Another Dometic 15K gone out?

Thurman · 10-15-2019, 10:23 AM

This is on a 2015 Coachman Freedom Express 310 BHDS unit. This past weekend we went out for a 4 nite trip. We're down in SW Ga. and it was hot. Thursday evening it was hot enough that I turned on the front A/C unit which is a Dometic 15K unit I installed 2 years ago. Note the age of the unit. The unit ran as normal as I've ever heard it but would not blow even cool air. So I go through a checklist in my mind and all seems well but--NO cool air. This is not a ducted unit, it has controls on the Air Distribution Box on the ceiling. The next day I removed the filter, which seems clean, and wash it out anyway. After it dried I reinstalled it, tried theA/C unit again and No cold air. I pulled out my big manila envelope, found my paper work from purchase/installation and yep--purchased/installed in August of 2017. I figure we would make it with the main A/C and a fan blowing into the bedroom until we get home Monday then I can really check it out. This unit has it's own electrical supply via a 50 foot 10 ga. HD cord and dedicated circuit with 20 amp circuit breaker. Note: On the main A/C for the TT I am on my fourth unit due to previous Dometic A/C problems. All have been replaced by Dometic with no argument as each one was still under Dometic warranty. The last replacement for the main unit has been trouble free and cools well but is just not enough for that 31 foot Tt. So this unit over the front end is actually my 5th. Domestic unit since January of 2015. I always turn the front unit on by switching it to the first spot which is "fan only", run this a minute or so then graduate up to the high setting . It has 3 cooling settings which none of them produced cool air this past weekend. I "thought" that I did not hear what should have been a certain humming noise when the compressor should have come on. Using the main A/C unit to compare I did hear a distinct humming noise when the compressor kicked on. On the main unit the fan would come on then about 30 seconds later there was that distinct sound of the compressor kicking in. Even the gf noticed it. Well darn, it's lightly raining now, Lord knows we need it, so I can't go take the top cover off to inspect for anything out of the ordinary up there. I'll go inspect the wiring inside the TT and do some amp readings. Lord please let me find some little something out of place in this unit. I may have to call Dometic and plead for help being as it has past it's 2 year warranty by only 2 months. We used this A/C unit back in June and July with no problems. I'm done now.

SeaDog · 10-15-2019, 10:45 AM

good luck

Iwannacamp · 10-15-2019, 10:48 AM

If I am following correctly the unit compressor was not running? Or not that you could determine? You can buy an amp meter cheap these days...

https://www.amazon.com/Electrical-Ma...1154080&sr=8-6

or separate the wiring in a box or somewhere.... I purchased this one as it does DC as well

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This will instantly tell you if the compressor is coming on. Do you have an EMS? One could turn the other stuff off and watch the amps on that.

Supposedly after July of '17 Dometic fixed the problem. Who actually knows?

It could also be something else. Capacitor is the number one failure these days. A bad connection or board if it has one. I read very little about these failures... normally it is refrigerant charge related.

Iwannacamp · 10-15-2019, 10:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iwannacamp

If I am following correctly the unit compressor was not running? Or not that you could determine? You can buy an amp meter cheap these days...

https://www.amazon.com/Electrical-Ma...1154080&sr=8-6

or separate the wiring in a box or somewhere.... I purchased this one as it does DC as well

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This will instantly tell you if the compressor is coming on. Do you have an EMS? One could turn the other stuff off and watch the amps on that.

Supposedly after July of '17 Dometic fixed the problem. Who actually knows?

It could also be something else. Capacitor is the number one failure these days. A bad connection or board if it has one. I read very little about these failures... normally it is refrigerant charge related.

evermind on the EMS... you said separate circuit

Walholler · 10-15-2019, 01:11 PM

Dometic offers a three year additional warranty on their AC units for a price of $165.00, which gives you a total of 5 yrs. of warranty. Being that their AC units cost in the range of $600.00 or more and fail so often, I believe the extended warranty is a good investment.

rockfordroo · 10-15-2019, 01:23 PM

Maybe it's time to dump Dometic and go with a Coleman-Mach?

almcguire · 10-15-2019, 02:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thurman

