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Air Conditioning units for caravans

J

Jim_374527710

I have ordered a new Swift Elite van for Feb delivery and see that Swift offer as an optional extra a factory fitted air con unit. Can anyone advise how effective these are and if they are worth the money?

Many thanks

Jim
 
I have no idea what type Swift are offering but Truma supply a range of models. The big issue is firstly the weight, the lightest being 20kg and the second factor is the power requirements. Although when running they consume about 10 amps, the start up current is about 16 amps, which means you need either a generator or inverter to get it going. Dometic also supply roof mounted models but again the weight and power are the main issues.

Now as i mentioned I do not know what type Swift are offering but if it is a true air conditoner then this will be the sticking point. It could be they are using something differet that will cool the van, but not as effectively and may not require such power.
 
Jim,

I believe Swift fit the Dometic roof mounted air conditioner.

I had one on my previous Bailey Senator. It was excellent and never had any problems with the electric.However i am always on a 16amp hook up on a Caravan Club site. They can both cool or heat the caravan. On a couple of occassions when it was 85f outside i was really cool inside the caravan.It really came into it's own on a hot sticky night in summer.

These days i hardly ever caravan in the summer, mainly autumn,winter and spring. However if i did start to caravan again during the summer i would certainly have a Dometic roof unit fitted.

I know you can have them fitted to Swift Conquerors and Bailey Senators plus other models, and Coachman used to fit them as standard on their twin axle Laser models.

In my opinion, if you caravan in hot weather, yes they are worth every penny.

Hamer
 
Jim,

We had a roof mounted Dometic unit on the Wyoming and it was superb, really coming in to it's own this summer in the Vendee.

It was remote controlled and also provided heat and light as well as cool air.

On a personal note, the only downside I found was that even on it's slowest running speed, it was too noisy for us to sleep with it running and we only tended to use it on hot afternoons for the little one, or for an hour before heading to bed, but found that the van soon warmed back up after it was switched off.
 
Jim,

We had a roof mounted Dometic unit on the Wyoming and it was superb, really coming in to it's own this summer in the Vendee.

It was remote controlled and also provided heat and light as well as cool air.

On a personal note, the only downside I found was that even on it's slowest running speed, it was too noisy for us to sleep with it running and we only tended to use it on hot afternoons for the little one, or for an hour before heading to bed, but found that the van soon warmed back up after it was switched off.
Click to expand...
Many thanks for the feed back its much appreciated

Jim
 
I have no idea what type Swift are offering but Truma supply a range of models. The big issue is firstly the weight, the lightest being 20kg and the second factor is the power requirements. Although when running they consume about 10 amps, the start up current is about 16 amps, which means you need either a generator or inverter to get it going. Dometic also supply roof mounted models but again the weight and power are the main issues.

Now as i mentioned I do not know what type Swift are offering but if it is a true air conditoner then this will be the sticking point. It could be they are using something differet that will cool the van, but not as effectively and may not require such power.
Click to expand...
Many thanks for your advice

Regards

Jim
 
Jim,

I believe Swift fit the Dometic roof mounted air conditioner.

I had one on my previous Bailey Senator. It was excellent and never had any problems with the electric.However i am always on a 16amp hook up on a Caravan Club site. They can both cool or heat the caravan. On a couple of occassions when it was 85f outside i was really cool inside the caravan.It really came into it's own on a hot sticky night in summer.

These days i hardly ever caravan in the summer, mainly autumn,winter and spring. However if i did start to caravan again during the summer i would certainly have a Dometic roof unit fitted.

I know you can have them fitted to Swift Conquerors and Bailey Senators plus other models, and Coachman used to fit them as standard on their twin axle Laser models.

In my opinion, if you caravan in hot weather, yes they are worth every penny.

Hamer
Click to expand...
Thanks for the feed back, we intend to holiday in France this summer so may well be worth the investment.

