AC Assistance please!

[coachmac9]

One of my neighbors in the RV park that we are staying at has a AC problem and needs some assistance. I know little to nothing about AC systems so I told him that I knew a place to go to ask folks that could usually answer most any question....so here goes...he has a fairly new bumper pull trailer (2013) with Dometic AC's. Both are working fine but the one in the front started leaking water inside the trailer instead of draining it out to the roof of the trailer...now the problem is kind of obvious, right? Stopped up drain hose or if it has a pan that drain is stopped up... should be pretty easy to fix, right?? But we can't find any type of drain hose to unstop or a pan that has a drain... what exactly should we be looking for???? Thanks in advance!!

[Carolaow]

I am not technical at all but from my past experience here is what helped me. I was in a very hot humid area and the condensation from the A/C was dripping right through the unit and into the rig. After looking at the manual, I set my fan on high so that it always ran (rather than only running when the A/C was pumping, or running on low). This solved my problem. Not sure if this at all translates to what is going on with your friends, but putting it out there just in case it helps.

[Ronbo]

You can also raise the front of the RV a little bit. Not enough to be obvious but enough for the water to move toward the back, away from the vent.

[skp51443]

If you remove the outside (roof) cover on the AC unit you'll see a metal cover that goes over the cooling fins. You can't do much to it from the outside but if you look at the bottom corners where it meets the main air conditioner base you should see a couple tiny holes, they should be letting water from the inside fins run out onto the AC's base and from there it should run out the low side of the unit. Pipe cleaners are good for a quick cleaning, otherwise try a piece of flexible wire you can stick in and wiggle. That will hold for a few days until more crud washes into the drain holes.

 

Clogged drip holes are a symptom of another problem, the filter on the inside air inlet is not doing a good job of stopping dust and lint from entering the unit. Removing the inside cover and giving the fins and pan a good cleaning is probably needed to keep from clogging again, it will also get you a bit more cooling since clean fins cool better. We used a two stage cleaning process, Simple Green or another not too stinky strong de-greasing cleaner to get the fins clean followed by a good dose of Lysol spray to kill off any mold or mildew up there. We used a good dose of the Lysol sprayed into the intake with the fan running on high to freshen the duct work and kill off anything growing up there.

[coachmac9]

Thanks guys, I will pass along the info to him.

[RV fan]

Here is a good article and description of some the issues you mention. By Mobility RV Service, Bristol, TN

 

 

 

 

http://rvsteve.com/index/2014/07/07/why-rv-air-conditioners-freeze-up-and-what-to-do-about-it/

[Kirk W]

We went to some high quality filter material that is cut to fit from 3M for Pam's allergy problems. Since that time I have not had any problems with plugged up a/c drains. We do have to replace those filters pretty often!

[skp51443]

Kirk, one allergy sufferer we ran across used a 20 X 20 furnace filter on their air conditioner, they had a frame made that slipped under the interior plastic trim piece that the filter would then fit into. It held the filter an inch or so away from the trim so there was plenty of air flow under it and there was enough filter area that it didn't restrict the intake or need changing often.

 

These 2800 range filters really help my allergies but do cut down on air flow a bit: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00TUDHVPU/ref=twister_B00U8SVNVO?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1 They offer several levels of filtration from around 500 up to these 2800s.