Got Earplugs?

[Overland]

14 hours ago, Wendell Douglas said:

Curious, what is your hat size, and what brand model NC headphones are you using? (I'm a size 8 head and not many headphones are comfortable...)

I have the Sony WM-1000XM3.  All the reviews I read emphasize their comfort, and I agree.  I can fall asleep on my side with them on without waking up later with a sore ear.  No idea what my hat size is, but contrary to what some might say, my head is on the smaller size - small enough that the headband doesn’t extend any when I put them on.  As such, they’re just ever so lightly loose and will want to tilt forward if I bend down, but they stay in place otherwise.  If I’m doing anything active I’ll wear AirPods.  I don’t have the noise cancelling version of those, but I’m very curious how well they work and how comfortable they are to wear.

I do have software issues with the Sonys, in that they don’t seem to hold settings (the capacitive touch buttons on the sides can be a pain and they simply won’t stay off like I want), and they don’t always want to switch Bluetooth connections without turning them off and on again.

Edited February 28, 2021 by Overland

[katanapilot]

It's pretty bad that Ollie owners have to resort to sleeping with ANR headphones or turning the A/C off and sleeping in the heat and humidity just because the installed HVAC is too loud.

Same issue when eating as well.

Time for OTT to provide some relief for future owners.  The solution(s) is/are available!

Edited March 1, 2021 by katanapilot
Added missing text

[Overland]

1 hour ago, katanapilot said:

The solution(s) is/are available!

Are you thinking what I’m thinking? A noise cancelling trailer?!?

Edited March 1, 2021 by Overland

[katanapilot]

6 hours ago, Overland said:

Are you thinking what I’m thinking? A noise cancelling trailer?!?

That might work.  I know there is active noise cancelling on some turboprop airplanes, so why not a trailer? 

[NCeagle]

On 10/9/2020 at 1:36 PM, katanapilot said:

We just spent our first two nights in the Oliver. The a/c noise is awful. The Atwood installation is now top of my modification list.

We spent our first night in our Oliver with the AC on last week for the first time.  I was prepared for loud because I had tested it, but trying to sleep with it running was impossible for both of us.  My wife actually considered moving to the truck that night because it woke us up every 20 minutes.  I ended up turning it off - a bummer because it really was needed to keep the Ollie reasonably cool that night.

A new A/C is now at the top of our list too!  Thanks for sharing your experience @katanapilot!  It will make this a bit less stressful knowing that you have found a pretty good unit (Houghton) that you have already installed.

What are you going to do with your old unit?  Ebay?

[Patriot]

Following.

 

[katanapilot]

4 hours ago, NCeagle said:

We spent our first night in our Oliver with the AC on last week for the first time.  I was prepared for loud because I had tested it, but trying to sleep with it running was impossible for both of us.  My wife actually considered moving to the truck that night because it woke us up every 20 minutes.  I ended up turning it off - a bummer because it really was needed to keep the Ollie reasonably cool that night.

A new A/C is now at the top of our list too!  Thanks for sharing your experience @katanapilot!  It will make this a bit less stressful knowing that you have found a pretty good unit (Houghton) that you have already installed.

What are you going to do with your old unit?  Ebay?

Sorry to "hear" about your less than comfortable night.  Our experience was similar, although a set of foam earplugs allowed me to survive the noise.  My spouse is not nearly as light a sleeper as I am and she was fine. There will be no need for earplugs or ANR headphones with the Houghton.

As to the disposal of the Dometic jet engine - I'll try to sell it in my neighborhood first.  These are pretty good units to put into a utility trailer or similar since the noise level really doesn't matter. I did that with the Dometic from our previous MH and a neighbor bought it. If there is an Ollie owner in the Atlanta area and you want a spare, let me know.  I'll sell it cheap.

I'm working on completing the install this weekend. I'm modifying the Dometic CT thermostat relay board to fit it into a much smaller relay box.  This is probably the most time consuming part of the modification and could be avoided by changing thermostats - but I'm trying to keep the existing Tstat in place to control the furnace.  As previously discussed, the Houghton has a touchpad on the ceiling diffuser and a remote for control of the heat pump.

Edited March 6, 2021 by katanapilot
corrected text

[NCeagle]

@katanapilot, I saw that relay box.  I was hoping it would fit somewhere in a "new" void, but if you are modifying it I assume it doesn't.  I'll be interested to find out how this final part of your upgrade goes.  I'm not against getting a new thermostat if that's easier - running wires to the furnace from where the thermostat is would be pretty simple.  I initially toyed with the idea of cutting off or ordering a connector for the main power like the Dometic uses to connect to that relay box and splicing the Houghton in, but quickly realized it might work for the AC but certainly not with the dehumidifier & heater combo that the Dometic lacks.  Cheers!

