Air conditioners, the vent ducts are not working!!!

[Bulldog80]

Yes, I'm sure. With enough of the vents closed I can feel some cold air coming out, just not very much though. Pretty ridiculous. I'm waiting to hear on the fixes for the intake/return lines. That makes a lot of sense to me. It seems that in the interest of trying to make it quiet they have sacrificed air flow completely.

[Infinityrver]

You're right bulldog80.

Unfortunately, I'm outta warranty by 4 months. I've contacted a supervisor at Dutchmen. I've explained my issue and have explained that this isn't just an isolated issue on my unit. I've also, informed him that there are several Voltage and Infinity owners that are chiming in on an independently operated "Dutchmen forum". I have explained that my tech wants to pull the air conditioner off the roof and see how it was connected to the ventilation ducts and return/intakes. At that time they will have a good look on how to rectify the blow by in between the roof and ceiling. My tech is also, going to create a third return with a larger return/intake.

At this time I'm in negotiations with Dutchmen over financial responsibility due to the number of rigs experiencing the same issues.

[GOLDENYEARS]

Originally Posted by Sinecure

All of my circular vents blow air, though at a less than desired rate. The two rectangular vents off to the sides are the returns. There are definitely leaks all throughout the ducting though. I can pull down any one of the puck lights and feel cold air. I can also reach behind the dvd player and feel cold air coming out of the Wineguard antenna hookup and 12v cigarette lighter outlet. So the cold air is even making it down the walls.

do you happen to know the "date of manufacture" of your rig? One thing I did notice, on my duct work where the duct meets the air box they have sealed the foam insulation with aluminum tape. (I took the air box down from the ceiling for a good look)
I will pull a light tomorrow and take a look. I will keep you posted.

[Sinecure]

Originally Posted by GOLDENYEARS

do you happen to know the "date of manufacture" of your rig? One thing I did notice, on my duct work where the duct meets the air box they have sealed the foam insulation with aluminum tape. (I took the air box down from the ceiling for a good look)
I will pull a light tomorrow and take a look. I will keep you posted.

I remember seeing April-2012 on the VIN sticker, not sure if it said the actual day.

Whenever I get the chance I plan on going up on the roof and removing the AC shroud, then the AC itself. Supposedly there are only 4 lag bolts holding the AC to the roof. I read on another forum that a guy did this and was able to seal up the area better than the factory did. He said Dutchmen did a poor job and that air was able to blow into the ceiling and not just into the ducts. According to him, after using some aluminum tape to seal the cracks, he was able to double the amount of airflow out of the vents.

If this doesn't improve airflow, then as I said in an earlier post I may consider cutting a hole in the ceiling and installing a close-able vent cover similar to the one in the bedroom (pictured below). With this I would hope to be able to have the AC "dump" air into the living room to cool it quickly. This would also give the AC another return vent, which also seems to be an issue. I expect I would have to modify the airbox to keep the airflows separate, so a lot of inspection and planning will go into this while the AC is off of the roof. Once I do this I will make sure to take pictures and post back what I find, as it seems almost everyone with a Voltage TH I speak to has the same issue.

[AlabamaCamper]

went on our maiden voyage this weekend and the air won't cool~arggg how angry! With 84 degrees outside and my trailer won't get under 81, are you kidding me. We set on auto and it appears with auto the fan doesnt change. That's ok, if I could get some COLD air and some air pushing out of these twisty round vents. Anyone having any luck?

[AlabamaCamper]

Did you ever get your ac vents to push air? very frustrated with being HOT and no air pushing thru the vents to speak of.

[Hut]

We have ben out this week with temps in the low 90's and have stayed pretty cool. We were under shade, so I'm sure that helped. We set our fan to low, so it blows continuously. I also removed the air diffuser in the bedroom and kitchen. It seems to help.

