AC Does'nt Blow Cold on my 2019 T@G

HikinMike

Danby unit not cooling at all, blows warm air. Took the trailer to the dealer, replaced the AC with a new unit, blew cold for a little bit but didn't cool down the unit, then nothing but warm air. The AC blower is functioning correctly. Its a mystery. What will be the solution? Standby for updates...

LuckyJ

When you say tye ac blower work correctly, you mean the wall switch? If so, are you sure the air is flowing in tye cow bells out the bottom trap under the trailer?
'And finaly, did you slightly open the roof vent of windows for air to move?

Jumper

Mine is the same way, they need to redesign the system, it doesn't work.

The air exchange is the problem not the AC unit, the interior is small and the AC unit should be capable of making ice cubes in this camper. This really needs to be fixed or just delete the AC .

ontheroad

Ours works so well it's freezing...2017 T@g...make sure to set with the 3 snowflakes...we had to use a deflector to stop the blowing in the face... I'd make sure nothing is blocking the vents

Jumper

I have a brand new 2019 and it will not keep the camper cool in 90 deg heat and that's when you need it. I have owned a couple different A -Fame and pop up campers and never had an issue like this.

No blocked filters, windows and fans on all types of different settings to get it to work.

This setup will not work in hot sunny condition s and needs to be looked at by NU Camp.

LuckyJ

,ime works also very well. Was hidding under the blankets and conforter last week. Could not take my arm out from under, cause it would wake me up. But as soon as I would turn tye switch off with my feet, efficiency would drop a bit.

Jay

We have a 2019 XL, We just finished a two week trip to Florida where it hit above 100F during the day and stayed at 82-85F at night. We had NO issues with getting the inside of the trailer cold on 1 snow flake and temp dial set to around 5 o'clock on the dial. We also needed to deflect the air to the roof so it didn't blow on our face. All windows closed, roof vent closed, Air conditioning vent fan on, no problem with circulation.

HellFish

Well, as long as we are all providing testimonials, I vote with Jumper and Mike. I have a 2014 T@G. The A/C has been a pain (but not a chill) in the ass from day one. It's a poor design. Don't like saying this, as we have had some wonderful experiences with our T@G. But those experiences are inspite of the A/C. I think the factory could come up with something better, but they have gotten so big and are selling the T@Gs as fast as they can make them even with a flawed design.

LuckyJ

I agree with the fact that the desigh is less then perfect, but it works for most of us. And I would be curious to find out if smaller AC are available even from the RV or boat world. And even if a roof unit could be nice, the size of those is also important and I would not like that box on top of my td since it would increase height and make the roof rack useless.

Did any of you guys that have isues with the AC removed it and inspected the duck works that evacuate hot air from behind?
'Clog cow bells, or plenum grill, etc. Possible to inspect with a cell phone by taking a picture. Air evacuation test with a kleenex to see direction of air flow, only one fan working, etc.

Could even triy the AC on a house window at home or appartment.

beaky

we camp in the SW in very high temps and in the rare times we plug in, the A/C has worked fine once the direct sun goes away, in the evening when we really need it.

HikinMike

Sounds like the AC unit is hit or miss. Yes, the air is coming in through the cow bells and out through the vent underneath. I don't believe they have checked the ducts. I haven't opened any windows but it sounds like those of you with working ACs don't either. My dealer is in touch with the factory. I hope to hear something this afternoon.

LuckyJ

We always operate with vent open. When in florida last august, keeping it closed was generating humidity in the inerwalls of the trailer. Opening the vent solve that issue for us.

@HikinMike said:
I haven't opened any windows but it sounds like those of you with working ACs don't either

BBstringer

This is the problem that brought me to this forum. My unit wasn’t cooling when the temps would get above 85 so I thought there might be a problem with the unit being defective. I removed the unit, put it in my bedroom window and it worked perfectly. I replaced the unit in the trailer and it wouldn’t cool. After reading about the exhaust system my brother (an HVAC man) and I took a look at the exhaust fan behind the panel below the unit. A computer fan. I thought my brother was going to wet his pants laughing so hard. He thought the design was the most ridiculous thing he’d ever seen. No wonder it wouldn’t cool. It couldn’t possibly remove the hot air efficiently. So my brother tried an experiment and installed an inline bilge fan (type used on large boats to evacuate fuel fumes)to see if that would help.

That took care of the problem but created another one. The fan was way too loud. So back to the original idea with the computer fan. If one is good three is better, right. So that’s what I did. Installed two more computer fans which cumulatively pulled enough air down to sufficiently exhaust the heat out the bottom but stay quiet at the same time.

The cow bells on the sides had much more vacuum and the unit began cooling again.

Im hanging on to the dummied up panel cover with the bilge fan connected to it and quick wire connectors for the power switch. Just in case.

Don’t know if this will help anyone else but it may give some insight on how to approach the problem.

BBsGarage

@BBstringer How did you install them? inline, side by side? Any pics???

BBstringer

Two side by side on the original rail and the third below them.

beaky

the unit is so noisy anyway it over powers the noise from the aux fan

BBstringer

True on the inside noise, it was the external noise from the bilge fan that I found annoyingly loud. Didn't want to subject a potential neighbor to that drone. Didn't think it would be very considerate. Of course I might change my mind if the temps go too high and reinstall the blower fan and just be rude :-)

BBstringer

Furthering the idea of improving the exhaust capabilities our next step would be sealing (somehow) the surrounding area around the fans in order to pull the air through a bit more directly. Since the increased number of fans seemed to do the trick we didn't go any further but that was to be our next step. My brother's opinion was that a "sealed" bilge fan would suck down everything in the cabin :-)))

McNutty195

Definitely interested in this. Thought that the computer fan might not be enough, but never got around to buying anything to test the theory with. What fans did you add? Particularly 12V or 24V?

