air conditioner

[Pam Garlow]

I have to admit that I thought you were serious also, Steve Dunham
There are so many talented people on this site, and they truly are not being facetious when they give detailed 'master journeyman' instructions as to how a situation can be remedied. In their mind it is an easy thing to do.
It appears that for now, Don Meyer has several valid things to follow up on based on forum advise.

[Don Meyer]

Thanks for all the advice.......Don

[Byron Kinnaman]

Originally Posted by steve dunham

Do you have a refrigerator or an ice box? The refrigerator draws outside air through the trailer wall and exhausts the heated air through a roof vent .

No roof vent in Scamp. Fridge vents at the belly band. Above the band exhaust vent. Below the belly band, behind the louvered door, intake vent.

There is no refrigerator vent in the floor

Agreed.

[Donna D.]

Originally Posted by Byron Kinnaman

No roof vent in Scamp. Fridge vents at the belly band. Above the band exhaust vent. Below the belly band, behind the louvered door, intake vent.

Agreed.

My 1988 16' Scamp has a roof vent for the refrigerator. It's easy to spot, it's about 2-1/2' long.

[Frederick L. Simson]

Originally Posted by steve dunham

Do you have a refrigerator or an ice box?

Maybe this Scamp originally had an Ice Box, and a previous owner took that out and installed an electric only Compressor fridge (A.K.A. "Dorm Fridge") in its place. Only an Absorption fridge requires the vents to the outside in the wall of the trailer. You didn't say if it was a new or a used trailer when you bought it...

[Byron Kinnaman]

Originally Posted by Donna D.

My 1988 16' Scamp has a roof vent for the refrigerator. It's easy to spot, it's about 2-1/2' long.

I stand corrected. Scamp 13' trailers don't have a roof vent. At least in all the 13' Scamp trailers I've seen none of them have had a refrigerator roof vent.

[Don Meyer]

I bought my Scamp used...1979. The original ref was repaced w/a electic one by a previous owner. Also the 5000 btu a/c exhaust the back of the unit thru a wall mounted vent. The sides are open to the interior.

I am thinking of going to a 8000 btu unit but, the winter prices are a lot higher than summer prices at Walmart. The 8000 btu Frigadare units are around $260. An other option is a used roof unit w/a reinforced roof.

Don

[Frederick L. Simson]

Originally Posted by Don Meyer

The original ref was repaced w/a electic one by a previous owner. Also the 5000 btu a/c exhaust the back of the unit thru a wall mounted vent. The sides are open to the interior.

The a/c is installed wrong; that is why it isn't doing the job for you. The only part that should be open to the interior is the front, which has both intake and output vents for inside air. The sides are outside air intake and the back is outside air exhaust.

The way you have it now has no boundary between inside and outside. The sides need to be ducted to the exterior, but NOT to the same vent as the exhaust.

If you put an 8000 BTU air conditioner into the same installation it won't work either, and you will have wasted your money.

[Joe M]

Originally Posted by Don Meyer

I bought my Scamp used...1979. The original ref was repaced w/a electic one by a previous owner. Also the 5000 btu a/c exhaust the back of the unit thru a wall mounted vent. The sides are open to the interior.

I am thinking of going to a 8000 btu unit but, the winter prices are a lot higher than summer prices at Walmart. The 8000 btu Frigadare units are around $260. An other option is a used roof unit w/a reinforced roof.

Don

just a thought... Check out Amazon.. You might get lucky. I picked up a new frigidaire 5000 for $45 (or 54) shipped....

[Mary Ann in MN]

Originally Posted by Don Meyer

I recently bought a 13' Scamp......it has a 5000 btu window type a/c mounted in the closet. The unit does not seem to cool the Scamp.(that's in the fl heat)

I see a 6000 btu unit is available but, do not want to buy another unit that will not cool.

I am looking for advice.
Don

When I bought my Scamp, it had a window air conditioner in one of the cabinets, only the face is showing with a hole cut into the floor to vent it. They put a fan in the back of the cabinet to try and push the air out. It didn't cool, so I thought I would take it out, and try one from my house. My thought is, it just can't get rid of the heat, so it doesn't cool. I don't know what I have to do to vent it properly, but a larger unit won't work either, I have to try and figure out how to get rid of the heat.

