Pop-up roof top A/C

[proudmomof4]

I just wanted to find out what all of you might recommend....we were at the fort for 8 nights last month, we ran our A/C every day, everything worked fine for the first 7 days. On our last full day we went to the parks, we came back late that night and the A/C sounded wierd, I went inside and there was no air blowing out of the vents (I will say that I had angled the vents to point up during the night before because it blows out so cold that we end up freezing and I had forgotten to angle them down again before we left in the morning). Well, I turned the dial to fan and within a few minutes we could hear ice breaking up, we left it running on fan all night and the next morning I turned it back to A/C. We really didn't have to leave by 11:00am since our real check-out was for the next day but we had decided to leave a day early and just pack up later in the day and take our time, so we wanted to run the A/C for a good while and see what would happen, it ran fine, no freeze up, the air blew out strong and cold.

So now, here is the question, do any of you think this was a one time thing maybe caused by me leaving the vents angled up all day? Or is there something else we should consider? We thought about taking it into the dealer but are concerned that if it doesn't freeze up for them then they would not be able to do anything and we would be paying for nothing.

I also want to mention that my pop-up is 2 years old and is garage kept, when we took it in to the dealer before this recent trip to get the axle bearings repacked, the guy said we were taking great care of it and it looked brand new and we wouldn't need service again for 2 years. We did purchase an extended warranty so that the A/C and fridge would be covered if anything happened.

We are taking a 10 day trip to the Fort this July and I really do not want to be without A/C...........please HELP.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Memph1s]

So now, here is the question, do any of you think this was a one time thing maybe caused by me leaving the vents angled up all day?

In a word YES
If your A/C is getting too cold for you turn the temperature control to a warmer setting and/or turn down the fan speed. By leaving it set too cold and blocking the air flow you allowed the evaporator (cooling coil) to freeze up. You should also clean your intake air filter if you haven't already. You will be surprised at how quickly they get dirty. When we run ours 24/7 I clean our filter every 3 to 4 days. I do know what you mean about the A/C freezing you out at night. If we leave ours on high all night it feels like you could hang meat in there by morning. What I do at night is if the temperature is comfortable in the camper when we are ready to turn in for the night I will turn the temperature control to a warmer setting until I hear the compressor kick off. Then set the blower speed to the low setting. This usually keeps the camper just right. If it does get a little stuffy turn the temperature control up just a little.

 

[YellowXterra]

It could also be due to a low charge, however these ACs must have a lot of air flow or they will freeze up! Don't ask me how I know.

 

[proudmomof4]

In a word YES
If your A/C is getting too cold for you turn the temperature control to a warmer setting and/or turn down the fan speed. By leaving it set too cold and blocking the air flow you allowed the evaporator (cooling coil) to freeze up. You should also clean your intake air filter if you haven't already. You will be surprised at how quickly they get dirty. When we run ours 24/7 I clean our filter every 3 to 4 days. I do know what you mean about the A/C freezing you out at night. If we leave ours on high all night it feels like you could hang meat in there by morning. What I do at night is if the temperature is comfortable in the camper when we are ready to turn in for the night I will turn the temperature control to a warmer setting until I hear the compressor kick off. Then set the blower speed to the low setting. This usually keeps the camper just right. If it does get a little stuffy turn the temperature control up just a little.

Thanks for your quick reply and advice, I had a feeling that was the problem. I did clean the filter too and I normally do try to adjust the temp and blower speed at night, but I guess with all that was going on the night before (we had friends over) and then in the morning getting ready to be at MK at opening I just forgot to make my normal adjustments

It could also be due to a low charge, however these ACs must have a lot of air flow or they will freeze up! Don't ask me how I know.

Thanks for the reply, I thought it could be an airflow problem too.

You have both made me feel much better about this, it seems my theory may have been right...we also might pull it out of the garage and open it up to run the A/C for a while to see what happens. Thanks again

 

[YellowXterra]

For what its worth a good friend who owns a large HVAC company says to never run it on Low Cool always run it on High Cool and turn down the T Stat, he says this allows all the air flow you need to keep from freezing the unit up and still control the temp. This is what I do now and have not had another problem in 5 years.

 

[proudmomof4]

Cool, thanks, I'll try that.