[Sundance]

Talked with Newell again...
They think it froze up, but I saw no frost or moisture on evap coils under stairs...
They asked me to try it again after a couple of hours...and watch amps
On L1 & L2
It came on and when compressors kicked on and running
L1 20amp
L2 10 amp

Even with set point at 78 and bedroom at 92 actual...L1 goes down to 5 amp
When I guess that comp cycles off? Then in few minutes it comes back on and amps go back to 20

Will run this way a while and see what happens

Anyone know how to clean evaporate coils...the rear unit has some dirt/crud on 30% or so....
Ideas? It is buried in center of coach and I tried shop vac with brush tip w/o much luck...

Thanks

[folivier]

You can use the no-rinse evaporator coil cleaner in a spray can to spray and clean the compressor outer coils but need to pull the unit out to clean the inner evaporator coils. If the compressor coils look dirty and stopped up that could be your problem. In my home a/c's the compressor coils usually get pretty dirty and that's the first thing the a/c guy does is clean them. Watching the gauges the pressures usually go down to normal once the coils are cleaned.
Try cleaning the coils and see what happens.

[Sundance]

Will see what lowes or HD has in morning no rinse spray wise...
If it has strong stream I can get to part of it...but really need 5' -6' arm
Forrest are your units mounted in center of coach?
Is board access on rear unit from bottom of coach?

Thanks for all advice

[folivier]

Mine are about 1' from the basement door on either side with the center being a large duct running to the air filters behind the steps. The boards are on the side of each unit and accessible without pulling them out.
Maybe you can find a long piece of tubing that will fit on the end of the nozzle. Or better look for an a/c supply house or plumbing place. They may have the no-rinse cleaner in liquid form that you could put in a 1 gallon garden sprayer. That should give you enough reach.

[Richard]

You are not going to like my response. While at the rally, I was going through the whole deal of checking out the ac systems on a new to me coach. I pulled one of the SCS units to get to the air return plenum. One of the units had some sort of black spooge adhered to the coils that soap or coil cleaner alone would not touch. I could only remove it by running a coil comb overs the fins. I suppose it was a mixture of very fine dust and grease. Yep it was a nasty wet job to crawl in the plenum and clean the unit. Of course the one I removed was the easy one to clean.

Not saying that removing it is a must, but if the coils remain black then they are still dirty. The internal coils are silver.

More info that may help you. At 85 degrees ambient air temp I get 54 degree air from the front unit and 63 air from the rear. Also the rear cools two thirds of our coach and the front cools the forward third. Given the location of the thermostats we found the setting the rear three degrees lower than the from helped with overall temp distribution. I thank Ashley and Forest for that tip

[Richard]

Jeff, blocking the coach is pretty simple. Put something that will not crush under the skid bars at both ends. Do not block by putting the block under an axle. You are preventing the coach from crushing you in case the air bags deflate or a tire ruptures. Low probability but one prominent rv. Net member died when his prevost sat on him.

If you can access the circuit boards and you have a clamp on ammeter we can do some diagnositcs

Call me 817 223 2056. I am in DC recovering from the drive around the beltway yesterday in the coach. Btw homie will not be relocating to DC

[folivier]

Richard you crawled inside the plenum? Yuck! Would you clean mine??
I remember at Spearfish looking inside Toms and saw the extra filters, etc. he pulled out that was probably restricting his airflow.
I looked inside mine when I had the compressor replaced at Newell and it was relatively clean. The inside surfaces were sprayed foam so it isn't a smooth surface. While the a/c was out I cleaned both evaporator coils with the no-rinse spray. Probably needs it again. Another project for the winter.

[Dmatz]

Simple green is also a good coil cleaner. You do need to rinse it but it does work well.

[Richard]

Yep, I crawled in the plenum. And yes it was wet and nasty.

One other thing that I did was to take the plastic grid from a cut to size filter obtained at Lowes, and cut the grid to fit exactly into the slots under the steps. The grid was 1 by 1 inch plastic and easy to cut with wire nips. The grid provides great support for the blue disposable filter media that I cut to fit. Now I don't worry about the filter media getting sucked into the plenum, or other objects such as coffee filters that will block the air flow.

The biggest challenge with the SCS units is making sure the air flow is as unrestricted as possible.

[encantotom]

i know i got inside and looked at the plenum, but i dont think i crawled all the way in. if i recall, i went in where the unit was taken out and then used a broom or something to get the things stuck in side.

for those of you who have not met jeff in person and are suggesting he crawl inside the plenum, perhaps he could mention that the reason height of coaches inside he was looking at was a real issue for a real reason. jeff, you might have to find someone to be your plenum monkey. when i met jeff the first time i felt like i was looking at paul bunyon. thankfully he wasnt carrying an ax.

tom