Motorhome AC Duct Issue

[Lkh]

Howdy y'all, Has anyone else ran into the problem of the ceiling ac ducting not being installed correctly? By the way thanks again Thor, just one more of your many screw ups on my unit!

Mine has gaps as much as 1/2 inch in it so I am blowing cold air off into the ceiling space instead of through the duct work. This issue would not be on motorhomes only rather anything that has the AC ducting smushed between the ceiling and roof. I am looking for possible solutions without taking the ceiling down.

The ducting is a 1 3/4" by about 8" rectangle channel and way too small to get an arm in to apply HVAC tape.

Images attached but for some reason they are not oriented properly. Look for sawdust on the right, that would be on the bottom of the duct... LOL

Suggestions?

Lanny

[followingsea]

Originally Posted by Lkh

....

Suggestions?

Lanny

Yes! Don't worry be happy.

Energy efficiency is my thing. I am a mechanical engineer. If you are really worried about wasting energy sell the MH and find a cave to live in.

First off running an A/C in a RV is just wrong. You are camping in the wrong place. Just turned mine on. It is 95 in the MH. I am near Las Vegas. I would rather be in Ocean Shores WA. Spent an hour with the engine idling in a mini van and a 2 year old granddaughter sleeping outside an doctors office.

Get the point? No! Using energy to be safe or even comfortable is not wasting energy. It my honor to serve.

I have an old rig. I love my old rig. I can list all the deviations from perfect when it comes to the A/C systems.

I am also old. My first 2 TT did not have A/C. Until a summer in Tulsa OK. My first A/C was not ducted. I am so old, how am I? No integrated circuit old.

Ducted or not to duct that is the question. Somebody else will have to answer that question, I did nuke plants.

My BR A/C stopped working. I found 18 single failure points that could be the cause. Fixed the problems by putting in a non-ducted, non IC vent cover. KISS!

Suggestions! As I said, but you can be happy, or I will post answers to amny ??? sans Chardonnay. Eating fish for the heart but that requires white wine.

Life is full of choices.

[bentjm]

The only process that I know that comes close to trying to repair what is in your pictures is paintless dent repair. Those guys work in blind, tight spaces, with long shaped rods all the time.

Maybe they could help you.

[gimblerotor]

Wow!! That was a pretty useless response.

[jacwjames]

I replaced both my AC's last year. Prior to installing the AC's I decided to inspect the duct work, GLAD I did.



I ordered a remote camera and taped it to a long flexible pole that I was able to slide up and down the duct work. Found several issues, one very similar to what you show, a ~1/2 gap in my duct work that looked like it was never sealed. Also found a couple smaller mouse holes and one large mouse hole.

The mice holes were easier to fix, the large hole was directly above a light fixture and I was able to access the outside of the duct work by removing the light and cutting a hole in the plywood above the hole. Used the Aluminum tape to fix.

I had small mice hole on either end of my duct work. Could not get close to them but what I decided to do is seal the duct work just past the last ceiling register. I cut a long triangle shape piece of styrofoam tight fitting and pushed it just past the register and taped it into place. This actually helps direct the airflow down, which reduces turbulence and improves airflow.

I had to get creative on fixing the gap. I decided to just add another register there. I measured twice, cut once and put a register hole right where the gap was. I then taped up the gap and installed a new register. NO one would ever suspect it shouldn't be there.

Problem solved.

[US1]

Originally Posted by gimblerotor

Wow!! That was a pretty useless response.

Scratching my head on that one too. lol


I watch a lot of the roof replacement videos on YT by RVROOFS out of Georgia. Every roof they do, they remove all the roof decking to inspect the wiring, framing and the ducting. Not uncommon for most every RV to have the ducting repaired do to coming apart at the joints or being smashed during manufacturing.
Its so disheartening to see how cheap they are made.

[153stars]

I wonder if you could push a bushing/inner slice ,cut just smaller with fuzzy velcro as weather strip to seal the gaps/old splice. I wonder if some are taped from outside and not as bad as it looks. That chunk of foam maybe you can hook it and pull out with fiberglass rods for pulling/pushing cables form harbor freight. Make up a 90 steel hook. You'd also need a snake camera of some type.

[Lkh]

Good ideas so far, well most of them……. I am wondering if I could use a 35’ piece of layflat hose, new of course, pull it through the dw from one end to the other and then cut holes in the bottom side of it at each vent, seal it and end up with a vent tunnel within the duct work. I know I can do that but I wonder about moisture.

[Lkh]

Well this just happened... I convinced One Hour AC that they could adapt the Aeroseal technique to the standard RV AC ducting system and they agreed to give it a try. After sealing all the vents and supply ducts the machine went to work pressurizing and found I had the equivalent of 26.8 inch hole in the ducting. Aeroseal was then applied and went to work. After about 20 min or so the machine found I had about 4.7 inches unsealed which is below the acceptable standard of 5 inch. I can tell you for sure my vents now blow one hell of a lot harder than before. I am attaching some pics first of a few more things I found wrong in the ducting including 2 plumbing pipes ran right thru the ducting. I cannot thank Thor enough for their poor attention to detail!

[Lkh]

Here are some pics of the Aeroseal process from the inside of the coach. If I get energetic I will take ducting pictures again. Also I will report back in a month or so about the cooling gains, if any. This Aeroseal process is NOT cheap but if it works it is worth every dime! A big shout our to Mr Jimmy Sanchez and his team for the attempt and attention to detail while doing the process. Jimmy is in the last pic and you can probably tell from the pic he has a military background, retired USMC-28 years!

[US1]

Originally Posted by Lkh

…….. including 2 plumbing pipes ran right thru the ducting. I cannot thank Thor enough for their poor attention to detail!

Wow, just wow! Talk about shody work. The workers knew what they where doing when they installed that vent pipe. That pic needs to be available to anyone researching Thor.
Unbelievable.

[Wrapped]

Never heard of aerosol process, could you explain

[jacwjames]

X2 WOW


+25" equivalent opening down to <5 is a huge gain. Don't see how you wouldn't get a lot more cooling.





I figured I had +12" opening when I did mine.



Thanks for the update.

[Lkh]

Howdy, you have used the Aeroseal process too?