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.

 

[Jonf254]

So, what I have seen both at our seasonal park and at other RV parks is line voltage can be as low as 100 volts.Most units require 120 volts +/-5% but will run on 100 volts.Ohms law tells us the lower the voltage the higher the amperes.High amperes means more heat and lower voltage means motors need to work harder to start and run causing again more heat.A soft start device is basically a big capacitor that charges to a higher then required voltage to start the unit then trickles the over power at a rate the air conditioner can handle, so the air conditioner never sees the low line voltage of 100 volts because the soft start charges to 120 + volts.This would clearly extend the life of an air conditioner particularly those used in RV parks providing less then 120/110 volts of AC at the hookup.Just my observation of what I have seen in life travels.

 

[RVThereYet]

Just a side note.
Out new ForestRiver has 3 units. One 18.5 and 2- 13.5. They are Furrion Chill Cubes. Set up the other day and the inside was 95 inside when I turned them on. 30 minutes later, comfy 72. The 18.5 when it starts up, you can hear it very slowly start winding up gets to a constant speed and then you can hear the compressor come on, again very slowly. Not the big cluck when the compressor kicks on. When it gets to speed and temp, the fan moptor winds down to about half speed. So far we love them as they do keep the unit nice and cool!

 

[Jonf254]

Just a side note.
Out new ForestRiver has 3 units. One 18.5 and 2- 13.5. They are Furrion Chill Cubes. Set up the other day and the inside was 95 inside when I turned them on. 30 minutes later, comfy 72. The 18.5 when it starts up, you can hear it very slowly start winding up gets to a constant speed and then you can hear the compressor come on, again very slowly. Not the big cluck when the compressor kicks on. When it gets to speed and temp, the fan moptor winds down to about half speed. So far we love them as they do keep the unit nice and cool!

I absolutely love the 18K Furrion Chill, it draws a whole whopping 1200 watts and it has been cooling our 36 foot SportTrek with no problem, even during the last week of 100+ degree days.We do have a second 13.5 over the bedroom, its a stock MachQ and it has come maybe once or twice during the peak parts of the day for just a few minutes, but the Furrion has ever only peaked 1200 watts, and 1450 after travel day and RV is 95+ degrees. We call that cooling catchup time and have found if we open the windows and turn on the Max air exhaust fan for about 30 minutes prior to turning on the air conditioning, the Furrion will cool the RV much faster sending us into the early even with a 80% SOC in our batteries.The Furrion maintains temperature on about 300 watts.I would love a variable Inverter Furrion 13.5k like the 18K chill cube for over the bedroom but I don't believe they have released that unit yet.If your 13.5k units our actually Variable speed inverters like you 18K, Please post the model and part number for that unit. Thanks and Enjoy those Furrions ! As of today i believe they are the best way to cool any RV.