Jim
 
I would have felt that the requirement for airconditioning in the UK is very limited. It is not as if we get scorching hot summers every year and temperatures in the mid 20's are not really that bad, that a fan and opening the windows cannot solve.

However, if you hit the Med and the temperature is in the mid to high 30's or even the low 40's then it is a boon. But again no site in Europe will give you more than 10 amps electricity so you are scuppered to get it running. The majority of air conditioners I have seen have been fitted to motorhomes where the weight factor and the option of a generator, make them viable.

Again, if you are thinking of getting one do check carefully the weight. Looking at the Elite range the payload is not very high and to lose another 20 plus kilos, if you have a family will not be sensible.
 
Scotch Lad,

The Dometic Blizzard B1500 for caravans is roof mounted and is for caravans up to 6 metres body length. This is the one usually fitted to caravans.

It requires just 650 watt of power and as stated by dometic draws less than 3 amp of current. It requires a fuse of 4 amp.

Friends of mine use theirs on the continent with no problem.

Air conditioners in caravans are very usefull for people with health problems, as i found out before i had open heart surgery.

Hamer
 
Hamer,

Rightly or wrongly, I never gave any consideration to the consumption when I ordered our Blizzard, but what you say will explain why we never had any problems using it around France over the last couple of summers.
 
We have been thinking of getting a air con unit fitted, I have just been looking on the

http://www.dometic.com/enie/International/Site/Caravan/AirConditioners-Ventilators/
site & still can't make up my mind whether to have a Truma floor mounted one fitted

http://www.trumauk.com/products-airconditioning.asp?jid=37&jStart=0&jsearch=&jorder=&jprod=&jseries=&jname=
20kg for the Truma fitted under the bed, ok they have to cut out a hole in the floor for the exhaust

30kg on the roof ok hole already there, just like plug n play?

I think I will see what offers are about when the NEC show is on in February

Sproket.
 
Haven't got A/C on our caravan, but we had a roof mounted unit on our old motorhome. It was an electrolux if memory serves. Did a good job at cooling and seemed to work OK on EHU. But it was noisy and, being a considerate sod, I was worried that it would bother the neighbours and so only used it sparingly and not at night.

mel
 
Sproket,

The roof mounted Dometic does not need any pipeing under the bunking or inside cupboards.

However when i visited the Truma factory near Uttoxeter to have my motor mover sorted, which was arranged by my dealer about 5 years ago, they had one of their floor mounted air conditioning units on display. They had it set up as if in a caravan. The unit itself was under a bunk which took up some space and then the pipeing which carried the cold air travelled through pipes, about 3/4 the size of blown air pipes, up inside a cupboard to two outlets near roof height. One on each side of the cupboard. The outlets were similar to blown air outlets.

They pointed out that this was essential due to cold air falling and spreading out around the caravan. To me there seemed to be a lot of space taken up with this method compared with the roof mounted Dometic system which i had.

Hamer
 
Had a Coachman with the Dometic one fitted,never ever used it in the Uk as the summer nights are not that hot.

In the Med was a different kettle of fish,was allowed to use in the day but at night you were not due to noise,the sites (not just one) were very hot (no pun intended) on policing this,so never really used it then either.

Have an Elddis now with the privacy glass and that keeps the van much cooler.
 
Hi Hamer

Thanks for that advice, space would not be a problem as we have two single fixed beds in our Hymer, the only thing is ducting it around the van, so the pipe work would have to go through the top lockers. Via more drilled holes, so you can't really remove it at a later date to transfer onto another van

The roof mounted Dometic weighs another 10 kg but from what I can make out everything is there & it will just require fastening down & wiring in ?

Am i right in thinking if there were any problems it could be easily removed & the roof vent put back in ?

Cold air is already at roof level with the Dometic, so i will have to go & view some in situ

Sproket.
 
Hi Sproket,

Yes you are right, it is designed to replace an existing roof vent. It is easily removed and a standard vent put in its place.