This is on a 2015 Coachman Freedom Express 310 BHDS unit. This past weekend we went out for a 4 nite trip. We're down in SW Ga. and it was hot. Thursday evening it was hot enough that I turned on the front A/C unit which is a Dometic 15K unit I installed 2 years ago. Note the age of the unit. The unit ran as normal as I've ever heard it but would not blow even cool air. So I go through a checklist in my mind and all seems well but--NO cool air. This is not a ducted unit, it has controls on the Air Distribution Box on the ceiling. The next day I removed the filter, which seems clean, and wash it out anyway. After it dried I reinstalled it, tried theA/C unit again and No cold air. I pulled out my big manila envelope, found my paper work from purchase/installation and yep--purchased/installed in August of 2017. I figure we would make it with the main A/C and a fan blowing into the bedroom until we get home Monday then I can really check it out. This unit has it's own electrical supply via a 50 foot 10 ga. HD cord and dedicated circuit with 20 amp circuit breaker. Note: On the main A/C for the TT I am on my fourth unit due to previous Dometic A/C problems. All have been replaced by Dometic with no argument as each one was still under Dometic warranty. The last replacement for the main unit has been trouble free and cools well but is just not enough for that 31 foot Tt. So this unit over the front end is actually my 5th. Domestic unit since January of 2015. I always turn the front unit on by switching it to the first spot which is "fan only", run this a minute or so then graduate up to the high setting . It has 3 cooling settings which none of them produced cool air this past weekend. I "thought" that I did not hear what should have been a certain humming noise when the compressor should have come on. Using the main A/C unit to compare I did hear a distinct humming noise when the compressor kicked on. On the main unit the fan would come on then about 30 seconds later there was that distinct sound of the compressor kicking in. Even the gf noticed it. Well darn, it's lightly raining now, Lord knows we need it, so I can't go take the top cover off to inspect for anything out of the ordinary up there. I'll go inspect the wiring inside the TT and do some amp readings. Lord please let me find some little something out of place in this unit. I may have to call Dometic and plead for help being as it has past it's 2 year warranty by only 2 months. We used this A/C unit back in June and July with no problems. I'm done now.

Call Dometic as soon as possible 800-544-4881 and have them put a note in the system about your AC not working. They should replace but no labor I would think.

patsylou2 · 10-15-2019, 02:27 PM

We had the same issue. 2016 FR Forester. It went out in 2018. Replaced with Coleman. They wouldn’t warranty the Dometic. Repair shop stated they knew of several that had gone out.

Coolharts · 10-15-2019, 03:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by almcguire

Call Dometic as soon as possible 800-544-4881 and have them put a note in the system about your AC not working. They should replace but no labor I would think.

Dometic will make you take it to one of their authorized dealers for replacement.

NJKris · 10-15-2019, 08:42 PM

Quote:

Maybe it's time to dump Dometic and go with a Coleman-Mach?

Hahaha, my brand new Coleman Mach on my brand new camper was bad from the get go. Apparently all the refrigerant leaked out of it while it sat in my driveway over the winter after I bought it. Hoping the new one replaced under warranty lasts longer. The refrigerant is in a sealed system and is unserviceable btw.

rockfordroo · 10-15-2019, 09:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NJKris

Hahaha, my brand new Coleman Mach on my brand new camper was bad from the get go. Apparently all the refrigerant leaked out of it while it sat in my driveway over the winter after I bought it. Hoping the new one replaced under warranty lasts longer. The refrigerant is in a sealed system and is unserviceable btw.

Sorry to hear that; mines been good for 5 seasons (knock on wood). But Dometic seems to show up here the most.

NJKris · 10-16-2019, 05:17 AM

They must have had a bad run, or are making these systems out of the cheapest thinnest metal possible, because another guy posted recently that he had a bad one on a new trailer also.

ysidive · 10-16-2019, 05:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NJKris

They must have had a bad run, or are making these systems out of the cheapest thinnest metal possible, because another guy posted recently that he had a bad one on a new trailer also.

Mine died while on a camping trip in North Georgia the middle of September... Luckily it was within the two year warrantee by 15 days.... Had one fellow in our group who is on his third replacement already.. May have to replace with a coleman next time...

GL1800Rider · 10-16-2019, 06:21 AM

Curious how the new GE units will hold up. I saw the announcement for them a few months ago but have not seen where any manufacturer is using them.

The Dometic Brisk Air units are junk. After my second failure, the unit was replaced with a Penguin as Dometic had no Brisk Air models in stock at the time. This was in July of 2016 and so far so good other than an occasional thermostat glitch.

