WalMart sells Haier AC units. Are they OK for campers?

[Art OC]

I was surfing WalMarts online site and noticed they offer 110v ac units from 5200 to 10000 btu for very reasonable prices. Their sq ft guide says a 5200 btu will cool up to 150 sq ft. My Lovebug is approx 10ft by 6 ft so thats 60 sq ft, right? I understand the campers sit mostly in the sun and are poorly insulated(mine has no insulation). I am considering an 8000 btu unit for a closet install, what do you all think??
Thanks for all the replies on my other questions! I really appreciate your advice.

[Greg A]

We use a 5000 btu Samsung in the 13 Scamp, it is fine. We've found we need a small fan on one end of the trailer just to circulate the air well on really hot days, but that seems to keep it evenly cool.
I've heard very good things about the Haiers...

[CindyL]

Don't know about the sizes but we bought the smallest one we could find (Walmart was out, so we got it at KMart.) and put it in our 13' Burro. Worked great. We put it through the back wall and disguised it with a cutup cooler that fit around the outside of the little air conditioner while we were driving. Hubby built a platform for it that was supported by the bumper and held the cooler with bungie cords. Some guy at Yellowstone asked for a beer from our cooler . Course we took it off when it ran. There are pix somewhere on this site.

CindyL

[Per Walthinsen]

My experience tells me that a 5000 Btu for a 13' and a 8000 Btu for a 16' or 17' would be adequate. Our well-insulated 17-footer is adequately cooled by a 5200 Btu but the cooldown is very slow.

[Sandra Lair]

We have a 5000 BTU Haier that we put through the back wall (where the spare tire used to go) and it works well unless the weather is really hot. We camped a couple of times last year in 95-100 degrees & high humidity and it was a little too much for the AC to handle. But it works well in temps under that.
Sandra

[Normand Choiniere]

I have a 5,200 BTU unit. I was in Mexico last year and it was not enough for temperature 100F and above. Check your available space and install a 8,000 BTU unit if possible. I installed mine 2 years ago in the cupboard next to the entrance door and the cupboard was not large enough for any available 8,000 BTU unit on the market.

It nevertheless cuts a lot on humidity even then and is quite adequate for "normal" temperature let's say in the 80-90 range.

[Marc Barrière]

I installed a small unit (5000 btu) in the front window (like in a house with a plexi to close the opening). When I dont need it, I just let it under the table...




The 5000 BTU unit was very efficient.

[Scott,H]

I have a 16' Casita and since I only use it in Texas I knew I would need some serious cooling. I replaced the original Emerson quiet cool(it barely cooled) with a 10KBTU remote controlled Whirlpool and I can keep the temp in the back of the trailer a frosty 58(thermometer verified) when running full blast in the summer heat. I might add that I completely insulated my Casita with the foil "bubble pack" insulation that is sold at home depot or Lowes and bought new foam backed carpet from the Casita factory and reinstalled that in the trailer. I also cut the foil insulation to fit the windows in the trailer and dark tinted the windows. I highly recommend doing this as it greatly reduces the amount of heat radiating through the windows. Granted, I can't see out, but I figure that the only time I'm in it I'm sleeping, otherwise I'm outside anyways. Plus I like it cold and dark, its like being in a fiberglass cave.......

[Frederick L. Simson]

I installed a small unit (5000 btu) in the front window (like in a house with a plexi to close the opening). When I dont need it, I just let it under the table...

I do the same thing.
My removeable AC

[Kurt in BC]

do a Google search for AC's. I suspect the 8000 btu unit will be too large. If you got to big it can have a reverse effect, its best to stick with the sizing they reccommend. I am going through a similar issue for my house with central air and window units, there are several sites that explain the sizing and that bigger is not better.

[Joe Z]

Last year I bought new air conditioners for the house bedrooms and they where Frigidaire Brand.... and while they cooled very good they where very noisy (even on low) and i could not sleep. I took them back and purchased the Haier Brand and they are much quieter and also they cool very well.
Joe

Kurt in BC.....
I tried putting a 12000 btu unit in the window of a very small room and it kept freezing up..... took it out and put it in a larger room and it was fine at that point.

[Bob H]

Scamp used 5000 BTU units in 13' Scamps when they installed window units in the closets. I donno how big the roof units are.

[Roy in TO]

I am considering an 8000 btu unit for a closet install, what do you all think??

I seen an ad for a 7000BTU Nanamax A on sale locally for $299 CDN this morning. It is ducted to the outside and I think one could fit it's innards very nicely into the closet or under the kitchen cabinet.

