Community Forums

Poor Otis · 08-06-2015, 03:12 PM

I'm new to this site..and need some help with roof top ac units! We have a 07 Keystone Hornet 30 ft,with a Coleman-Mack(which one not sure) 13000 btu unit
that has been giving us problems for the past 2 years..it makes a lot of noise,the fan works sometimes,and lately it blows the breaker. I have cleaned the unit several times but that does nothing..its time to replace the unit with a new one..we were thinking a 15000btu..but which one?? Do I have to rewire everything..or is their something out there that I can install and just plug in and play??(Electric has never been my thing) Their are many units out there..but whats good and which should we avoid?? Any/All info will be helpful! Thanks.

450Donn · 08-06-2015, 03:58 PM

Pick what you can get a decent price on. My Dometic units have only given me one nostart day. Fixed it myself in about 30 minues.

cb1000rider · 08-06-2015, 04:16 PM

The issue is a little more than that. The Mach V has a wireless thermostat. I don't know if that's the one he has.

These units are actually generally pretty reasonably priced $500-$700. You need to know if yours is ducted or ductless. You need to know what kind of theromstat you have, if any, and if the new unit is compatible with it.

The simplest case would be a non-ducted unit where you don't have a thermostat. In that case, I'd just pick a reasonably common unit with appropriate height... 15k and make sure it's non-ducted and comes with controls. I haven't found where some units are really more efficient than others.

marcham · 08-06-2015, 05:30 PM

There's more to AC repair than cleaning... Are the compressor and fan capacitors working properly? The fan motor can be replaced as well.

04266832 · 08-07-2015, 06:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Poor Otis

I'm new to this site..and need some help with roof top ac units! We have a 07 Keystone Hornet 30 ft,with a Coleman-Mack(which one not sure) 13000 btu unit
that has been giving us problems for the past 2 years..it makes a lot of noise,the fan works sometimes,and lately it blows the breaker. I have cleaned the unit several times but that does nothing..its time to replace the unit with a new one..we were thinking a 15000btu..but which one?? Do I have to rewire everything..or is their something out there that I can install and just plug in and play??(Electric has never been my thing) Their are many units out there..but whats good and which should we avoid?? Any/All info will be helpful! Thanks.

I'll add in my recent experience... I had to replace the 15k BTU Coleman-Mach AC unit in my 2011 Catalina and it cost me a little over $1k. For your purposes, however, I assume it would be more because my understanding is that there are multiple "parts" to a complete AC install -- the part above the camper (with the compressor) and then the portion inside (ceiling assembly) is separate. I'd assume you'd need to replace both but the 13.5 and 15k may be universal.

Literally the day after we got our RV back, we traded it in on a new one (wasn't planned). Our new unit has a Dometic 15k AC. I had some other warranty that needed to be done so when I brought it in, I mentioned that the AC doesn't seem to cool as well as my old one did. The first thing he said was "Is it a Dometic? Yeah, for some reason we've replaced a few dozen of those so far this year under warranty."

I know this is probably not helpful but my experience was a $1k replacement on a Coleman-Mach that went out after 3 years and a service technician that apparently indicated that the 2015/2016 Dometic 15k units are having issues.

justafordguy · 08-07-2015, 08:20 AM

The Dometic 15k units are really having problems right now. I have had two go bad in the last 3 months on my brand new 5th wheel.

Poor Otis · 08-08-2015, 09:36 AM

Both Coleman-Mack & Dometic are made overseas..and from what a AC Tech told me they are both low in quality. I was told to check into either Advent or Atwood units. Both those are US made,with better parts. The Fasco Blower motor is out in my coleman-mach unit(its a mach 3..found that out too) It cost me $75 and a 12 pack of Bud for the tech to come out here(we are off the grid in rural Texas) He is not a RV tech..but he repairs ac units for a living. the plan is..we are going to replace the blower motor and Cap..and go from there..and he will install it for free. Will let you know more when the parts arrive!
COOKIN in TEXAS!