[griffsresort]

We have a 2012 Voltage 3200 epic package. We have had the unit for about 16 months now, and we have had a lot of issues with the main 15kw a/c unit not cooling the rig. We do have a 13.5KW unit in the bedroom which is very efficient (non ducted) but we get virtually no air coming out of the round supply vents anywhere in the rig. We have the directional only vents that cannot be closed off to increase flow to a particular area. The garage cannot be cooled unless all the window shades are down & closed and the sliding glass door is left open. The interior ceiling sweats really bad when the outside temps rise. I did remove the return air vents to clean out the filters, and found that the duct work for the fresh air return were 40 % collapsed so I placed a small block of wood inside to prop open, but this only helped nominally. I have the rig in an RV Collision Shop now because of two separate blowouts (akumet tires), and I have asked the techs to please look at the system and come up with some solutions. I did change out the garage a/c vents to the ones that can be closed, just to try to get more airflow to the Liv Room; didn't work.

InfinityRVer; I am curious how Dutchmen handled your concerns, as they have been great to deal with on other concerns I have had with my Voltage. PS: I also have a 2008 Dutchmen Grand Junction 35TMS, and I checked and found numerous cutouts left in the ducts from when the vents were cut in by the hole saw.... PM me if you would like to discuss in private.

Thanks, John

[kodiak 2013]

We have a 241 rbsl with a 15k air it gets cold to cold we keep it at 71 f even then its cool but stuff comes out of the ducts only down side

[Infinityrver]

Originally Posted by griffsresort

We have a 2012 Voltage 3200 epic package. We have had the unit for about 16 months now, and we have had a lot of issues with the main 15kw a/c unit not cooling the rig. We do have a 13.5KW unit in the bedroom which is very efficient (non ducted) but we get virtually no air coming out of the round supply vents anywhere in the rig. We have the directional only vents that cannot be closed off to increase flow to a particular area. The garage cannot be cooled unless all the window shades are down & closed and the sliding glass door is left open. The interior ceiling sweats really bad when the outside temps rise. I did remove the return air vents to clean out the filters, and found that the duct work for the fresh air return were 40 % collapsed so I placed a small block of wood inside to prop open, but this only helped nominally. I have the rig in an RV Collision Shop now because of two separate blowouts (akumet tires), and I have asked the techs to please look at the system and come up with some solutions. I did change out the garage a/c vents to the ones that can be closed, just to try to get more airflow to the Liv Room; didn't work.

InfinityRVer; I am curious how Dutchmen handled your concerns, as they have been great to deal with on other concerns I have had with my Voltage. PS: I also have a 2008 Dutchmen Grand Junction 35TMS, and I checked and found numerous cutouts left in the ducts from when the vents were cut in by the hole saw.... PM me if you would like to discuss in private.

Thanks, John

We have asked Dutchmen to step up and fix our issues with air throughout the air conditioning vents. I have consulted with the repair facility and we were just waiting for authorization. We're still waiting. The air vent issue is throughout many Infinity's & Voltage units. It's not like its just happened to my unit.

We have requested this and our unit is out of warranty. I'm really not holding my breath. I will get it fixed. I was just hoping to do it on Dutchmens dime.

[Sinecure]

As a few have mentioned earlier in this thread, I now do not believe that the air returns (intakes) are too small for the unit. Last week I went up on the roof, removed the shroud and opened up the air box. This allowed the unit to pull air directly from outside and blow it into the camper. I went inside and turned the unit on only to find that there was virtually NO improvement in airflow out of the vents. This brings me back to my original assumption that air is being dumped directly into the ceiling instead of through the ducts.

I'm really annoyed with this. A camping buddy just bought one of those new $15,999 28' bunkhouse specials and his ducted A/C blows even harder than my residential air conditioning. How then can a $60,000+ unit's A/C be so defective? Dutchmen really needs to own up to their completely worthless design.

Edit: just noticed almost 100 replies to this thread. It's definitely a common issue with this manufacturer. DUTCHMEN, ARE YOU LISTENING???

[GOLDENYEARS]

]

Originally Posted by Infinityrver

We have asked Dutchmen to step up and fix our issues with air throughout the air conditioning vents. I have consulted with the repair facility and we were just waiting for authorization. We're still waiting. The air vent issue is throughout many Infinity's & Voltage units. It's not like its just happened to my unit.