Atwood seems to be a good unit other than the unit coming on to sense the temperature frequently when on heat pump. The Coleman Mach I had in my 99 Terry was flawless and was still putting out cold air when I sold it in 2015

Thurman · 10-16-2019, 11:01 AM

Iwannacamp: I have a set such as this. Mine are the Fluke brand. I was in Industrial Maintenance for 42 years and used the Fluke set a lot.
Walholler: When I bought the 15K unit back in August '17 I was told that the extended warranty was offered only IF a dealer put the unit in. I put this unit in myself.

almcguire: Thanks for the number. Over the few years since I bought this TT I have called Dometic about the A/C problems and they have been very nice about helping me. When the #3 Dometic main A/C unit went out they even helped me to find an Authorized Service tech who could change it out under warranty when the selling dealer quoted four months before they could even look at it.
NJKris Bad run? A lady with whom I talked to at Dometic told me that they were somewhere in the 15,000-17000 count of bad units. She told me that it was a problem with the factory in China that built the condenser coils. They soldered the joints together but "forgot" to run them through a wash of some sorts to remove any residual flux on the soldered joints which led to the flux eating pinholes in the copper lines. I am very familiar with this process and the joints must be cleaned after soldering. Oddly enough the lady told me that Dometic did not have a list of serial numbers of units which "could be" in the bad run of condensers.
So today, weather permitting I will run amp draw readings of the wiring inside the TT for the fan itself, inspect all connections, assure the filter is clean, and check the condenser coils for any foreign material. Weather permitting I will remove the top cover to do a complete inspection and do an amp draw on the compressor with the unit running on max cool. Maybe, just maybe I might find a loose wire or something simple.

Thurman · 10-18-2019, 11:55 AM

Well I think the verdict is in--unit is not cooling as it should. Yesterday the high here was only 74* at about 1:00 P.M. Not as hot as I wished it were for checking the A/C unit. With the Dometic 15K unit set on high cool, and remember that this one works off of controls on the Air Distribution Box (non ducted) and not a T'stat, the ambient air within the TT was only 63* and the delta difference between the air going into the A/C unit and coming out of the unit was 11*. Up top I checked to see if the compressor was running and it was. I also checked to see if maybe something was blocking either the condenser or evaporator coils and they were clean. The compressor running was drawing 7.7 amps on the blue wire and 5.6 amps on the red wire. My research tells me that the blue wire reading should be about 14 amps when fully running. I checked the amp draw at the line coming into the unit and got 11.4 on the black (hot) wire and 116vAC coming to the unit. I have a 30 amp outlet on the side of my shop I keep the TT plugged in to and it also checked 116vAC. One interesting thing I found is when I removed the molded black foam cover over the evaporator I found that the top of the evaporator coil had ice built up on it-photo attached. The white line is the ice. All of this together has me convinced that this is another Dometic unit that has a refrigerant leak and has bit the dust. The unit was purchased 06/22/2017 and installed by me on 07/05/2017 (not August as I had posted) so it is just over two (2) years old, out of Dometic warranty. I'm going to send all of my info to Dometic and see IF they will do anything to help me. As I had stated the main Dometic A/C unit on the TT is actually the fourth Dometic 15K unit at that location and this unit over the bedroom is the fifth Dometic unit installed on this TT. I'm thinking that if I have to replace this unit out of my pocket I will look at what Coleman has to offer being as it does not use a wall mount T'stat.

Iwannacamp · 10-18-2019, 12:37 PM

The FLA rating is the max operating amp draw. I think it is taken at 105 ambient and 80 deg indoor.... this is memory. Normally the amps will be about 80-85% if FLA. 14 amps -15% is 11.9 amps.... so assuming all else is normal... the amps kinda check out.

Sounds like the charge may be a bit low. You can soap bubble coil(assuming it contains refrigerant). The solder leaks will only be at the ends of the runs. There should be discoloring somewhere. Doubtful you will see any oil as the charge is small and it takes a while to oil up the spot.

Lehighgal · 10-22-2019, 07:25 PM

I think we have had ours replaced under warranty 3 times since 2015. We are in Daytona Beach right now and today it will not cool below 85 inside. Good thing we go home tomorrow. I wish someone has a magic fix for us tonight.

2015 Grey Wolf 27RR Toyhauler

NJKris · 10-23-2019, 08:43 AM

Thurman, it sure sounds like you are one of the unlucky refrigerant leak folks like me, especially if it's icing up like that.

NXR · 10-23-2019, 12:51 PM

On home and auto units there will be a low pressure switch that will shut the compressor off if the refrigerant is too low. I would expect there to be the same thing on RV units since the compressor is lubricated by oil in the refrigerant itself.

You originally wrote that the compressor was not running and not cooling but it is now? Is that correct? Just trying to sort this out in my mind.

Ray

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