It could therefore be transfered from one caravan to another. If possible i would keep your roof vent just in case you do decide to transfer it to your next caravan.

Also the cold air, as you say, comes directly from the Dometic, whereas with the truma the cold air has first to travel along pipes.

Hamer
 
A number of years ago, I did some work on air-con for caravans.

It was very apparent that the major difficulty was the limited power available to cool the air. The best results were to try and direct the air to where people were seated and to discharge it high level. This kept the seated occupants happy but the rest of the caravan whilst a little cooler we still quite warm.

The fact is that with only 3kw of power available you are going to get nothing like the same cooling effect that you find in typical car AC system

The volume of a car is about 2cubic meters and the typical AC unit draws 5 to 8HP or (4 to 6.5kW) to run the AC compressor. So that is 2kW per cu M. By comparison a caravan has a volume of about 18 cu M or more with at most a 3kW compressor that is 0.17kW per cu M. Even allowing for better insulation in a caravan that is still less than a quarter of the power a car system has per volume.

AC will make a difference, but it won't compare to the performance of a car or even a domestic or office unit.
 
We nearly always holiday in France - and have had temperatures up into the forties in the last few years. We don't have air-conditioning, but usually leave our blown air heating on with the heating element switched off - and a bowl of cold water with some ice in around the van somewhere. This circulates the air sufficiently to keep the caravan cool, and even at night provides, if not really cold air, at least a continuous circulation of cool air.
 
We nearly always holiday in France - and have had temperatures up into the forties in the last few years. We don't have air-conditioning, but usually leave our blown air heating on with the heating element switched off - and a bowl of cold water with some ice in around the van somewhere. This circulates the air sufficiently to keep the caravan cool, and even at night provides, if not really cold air, at least a continuous circulation of cool air.
Click to expand...
Thankyou

Great tip, unfortunately the van we are buying has wet heating therefore no blown air.

Thanks anyway

Jim
 
The one issue with any 'after sales' addition such as an airconditioner is the wiring. You need to feed a mains cable to the skylight and this is not always easy once the roof lining is in place. If possible, get it installed as part of a new build.

Again, I refer anyone to the weight issue. The Dometic models range from 30 - 45 kg. That is a bunch off your payload. If you then decide to fit a motormover as well, then you will be goig on holiday with a hanky and 1 pair of socks.

I had not thought of the noise factor but come to think of it on many sites in the Med, you can hear a pin drop at night.

Don't get me wrong, I like 'em, but it is not top of my priority list.
 
we got the dometic roof mounted one on our buccaneer and we wouldnt be without it especially in france or in winter over hear we first got it on our last caravan and now we couldnt live without it well worth the money
 
We have the dealer fitted optional one on our Sterling Elite 2008 model, it's the Dometic B2200 with remote control, lights, and the heating elements too. It weighs in at around 34kg and uses about 4 amps max when cooling. It is fitted instead of the Omnivent and will fit any standard 400mm opening. We had the Omnivent transferred to the shower room in place of the mini Heki.

We have used it quite a bit this year as we were in France from September until recently, and also used it on our UK trip in April/May/June. If it is a sunny day a van will get quite hot even with the blinds all closed, so we leave it on minimum fan at about 22 degrees and find this keeps the van pleasantly cool for when we return after a day out.

On low fan it is reasonably quiet, but when the compressor starts up the noise increases and could annoy you if you are a light sleeper.

Fitting was done by our dealer, but is apparently fairly straightforward as there is a handy join in the roof lining to get access to run the wiring. The one problem we found is that the cover strips over the roof join prevent the easy removal of the filters for cleaning. To remove them we will have to remove the cover strips first and we are not sure how many times they will stand being removed and replaced. We have brought this little problem to Swift's attention and they have suggested we remove them just before our annual service and let our dealer replace them.

We also have a Mover fitted, and various other "extras", so we have now had our MTPLM uprated from 1815kg to 1900kg to keep our user payload intact. This has to be done via your dealer and will cost you about
 
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