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Cruisairs
I have not had to run my cruisairs much in FL lately and my Salon A/C probably hasn’t been run in two months.
Anyway, today was almost 80 here & I turned on the A/C’s to check them all. My salon a/c was not cooling. Since the evaporator is located behind the upper front windshield, I expect this a/c to cool slower due to the heat in the front upper compartment. But for almost an hour, the compressor was on, but no real cooling came from this unit. I ensured my front end was not sitting on the ground to ensure better airflow.
Finally, and I have no idea why, it started cooling like it should.
Any ideas why?
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13 Replies
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It’s just devious Tim, 3, 4 in the morning you’ll wake up with the blinks thinking “Now why did that do that”. Just sayin’…..
2005 XL Thompson Coach
Rarely tow anything behind us.
Sold: 1993 Liberty that we loved for 12 years. -
Tim,
Are you getting any error codes? Is the SMX set for “cool”?
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No error codes and yes, SMX is set on cool.
Compressor runs, evaporator runs, it just didn’t cool fro around 60 minutes. Then, for some reason, it started to cool.
Topped off all a/c’s last spring at AAP so Freon should be good. If Freon was low then it shouldn’t have ever cooled … I would think.
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It takes awhile for the cooling to do well with that front evaporater being up above and forward of the door, the front cap gets really hot. 60 minutes means there is problem somewhere. Give Fred a call at AAP, he’s always helpful.
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I’ve had a similar situation to Tim except with the heat. With this past cold snap I turned on the Webasto but that wasn’t enough heat. So I turned on the SMX to Heat, turned the thermostat up to as high as 84 on multiple units but only got cold air out of the vents. After 30 minutes it was just too cold and shut them off. This happened on multiple very cold mornings.
I remember this happening last year when the coach was stored. Nothing but cold air but I let the units run while I was right there working at my shop. A couple hours later I went in the coach and it was brutally warm.
So, does it take a fair amount time for the heat to finally come on?
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Talked to Fred today,
First, he said that Cruiseairs do “much better” when they are used often. I had not turned on the front A/C for around two months. All my other cruiseairs have been used routinely.
I explained the symptoms to Fred. He said he had heard that when a cruisair sits for long periods of time, there is some kind of reverse valve in compressor/unit that can get stuck. It is lubricated internally and if not exercised, has caused some problems.
The good news is that it’s been working flawless today so I’m hoping that was the issue.
Moral of the story … exercise all your cruiseairs routinely!
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I have 2 Cruisair’s that need work on them. Who would be reliable in Florida?
Thanks,
Bob Hansen
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Tim – I had a reverse valve problem years ago in a Liberty and I believe the solution then was to cycle between heat and air to get it working. Sounds like you’re good to go now.
Bob – Tradewinds can probably help you out, they’re one of our advertisers. Also, Marathon in San Antonio since you have a Marathon.
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Tim – I had a reverse valve problem years ago in a Liberty and I believe the solution then was to cycle between heat and air to get it working. Sounds like you’re good to go now.
Bob – Tradewinds can probably help you out, they’re one of our advertisers.
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Jimmy: did I understand correctly? The Webasto didn’t put out enough heat? That doesn’t make sense to me. The Webasto should put out tons more heat than you could ever stand. We used the Webasto over Christmas at 3*F and 5*F overnight and had to turn the Webasto down.
The Cruise-Airs ability to crank out heat is dependent on each unit having the right amount of Freon, all the valves working right, the evaporator and condensers being clean and their fans working, and finally the outside air temp. From my experience they don’t work very well (produce heat) under 21*F to 25*F OAT.
Your CAs eventually gave you heat? Sounds like you had a valve sticking that probably unstuck itself. My CAs give me heat in a few minutes.
I’m not an expert on how the CA works, but understand how heat pumps work. To switch from cool mode to heat mode, there should be some valves that have to open/close to reverse which heat exchanger gets hit or cold. If a valve gets stuck, you probably won’t get the desired result. Once all the valves are working properly, then it should work correctly; if the unit has enough Freon.
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Does anyone know if the Cruiseairs have a defrost mode that reverses the evaporator/condenser when in heat mode and it is cold enough?
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Not sure about that, but it does have a one setting mode where you set the temp and it will either run heat or A/C as needed to maintain that temperature.
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On my SMX panels, if you push the heat AND cool buttons in at the same time, the unit decides which one is needed to maintain the set point temps.
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