Community Forums

Moira · 05-24-2015, 12:25 PM

Hi there,

I am trying to figure out what to do with my ac ducting on the Signature Baroness.

AC 2 and 3 are working. But AC 2 is coming out in the very front of the coach under the front of ceiling design thing and not at all in kitchen or hallway.

AC 1 isn't blowing at all.

So is AC 2 ducting screwed up or is there one duct for the whole coach?

Can i get ac 1 and 2 to blow in living area and no. 3 for the bedroom. Why is ac 2 for a tiny hallway?

are there cbs for ac units? or is ac 1 shot?

Where are the filters on this thing.

I am a new bee and a girl so please have mercy. big thanks moira

Steve Ownby · 05-24-2015, 01:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moira

Hi there,

I am trying to figure out what to do with my ac ducting on the Signature Baroness.

AC 2 and 3 are working. But AC 2 is coming out in the very front of the coach under the front of ceiling design thing and not at all in kitchen or hallway.

AC 1 isn't blowing at all.

So is AC 2 ducting screwed up or is there one duct for the whole coach?

Can i get ac 1 and 2 to blow in living area and no. 3 for the bedroom. Why is ac 2 for a tiny hallway?

are there cbs for ac units? or is ac 1 shot?

Where are the filters on this thing.

I am a new bee and a girl so please have mercy. big thanks moira

1. There is one run of duct work running the length of the coach. All 3 units dump their output into the common duct.
2. Above the decorator ceiling panel there are return air filters that need to be cleaned. There are 3 bolts spaced down the length of the driver's side of the panel just above the edge of the panel. The passenger side is hinged. Take out the front & rear bolts first & then hold up on the panel as you remove the middle bolt. Now you can inspect the filters. There are likely two above the panel in the front of the coach and one in the bedroom. Also the bedroom one only has two bolts so be careful. Clean up the filters first as I'm guessing they need it.

3. Have many thermostats do you have? If two the one thermostat has 2 zones and they must be toggled between using the zone button. Make sure you know which thermostat and which zone controls which A/C. Make sure your thermostats are set for cool on all the zones that thermostat controls. The Center A/C is actually just about 4 feet behind the front unit and although it's the center unit it actually helps cool the big front room. The challenge is the big windshield which is responsible for the heat gain in the front. The bedroom is exceedingly easy to cool.

4. Each unit is on a separate circuit breaker in the breaker box in the bedroom. Cycle all three off & on. If it just won't come on or trips the CB then you will need an RV A/C guy.

Can the previous owner give you any help about what is working or not.

Steve Ownby
Full time since '07

jacwjames · 05-24-2015, 01:20 PM

If after doing what Steve suggests and you still don't have cool air coming out of all the vents with only 1 AC unit running take off the vent cover that has no airflow and check to make sure there is no obstruction in either direction.

When we bought our coach there was a rag stuffed about 1/2 way along the duct. I believe previous owner wanted to have the ability to cool either the front or the back separately. After removing the rag we can run 1 AC on high fan and it does a pretty good job of keep coach cool.

tkcas01 · 05-24-2015, 01:50 PM

Whenever I see questions like this, I have to chime in with what I discovered on my Diplomat. I bought it a year old and the two ducted AC never did a great job, and the rear one would ice up from time to time.

Last year I decided to replace the interior cover with one without the sliding vent. This required also replacing the bottom plate and baffle in each unit. I was shocked what I found when I took the plates off. On both units, they did not do a good job of sealing the forced air side of the plenum. As a result, air was being pushed between the layers of the ceiling, not just the ducts. I re-taped all that and applied HVAC mastic and air flow is much improved.

On the rear one, discovered the likely cause of the icing is that the baffle separating return air from forced air was not fully secured to the roof of the plenum, so cold air was basically blowing right back out into the return air. World of difference now that I have made them both "right". I doubt mine is the only Monaco on the road with the issue.

walt2137 · 05-24-2015, 03:33 PM

Another thing to check is the tape at the register opening , it can come loose and the cool air can go into the roof cavity. The tape to use to repair is the aluminum tape and don't skimp on quality tape get the best.

Moira · 05-24-2015, 06:00 PM

Thank you to all. This is a great wealth of information for rving. You guys are great.

I will try these tips in about a week and I will reply back with a response. It is interesting to know they used one duct. So it will be fun to find out how ac 2 is blowing out the front of the rv but not the middle. My inspector guy didn't even try to check the filters.