We have requested this and our unit is out of warranty. I'm really not holding my breath. I will get it fixed. I was just hoping to do it on Dutchmens dime.

I have tried to include some pictures of whar is going on with my rig

[noclue]

Oh how I wish I found this forum before I bought my Kodiak in June this year.

We have the same issue with poor cooling from our TT (single 15k with pucks). We bought it a week before the 4th of July, picked it from our dealer on Friday and took off for some fun by the lake for 4 days. With the outside temps in the low 90's during the day, our inside temp would never get cooler than 80 inside the unit. Called the dealer and received a response of "that is normal". Well, being that I just traded in a Zinger to them for this one so I knew it wasn't normal as our Zinger didn't have the same problem. As well the other two families camping with us, their Zinger and Aspen Trail units were very cold. Which were bought from the same dealer. I did ask him should they bring their units in to "normalize" them. He didn't like that.

So I took it back to the dealer. They installed a vent cover on the unit which will allow us to circumvent the duct system. This took them 4 weeks to complete. We haven't had a chance to test it out yet. If it works, I will be looking for the manufacture to fix the ducting issues. I could only imagine how warm the bedroom and rear bunks will get without air being pushed to it.

[GOLDENYEARS]

In my opinion this is the way the whole she-bang should be set up!

I just hope this all makes sense to those trying to understand it.

[GOLDENYEARS]

Originally Posted by GOLDENYEARS

In my opinion this is the way the whole she-bang should be set up!

I just hope this all makes sense to those trying to understand it.

Just to be crystal lake clear:

The photo on the left, with the yellow is the way I believe it should be. The yellow is a baffle that needs to be added. Also, if you notice the clear, wire wrapped duct. That should not be there.


With the absense of the yellow baffle and the presence of the clear wire wrapped hose the "puck duct vents" are common to the return air rather than being common to the supply air.

when you take away the clear wire wrapped duct and put in the baffle the return air is now seperate from the supply air 'puck ducts". Now the puck ducts are common to the supply (conditioned air) air discharge. did I do it and make things clear?

[eightydo]

Originally Posted by GOLDENYEARS

Just to be crystal lake clear:

The photo on the left, with the yellow is the way I believe it should be. The yellow is a baffle that needs to be added. Also, if you notice the clear, wire wrapped duct. That should not be there.


With the absense of the yellow baffle and the presence of the clear wire wrapped hose the "puck duct vents" are common to the return air rather than being common to the supply air.

when you take away the clear wire wrapped duct and put in the baffle the return air is now seperate from the supply air 'puck ducts". Now the puck ducts are common to the supply (conditioned air) air discharge. did I do it and make things clear?

Did you remove A/C on roof to access the duct work or did you remove celling panel to access duct work to install baffle What did you use for the baffle?

[hddecker]

Well we finally got to some place where we really needed A/C to actually work.

Like so many other post I have read, I guess I've got some work to do when we get home.

The coach actually got cooler when I by passed the duct work, so I guess that means all the clod air is blowing into the roof cavity.

.

[GOLDENYEARS]

Originally Posted by eightydo

Did you remove A/C on roof to access the duct work or did you remove celling panel to access duct work to install baffle What did you use for the baffle?

The view you are seeing in all of my posts are actual pictures I took using an Ipad. Everything can be accesed from the inside of the rig by simply removing the six screws holding up the the airbox shroud.
I have included a page from the installation manual on the location of the screws for the shroud.

I have not put in my baffle yet. However I will be using some type of insulated foam board or the that "silver bubble wrap" insulation. I will attach it with some metal duct tape top bottom and sides.

It does look like a pretty straight forward fix. My only concern is the warranty. When you pull the shroud off let me know what you find.'

thank you.

[Sinecure]

Originally Posted by GOLDENYEARS

The view you are seeing in all of my posts are actual pictures I took using an Ipad. Everything can be accesed from the inside of the rig by simply removing the six screws holding up the the airbox shroud.

That must be after your dealer installed the air shroud. None of us have the register in the middle of the ceiling, just the two return vents and puck vents throughout

[Nana & Poppy]

Well we have the air shroud in the middle of the kitchen/living area and pucks everyplace else.