a 3200 mile trip from central Texas to Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia and back. Great trip loved camping with the Columbus. But we will have a few issues for our dealer to address. We lost our fan on the bedroom ac while in Tennessee 102 deg. daytime temp got up to 96 deg. in the camper with just one ac running. We all so have the noise problem with the front ac when it was running.

We have the same exact seperation on our slide as eisbell's photo exept ours is on the kitchen slide and the black plastic peice that is on the very bottom has cracks and tears and is lifting the carpet on the inside. This has not affected the operation of the slide but we were worried the whole way back.

We had very heavy blowing rain while in Virginia, and found two windows that were leaking water in. The emergency exit window and the small window by the sink. This was not a tiny leak water was streaming in. Both windows were closed tight.

Some how we lost one of the foot pads on our 6 way leveling system. The Pin was still hanging through one side but the pad was gone. I think the pins bail was over stretched.

We will be scheduling a drop off with our dealer.

All the issues should be able to be taken care of we still love the Columbus.

[Chaps]

Originally Posted by redfinaddict

We have just returned from a 3200 mile trip from central Texas to Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia and back. Great trip loved camping with the Columbus. But we will have a few issues for our dealer to address. We lost our fan on the bedroom ac while in Tennessee 102 deg. daytime temp got up to 96 deg. in the camper with just one ac running. We all so have the noise problem with the front ac when it was running.

We have the same exact seperation on our slide as eisbell's photo exept ours is on the kitchen slide and the black plastic peice that is on the very bottom has cracks and tears and is lifting the carpet on the inside. This has not affected the operation of the slide but we were worried the whole way back.

We had very heavy blowing rain while in Virginia, and found two windows that were leaking water in. The emergency exit window and the small window by the sink. This was not a tiny leak water was streaming in. Both windows were closed tight.

Some how we lost one of the foot pads on our 6 way leveling system. The Pin was still hanging through one side but the pad was gone. I think the pins bail was over stretched.

We will be scheduling a drop off with our dealer.

All the issues should be able to be taken care of we still love the Columbus.

Joel & Bec:

Glad to hear how well you enjoy your 320RS. Ours is on order & it's hard to have to wait.

I can't imagine that there would be such a descrepancy in the ability to keep cool 2 different units of the exact same model Columbus (320RS) as described by you folks & by Robt & Estha Shiflet (see above post).
1) Do you have dual pane windows?
2) Is your outside color grey or tan?

We are about to get our Ford F-250 KR with 6.7L PS diesel.
1) Is yours a 2 WD or 4x4?
2) How was the power of the diesel pulling the Columbus thru the Blue Ridge Mtns & what MPG were you getting?
3) We also plan to install the Hensley BD3 hitch system. Does it really do a good job re: reducing chucking & bouncing? Would you buy it again?

Thanks for all your info & hope to see you "on the road" sometime-

Mark/Jeannie

[Chaps]

Originally Posted by rjshiflet

We were out in our Columbus 320RS last week in North Texas where the temperatures were in the 104 to 106 range, and I had the bedroom A/C shut off most of the time during the day because we weren't up there (and it's ducted from the living A/C into the bedroom). On occasion I had both running during the day - and like you, they ran most of the time. Occasionally they would cut off (I think I had the temperature set at 73 degrees).

At night because we hadn't had the vibration in our bedroom A/C unit fixed we kept the bedroom unit off and stayed PLENTY cool with the living room A/C running.

Our Columbus is with the dealer right now having the A/C vibration fixed. They're going first with the grommet - but said they would replace the bedroom A/C if that doesn't quieten it to our satisfaction.

We had a single A/C in our Sandpiper 305RLW and we reached the point we simply wouldn't go camping in the heat of the summer because it couldn't keep up and it would honestly get to be 80 to 85 degrees in the trailer.

Robt & Estha

There's quite a difference in the ability of your 320RS to keep cool as compared to the account given by Joel & Bec (redfinaddict).

1) Do you have dual pane windows?
2) Is your exterior color grey or tan?

I appreciate your answers to my previous questions as well as to the above. It's so nice to be able to learn from someone "who's been there"!

Mark/Jeannie