It is one of those portable units 12”W x 15”D x 30”H

[Per Walthinsen]

Roy:
We have had discussions about these portable units before, probably pre-hack, but the skinny is: there should be an intake AND an exhaust vent, both to the outside (two different paths) for such units to be effective. If you analyze what happens with just an exhaust vent you will see that they are trying to pull the wool over your eyes.

[Roy in TO]

Roy:
We have had discussions about these portable units before, probably pre-hack, but the skinny is: there should be an intake [b]AND an exhaust vent, both to the outside (two different paths) for such units to be effective. If you analyze what happens with [b]just an exhaust vent you will see that they are trying to pull the wool over your eyes.

Thank you Per,

In considering an A/C mod, what I've noticed about the portable units is that the hot half of the unit is on the bottom and cold on the top. Rather than the back and front of a conventional window shaker. I think it would be a much easier mod than what I've seen others have to do. It looks as though someone has already done what I had in mind:

I found a Portable Split Air Conditioner designed for trailers. @ 2750 BTU it would be about perfect for our little eggs.

The description reads:
Very easy to use, it does not need to be installed and it is an advantageous alternative to the present air conditioners designed for the caravans. Its cooling power of about [b]3000 BTU, with a [b]power consumption of 395 watts has been choosed like compromise between a very good cooling capacity and a low electric consumption that allows its use through the inverter connected to the battery of the camper itself. It is equipped with handy brackets to be applied to the windows of the caravan without any changes of them. It is provided with electronic control for the temperature and the speed of the fan, it can be used during the night at the lower speed (noisy lower than 49,8 d






The company is in Italy, but they do have a contact listed as an agent in Texas:

<div align="center">[b]<span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:100%">MEXICO and USA</span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:100%">[b]ANGEL BELTRAN CORPORATION</span> </div>
<div align="center"><span style="font-size:8pt;line-height:100%">1630 E. Paisano Sec. A</span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-size:8pt;line-height:100%">79901 El Paso, Texas</span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-size:8pt;line-height:100%">Contact person Mr Angel Beltran Sr. - Mr Angel Beltran Jr</span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-size:8pt;line-height:100%">Tel. +1 915 5440054/55</span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-size:8pt;line-height:100%">Fax. +1 915 5448326</span></div><span style="font-size:8pt;line-height:100%">e-mail: abcompany@dzn.com</span>

I'll email them and see what I can find out.

Roy

[Greg A]

2750 btu's would probably cover you up in your neck of the woods, but when it's 105+ our 5000 btu barely keeps up with it.

[Per Walthinsen]

Roy:

I agree with Greg that the rated BTUs on that unit would hardly make a dent even in a 13 footer unless it was well insulated and left on for a long time. Also you would hav to make sure an inverter could handle the startup current draw. The battery would still be drained quickly.

In checking my earlier post it seem that I was far from clear in what I meant: A conventional window AC has two distinct air paths. Path #1 takes outside air, transfers heat to it and exhausts air back to the outside. Path #2 takes the inside air, cools it and delivers it back to the inside.

We have seen the specs of some portables which use a single exhaust hose to do path # 1, but it means that the intake is sucked from the inside, which creates negative pressure inside the trailer. The air must come from somewhere, and it ends up as hot air being pulled in through leaks in the trailer. Counter-intuitive, and it doesn't really work. I think that might be a more complete description.

[Roy in TO]

Roy:

I agree with Greg that the rated BTUs on that unit would hardly make a dent even in a 13 footer unless it was well insulated and left on for a long time.

Per,

Thank you for the education.

I guess I'm the idiot for believing the experts in thinking that 50 BTU per square foot would cut it. I assumed since those #'s were for an 8' ceiling our campers would need only 75% of that because they were shorter, take off another 10% volume for benches, cabinets etc. we would be looking at about a 65% equivalency.

10 x 6 = 60 Sq ft.
60 x 0.65 = 39 sq ft equivalency
39 sq ft x 50 BTU / square = 1950 BTU

I thought that using 2/3 of the output of a unit might be efficient enough. Please excuse my faulty logic. I'll take your word for it and admit to my ignorace of Air Conditioning. I have no idea of what is required down South, furthest I've ever been is Cape Cod.

I do know that my 3000 BTU furnace pumps out way too much heat for my little trailer, after we warm up the trailer, I just turn it back to the pilot light to keep the edge off.

Roy

[Greg A]

Roy,

I'm sure those numbers from the "experts" assume a basic residential R factor of somewhere around R-19 in the walls and R-30 in the ceilings. I don't know what the R factor of our eggs are, but taint much so in real-egg life you can probably throw those calculations out. I too can heat my 13 egg on the 3000 btu setting on Mr. Buddy, but I gotta have 5000 btu AC to cool it. Go figure...

Again, if you never go into any hot climates you might get by on less.