Pretty nice computer fans that wouldn't be too noisy could be had with a little bit of looking. I also really like the idea of sealing the rest of the cavity to somewhat pressurize things, I'd be willing to bet that would help things along quite a bit as well. May look into designing and 3D printing a gasket of sorts to sit in the chamber and mount the fans to.

Jay

I took a look at the fan and looked at the specs up online, the fan specs say that it moves 59cfm. I could not find a 92mm fan online that moved that much air. BBstringer..what fans did you put in?

DaveB

If you're willing to overspend for a computer fan you can easily find them well over 100cfm.
Down side to that is they pull upwards of 4A and tend to be loud. For example the one linked below moves more air than 3 of the 'stock' fans
https://www.newegg.com/1st-pc-corp-fn-pfr0912xhe-pwm-case-fan/p/N82E16835706055?Description=case fan 92mm&cm_re=case_fan_92mm--35-706-055--Product

Jumper

Currently trying to cool my 2019 Tag with the AC, very frustrating for a one year old camper.

Will be making some calls when I get back, but I'm not sure if it will do anything.

BBstringer

This is the fan I used; https://www.amazon.com/Wathai-9225-Bearing-Brushless-Cooling/dp/B07RNZFVPP/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Wathai+9225+92mm+x+25mm+12V+2Pin+Dual+Ball+Bearing+DC+Brushless+Cooling+case+Fan&qid=1565749232&s=gateway&sr=8-1

They have integrated side by side units as well but I didn't want to deal with 3 and 4 pin units. Like I said there may be better solutions out there but this one has solved the problem for me. Power draw wasn't a concern as I'd have to be on shore power to operate the AC anyway and I'm still hanging on to the bilge fan for extreme circumstances.

AND a 3D gasket sounds like a brilliant idea.👍️

DaveB

True that the AC can only operate when on shore or gennie power, but I have kicked that silly switch on during my sleep a few times. Honestly I have never used the AC except for once in the driveway to see if it worked and it took a while to get things cool (full sun 85F with humidity felt like 105), but after about 30 minutes at full I had to turn it down a little, so I could see how increasing the airflow would really help it be more efficient. Also (I'm no HVAC expert) it seems to me that the unit draws cool air from the side cowbells and the fan blows the warm air out to the ground, so its trying to force air down that naturally wants to rise (probably why they put a fan there in the first place).

BBstringer

Agree on the air flow from cowbells down. Without a doubt the cowbell is a negative intake point and bottom is exhaust. Guess if it were the other way the risk of dust and debris being sucked up from the ground would be much greater.

McNutty195

@BBstringer said:
This is the fan I used; https://www.amazon.com/Wathai-9225-Bearing-Brushless-Cooling/dp/B07RNZFVPP/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Wathai+9225+92mm+x+25mm+12V+2Pin+Dual+Ball+Bearing+DC+Brushless+Cooling+case+Fan&qid=1565749232&s=gateway&sr=8-1
They have integrated side by side units as well but I didn't want to deal with 3 and 4 pin units. Like I said there may be better solutions out there but this one has solved the problem for me. Power draw wasn't a concern as I'd have to be on shore power to operate the AC anyway and I'm still hanging on to the bilge fan for extreme circumstances.
AND a 3D gasket sounds like a brilliant idea.

You mentioned above that you used three fans total. I'm assuming the stock plus two of these that you linked here. Maybe incorrectly, doesn't really matter. Did you wire them in parallel or did you wire them in series? Actually, maybe a simpler question is how did you do the physical wiring? Haha that way I don't have to use my novice electrical skills to guess at what you did.

BBstringer

Combine the positive wires and attach a connector and then combine the negative and crimp a connector. Connect each of them to the respective leads from the switch. Easy peasy.

I used spade connectors and crimped them along with heat shrink around the connection. Again, I did this so I could easily exchange the fan if necessary.

McNutty195

Awesome! That should be pretty easy indeed. Just placed my order for a couple fans I found on digikey.

I'll get working on the 3D printed part over the next couple of days while I wait for the fans

Jay

When I took off the cover to inside the trailer where the fan is and put a flashlight in there, looked up from under the trailer through the grill, the box looks square. I think if they had put a radius back corner at the top or a way to deflect the exhaust from the air conditioner down, so it moves it towards the bottom grill, that may have worked better, right now it seems to blow to the back of the box and needs the fan to move it out..

DaveB

Decided to remove a few things just to see how things are set up in mine.
My 2020 Boondock Edge has 3 fans, one on each side approx. 1 foot from the cowbell and one in the middle behind the normal cover. This might explain why my AC seemed to work fine after 30 minutes or so. Not sure if this is one of the 'updates' for the 2020 or not. To check I just removed the top back panel of the lower shelf (there are 2 panels per shelf). Do other model years have the cowbell fans as well? That said, the lower fan that I knew for sure was there seems (to me at least) to be the weak point since its just sitting there open around the sides with no means of separating the 'in' from the 'out'. Putting multiple fans in this location to fill as much of the opening would seem to make more sense.

DaveB

Forgot to include the pic...