[katanapilot]

It probably will fit, but you have to put it up in the "void" before installing the mounting pieces from below.  Anything placed in the void partially blocks the airflow (as it did with the Dometic), but I am trying to minimize the amount of blockage - hence the modification of the relay box into a smaller box.  It's likely not necessary, but I'm channeling my inner JD and trying to do it better. 😉

 

[katanapilot]

I completed the installation of the Houghton (RecPro) 13.5k BTU heat pump today.  Pretty happy overall with the installation and beyond happy with the quietness of the Houghton versus the Dometic.

A couple of notes -

1. The internal drain does not connect to the Houghton, so the condensate will drain down the roof.  Not a huge deal, but it will leave some stains and the Oliver installed drain was a nice feature that I have lost.

2. The Houghton will not be connected to the Dometic CT thermostat - so you lose the Bluetooth feature of the CT. The Houghton does have a touchpad on the overhead plenum plus a remote.  You can use the CT thermostat to control the gas fired furnace.

3.  I modified the relay board to remove all of the AC power features including the large relay that used to be connected to the compressor on the Dometic A/C. This allowed me to mount the relay board in a much smaller box (Hammond 1591GSBK that I bought from Newark). I had to make some small modifications to the board itself, as well.  I was able to velcro the relay box onto the side of the plenum attach bracket.

4.  There will be two screw holes from the Dometic plenum that are not covered by the Houghton plenum.  I used white screw caps to cover these holes.

I did noise measurements again today and here are the results -

Location, Baseline measurement, Low Fan, High Fan with compressor running (all measurements "A" weighted DB)

Front dinette seat (phone on table) - Dometic 35, 68, 71 Houghton 29, 49, 58

Left bed (phone on bed at aft end) - Dometic 31, 70, 74 Houghton  28, 52, 63

Standing under A/C (phone held at 5') - Dometic 32, 76, 78 Houghton 28, 56, 66

Not sure why the baseline is so much quieter, other than I believe the hangar door was open when I was measuring the Dometic.  It was closed today for the Houghton measurements. 

The Houghton has a medium fan speed as well and the measurements were about half way in between low and high fan.  Having the compressor running makes little difference in the sound level.

So, in summary, the Houghton is a great modification for our Ollie and I highly recommend it. I hope OTT will evaluate these units and provide them as an option for future buyers.

Pros - much quieter, more efficient, heat pump versus cool only, 13.5k BTU versus 11k.

Cons - a little pricey versus Dometic, no internal drain capability, doesn't work with wall mounted thermostat. Installation I would rate moderate difficulty. I would estimate 3-4 hours of shop labor if you have it done at a shop.

If you have questions, feel free to send me a message!

7B246F9D-2130-4EDB-9E28-4B6AC3E7A81D.heic 3313E728-DA55-4EAE-A7FC-9EB592676E01.heic 872169D5-007A-4629-823D-458E0E10BFF4.heic

[Minnesota Oli]

Could you convert the files to standard JPEG? Would love to see your project!

[topgun2]

How's this?

 

[katanapilot]

Thanks for doing that.  Not sure why the pictures didn't post. Was it the wrong file format?

[topgun2]

47 minutes ago, katanapilot said:

Was it the wrong file format?

Yep - I just imported your pics, saved them in .jpeg and re-uploaded.

No problem!

Bill

[SeaDawg]

We installed our Houghton 2801 today, and it's just great. Love it. 1 hour and 45 minutes, dumping the old, and installing new. Really nice design, and easy install. Whisper quiet.

Hardest part was getting the monster Dometic Dino unit off the roof. At least we had three people.

Thanks again, katanapilot, for the heads up on availability of the Houghton, through RecPro. 

 

Edited March 7, 2021 by SeaDawg
Add

[topgun2]

34 minutes ago, SeaDawg said:

We installed our Houghton 2801 today, and it's just great. Love it. 1 hour and 45 minutes, dumping the old, and installing new. Really nice design, and easy install. Whisper quiet.

Is this the same person that back on October 20, 2008 said, "We really like our Dometic" air conditioner? 😆

[SeaDawg]

Quite possibly.  It did cool the trailer. Still did. And, in 2008, no noisier than any other. Ac vs no ac?

[katanapilot]

1 hour ago, SeaDawg said:

We installed our Houghton 2801 today, and it's just great. Love it. 1 hour and 45 minutes, dumping the old, and installing new. Really nice design, and easy install. Whisper quiet.

Hardest part was getting the monster Dometic Dino unit off the roof. At least we had three people.

