Question Why are Dometic roof top RV air conditioners lasting longer with Micro-Air Soft Starts?

[Neal]

So I was thinking this morning...why are Dometic air conditioners equipped with Micro-Air Soft Starts outlasting stock Dometic units for RV's? Then I remembered long ago when my residential A/C unit had a capacitor failure which seems to be the most common cause of failure in air conditioner units, from what I recall. So is this a simple situation of the capacitor in the Micro-Air unit is more reliable and longer lasting than what Dometic is using?

Secondly, I wonder how many replaced a Dometic roof top A/C unit on their RV which really just needed a capacitor replacement? If the unit did not have a Micro-Air soft start in it, would installing one into the failed unit resolved the failure? Or are the failures some other known component? My hunch is people are discarding perfectly good Dometic units that could be fixed with a capacitor change (and upgrade to Micro-Air)?

Thoughts???

 

[Holdmybeer]

Largely I would guess because the primary reason ac's fail is compressor issues. In residential ac's when a compressor is struggling they install a hard start capacitor which extends the life of the compressor. Soft starts in RV rooftop units likewise ease the start up burden on the compressor. The less stress the compressor is subject too overtime I suspect extends the life.

 

[Kevin D Pem]

My educated answer is charge would be the number one failure. Because real A/C Technicians don't work in the the RV industry perfectly good units are being replaced.

Digging further, soft start units reduce impact from abrupt starts. This in turn reduces wear on any coil that was improperly fixed in place by the varnishing process so reduces coil failure.

This also reduces fatigue of the copper tubing that leads to system leaks.

Certainly the soft starts would prove beneficial.

 

[flyboy013]

@Neal Who says Dometic air conditioners equipped with Micro-Air Soft Starts outlasting stock Dometic units for RV's?

Personally my units are 7.5 years old and still going strong (knock on wood). I’ve done maintenance such as replacing a blower motor as a set of bearings started to wear, replaced a control board on one unit (although the issue may have been a bad Silverleaf module), and have cleaned the coils a few times. These units have been used pretty much nonstop the whole time as we are full timers and even before making the switch we were half timers and kept the units on the other half to keep the coach better maintained.

 

[Neal]

@Neal Who says Dometic air conditioners equipped with Micro-Air Soft Starts outlasting stock Dometic units for RV's?

It is just my observation and also mentioned by others here at times.