Mike Canter · 05-24-2015, 06:31 PM

Moira the ducts on the Signature are very badly designed. The air blasts out of the front or end of the duct and also out the rear of the duct but there is nothing in the ducts to really deflect then air down through and out the other ducts. At night a normally shut off the bedroom AC and use the middle AC so my wife doesn't have to hear the AC turning on and off all night. If you turn on just the front unit the greatest amount of airflow will be coming out of the forward end above the mirrored double ceiling. Since the fan motor on the condenser is the same as the one used on the evaporator it is possible that something has made a nest in the roof part and has stopped the fan from turning. It is probably worth going onto the roof and pull all the covers off and spray the coils with Simple Green and blow them out with a hose. Be careful the pressure is not too high so you don't damage the coils. A thing to look at on these Signature is the ones with residential refrigerators. Monaco left the roof vent open an the back vent open which is not needed with the residential fridge and hot air pours in through those vents when driving down the road or parked in West Texas. I used that pink form board and sealed up the top fridge vent and totally sealed off the back/side vent and it made a heck of a difference.

Moira · 05-24-2015, 07:52 PM

wow thanks, that makes more sense now. Ok I have the LP frig, do i need to do that or is it ok.

So am i stuck with these bad air vents? Is there anyway to get air out into the middle of the coach?

Mike Canter · 05-24-2015, 08:29 PM

If you have an LP fridge then yo have to have the vents but the LP fridge is sealed in there so the hot air doesn't come inside so all is good. When Monaco put the electric residential fridge in they didn't know enough to seal it of so it is open under the fridge so all the hot air from hotside comes in and pours into the interior from under the fridge. I have played around with the ducts and thought about installing small deflectors inside the duct above each vent to force some of the air down through the registers. When I was in Arizona it was so hot that I removed a register in the back of the kitchen and plugged the duct going back to the bedroom with a towel so I had to units giving me cold air in the front and one in the bedroom. It did get colder. You would think with three big roof units that you could freeze the place. In our otter home we use for racing that has just one rook unit we get too cold and have to turn it down but the air is coming right out of the AC unit with no ducting.

garbonz · 05-24-2015, 09:21 PM

The LP frig needs the duct, so leave that part alone.

The best solution overall is to carefully go from front to back of the system and make sure the air is going where it is supposed to and not where it is not.

One kind of radical solution to increase overall air flow is to remove the air filter entirely and use a separate portable HEPA air filter to reduce the dust. The filters in the AC unit don't do much anyway.

Mike Canter · 05-24-2015, 10:32 PM

Removing the filters makes no noticeable difference to the airflow. I already tried that but also don't want the dust getting up into the coils. The problem is not with the amount of flow but how it is dispersed by the ducts

garbonz · 05-25-2015, 06:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike Canter

Removing the filters makes no noticeable difference to the airflow. I already tried that but also don't want the dust getting up into the coils. The problem is not with the amount of flow but how it is dispersed by the ducts

Have you measured the airflow with a Balometer? I have. The filters reduce the flow by about 20 percent depending on the system you have, which reduces the efficiency of the air distribution along that long run of ducting. In the present case, that is probably not the central problem, something else is. The air flow seeks the path of least resistance and anyting you do anywhere along the line effects where the air goes and how much and how cool it is. The RV filters only remove the big chunks anyway and not the small electrostatically charged particle that stick to the coils.

RV AC ducted systems are very poorly designed, and installed, and only by looking in detail at the whole system and fixing all the little leaks and distribution problems, without reducing the overall flow can you improve it. By residential or industrial standard the RV systems are a joke, and that's why there are so many posts asking for help, but usually there is no magic bullet, unless like one poster here somebody shoved a rag up in the duct, or forgot to tape an outlet.

Just my opinion, and you seem to have yours also, lets keep it at that.

docsdock · 05-25-2015, 07:39 AM

I had problems with my A/C as well. removed the inside covers and found the tin wall separating the cold from the return had fallen down due to poor tape job. I used 4 inch rubber roof repair tape to seal up - they work much better now. I'm considering blocking the cold air ducts between bedroom and living as we only run the A/C unit we are in. Why have cold air blowing into the room we are not using ???

Mike Canter · 05-25-2015, 08:28 AM

I have taken the filters out and tried it for a week and no noticeable difference in the cooling of the Signature motor home. Again I say the problem is not the quantity of air but how it is distributed. There was no attempt in the design of the ducting to regulate the airflow so that it would flow evenly out of the registers.