Thanks again, katanapilot, for the heads up on availability of the Houghton, through RecPro. 

 

Outstanding news! I hope we are trendsetters and our experience encourages Oliver buyers to insist on a better cooling solution for these very nice and very expensive trailers. 
 

We had a forklift, so the removal and installation on the roof wasn’t an issue. Glad you had plenty of help. 
 

Here’s to years of quiet cooling while camping!

[SeaDawg]

My hope is that our units become more readily available.  Right now, it's very limited supply.

As a retrofit,  it's great. We needed to replace our 13 year old unit, soon, anyway.

I've seriously been watching European and Australian units for  at least six years. Finally, there's a bit of inroads. But, not readily available for manufacturers.

Personally,  I  would have been happier with a 12 volt unit. But, I'll take this. For now.

[SeaDawg]

39 minutes ago, katanapilot said:

We had a forklift, so the removal and installation on the roof wasn’t an issue. Glad you had plenty of help. 

We used ropes and bull power. It worked. My outdoor unit is barely over 60 pounds. But, it's cool, only. No heat.

[SeaDawg]

I would have been far happier with a 12 v inverter compressor  unit, but, that's not in the cards,  today, in the US. 

It is what it is.

Since our unit needed replacement soon, we took the chance. I'll let you know how it works out, long run. 

We don't mind being "pioneers. "

Just hope it works as long as the old  Dometic unit. 

 

[BackofBeyond]

Thank you SeaDawg  and KatanaPilot - Oliver is in your debt. I believe you just did 80% of the engineering - get the t stat straightened out - boom,  AC and sleep!! 

Love OLIVER owner's

RB

[katanapilot]

One minor detail I forgot to mention about the Dometic CT thermostat - normally the freeze sensor in the Dometic A/C unit is connected to the CT thermostat.  With the Dometic gone, the CT displays the error code "E5" when the thermostat is active.  You could fix this by buying a Dometic freeze sensor and plugging it into the relay box or I suspect just adding an appropriately sized resistor across the two terminals in the relay box. For now, the error code does not bother me and I hope to rarely use the gas fired heater - since the new Houghton unit is a heat pump.  We are not big cold weather campers.

And thanks Russell, I hope our "experimentation" leads to an improved experience for Oliver buyers in the future.

[NCeagle]

13 minutes ago, katanapilot said:

One minor detail I forgot to mention about the Dometic CT thermostat - normally the freeze sensor in the Dometic A/C unit is connected to the CT thermostat.  With the Dometic gone, the CT displays the error code "E5" when the thermostat is active.  You could fix this by buying a Dometic freeze sensor and plugging it into the relay box or I suspect just adding an appropriately sized resistor across the two terminals in the relay box. For now, the error code does not bother me and I hope to rarely use the gas fired heater - since the new Houghton unit is a heat pump.  We are not big cold weather campers.

And thanks Russell, I hope our "experimentation" leads to an improved experience for Oliver buyers in the future.

@katanapilot

I've got my Dometic removed and I'm not seeing that E5 error with my furnace running.  I did have a freeze sensor on mine that I still have connected to the relay box (currently just hanging in the air).  I removed it from the coils before taking the unit out.  Not sure why you didn't have a freeze sensor on yours?  Also, I seem to have a slightly different thermostat in that it doesn't support bluetooth.  Weird that we have a few different components when our Ollies were built fairly close together.

Two additional question if you don't mind... 

1.  How did you safely remove that black compressor relay from the circuit board?

2.  Have you tested with a 2K generator by chance?  Wondering about needing the EasyStart.

Thanks!

[katanapilot]

Sorry about my lack of clarity.

Since the freeze sensor is of no use to me now (other than to make the relay box happy that one is connected) - I left it in the old Dometic a/c.  Might be more useful to someone who buys the unit.

My CT thermostat isn't Bluetooth either, but I understand (maybe incorrectly) that some of the newer Ollies do have the BT version.

As to the large relay - I took a pencil grinder (Dremel like tool) and carefully ground off the potting and most of the solder where the relay pins penetrate the board (this is on the back side of the board opposite the relay).  I then took my high temp soldering pencil and de-soldered one pin at a time - while simultaneously lifting gently on the relay with a small blade screwdriver.  The relay will lift further with each pin removal and will eventually just fall off when you get to the fourth pin. I cleaned up the solder holes (not neccessary) a bit too.

I meant to look at the Progressive EMS to see what the load was with the Houghton unit running on high for a comparison with the Dometic, but I didn't.  I know the start up loads are higher than the running loads.  No, I haven't tried it with a generator since I have two Honda EU2200's, but I should try it with one just to see if it will start the A/C.