[deryk]

Is there a vent on the outside behind the air conditioner?

[honda03842]

Mary Ann,

There needs to be two sets of holes for a closet mounted air conditioner. One to exhaust the hot air and another to bring in cool air that eventually exhausts as hot air. The difference in temperature between these two air flows is what makes the AC unit work.

We have a fan in our closet mounted air conditioner to vent the hot air. It is important that the vented hot air not be sucked back into the cool air hole. In our setup the cool air hole is ducted from the center of the trailer to insure that it's really cool air being pulled into the air conditioner. If this is not clear let me know and I'll provide pictures.

We're in FL and have run our AC more than ever because Ginny had a small medical procedure and I've been keeping it cooler in the trailer. Our 5000 btu unit has worked well.

[Don Meyer]

I am still confused......could you please send me pictures of what you did?
I am having trouble figuring out how to duct it.

What part of Fl do you live?........I am near Orlando.

Don

[honda03842]

Don,
We're in Wauchula, FL at the Escapee Park. I sent Mary Ann pictures of our set up. Send me a PM with your normal email address and I value send you the pictures. We plan to leave FL on Tuesday depending on what the doc says today.

[Don Meyer]

PM sent....I hope I did it right.

Don

[honda03842]

Don, got it. I've been sick and we'll get it over the holiday.

[Don Meyer]

Hope you get well soon......Don

[Don Meyer]

I tore the frigidare 5,000 btu a/c out so I could post a picture of it. I would like to know what the different vents are for so I know how to duct the air flow.

The front has cold air out at the top & cabin air in at the bottom.

The back has warm air out so it has to be ducted out.

But the side & top...should it take air from the outside or cabin also
where does the water drain from.

Don

[Thinh]

Originally Posted by Don Meyer

I tore the frigidare 5,000 btu a/c out so I could post a picture of it. I would like to know what the different vents are for so I know how to duct the air flow.

The front has cold air out at the top & cabin air in at the bottom.

The back has warm air out so it has to be ducted out.

But the side & top...should it take air from the outside or cabin also
where does the water drain from.

Don

Here is my understanding ab window type A/C: Front Lower is for sucking hot air of inside to blow into its rear(A/C). Front Upper is for blowing cold air out into trailer. Both sides are for sucking cool air from outside into A/C and the rear is solely for blowing out hot air out to outside. This is what I would do this spring for my Trillium1300. Instead of installing A/C at rear window as previously thought, I would put it in cabinet and I think the lower A/C to the floor, the harder to achieve max efficiency. I would separate A/C totally off the cabinet by foil/insulation. Higher off from floor about one foot. Both sides of A/C would have ducts separately going to openings of floor to suck cool air from underneath the trailer. Back of A/C is vented directly to outside with opening like the other side which made for fridge. There must be also opening on the floor to drain water to the ground. When I finish my project I will post and hopefully it will work. Right now it is only a...concept. Lol.

[ericw]

Originally Posted by Don Meyer

I tore the frigidare 5,000 btu a/c out so I could post a picture of it. I would like to know what the different vents are for so I know how to duct the air flow.

The front has cold air out at the top & cabin air in at the bottom.

The back has warm air out so it has to be ducted out.

But the side & top...should it take air from the outside or cabin also
where does the water drain from.

Don

I have that exact air conditioner and also use it in a closet.

I agree with Randy's description of the airflow. Lower front is inside air coming into the AC and the cool inside air blows out the top front. The rear is hot exhaust air to the OUTSIDE. The top and sides are cool OUTSIDE air into the air conditioner. Keeping the hot outside air and cool outside air separate is key. You don't want the hot outside air just coming back into the air conditioner because that makes the air conditioner work very hard and hurts the cooling.

So to answer your questions. The side and top should take air from the outside. (If you suck your cool air out of the cabin, outside air is replacing that cool air in the cabin and the AC works really hard - usually unsuccessfully).

The water collects in the bottom of the air conditioner and it helps the air conditioner run more efficiently. In humid weather it will overflow and come out. I actually drilled a hole in the bottom so I could more easily predict where the water would come out.

Feel free to ask more questions.