Got Earplugs?

[SeaDawg]

We'll look forward to your write-up. They're always great.

I've never used any of the Dicor products. What is the chemistry on the sealant you used? Silicon? Polyurethane? 

I do think setting up the upper guard first was a great idea. Especially if you have the weather, and time, to let the sealant cure.

 

Edited April 9, 2021 by SeaDawg

[Minnesota Oli]

Here's a link to Dicor web site.

https://dicorproducts.com/product/non-leveling-lap-sealants/

[SeaDawg]

We picked up the trailer Friday, and I've been working on putting the interior back together. It's been warm and humid, so I enjoyed running the new quiet ac.

I downloaded a decibel meter, and took a few readings from the small dinette area. Note the averages are "high", because the meter records every screenshot click as 81 decibels. On a few shots, you can see the bump of a screenshot being recorded on the graph.

All the sound levels have been lower than normal conversations (60 db), so I'm confident we can sleep comfortably or carry on a conversation with the ac on.

[SeaDawg]

I left the dehumidifier function on overnight, instead of ac, to reduce power consumption.  I  don't have a hygrometer, so nothing scientific to report. It certainly felt better in the trailer than the 88 per cent humidity outside.

There is a low kind of pulsing "hum" when the compressor runs, barely audible above the fan. Outside the trailer, it's also very quiet. I was hesitant to run the old unit in the sideyard, because I  didn't want to annoy my neighbors. 

So, initially,  at least, we're both happy. Let's hope it doesn't get noisier with time.

[SeaDawg]

And, a couple short videos, recording the sound on low from small dinette, and high from the bed.

I suspect it will be a bit more quiet when I  reinstall the shades, and the rest of the cushions and rugs. Sounds still echo a bit without the soft surfaces.

[katanapilot]

Oliver are you listening? No (good) reason OTT isn’t installing the Houghton units in new trailers. The Dometic Penguin is a poor choice given the noise level and the availability of something dramatically better. 
 

To potential customers reading this - insist that OTT gets with the program and installs these much quieter, better built and more energy efficient units in their 2022 trailers. 

[NCeagle]

18 hours ago, SeaDawg said:

I left the dehumidifier function on overnight, instead of ac, to reduce power consumption.  I  don't have a hygrometer, so nothing scientific to report. It certainly felt better in the trailer than the 88 per cent humidity outside.

There is a low kind of pulsing "hum" when the compressor runs, barely audible above the fan. Outside the trailer, it's also very quiet. I was hesitant to run the old unit in the sideyard, because I  didn't want to annoy my neighbors. 

So, initially,  at least, we're both happy. Let's hope it doesn't get noisier with time.

I called RecPro technical support with questions about the dehumidifier and how it functions.  I sent them a graph that showed the humidity going up (or holding steady) rather than down when I used the dehumidify function.  The response was that I likely had the temp set on the unit too close to the room temp.  The owners manual says to set the thermostat 1 degree colder than the room temp, so I did (in Fahrenheit) - turns out it's 1 degree C and not 1 degree F.  🙂  So the recommendation was to set the thermostat AT LEAST 5 degrees F cooler than the room for the dehumidifier to operate as it should.  

When I followed these recommendations, I did see condensation falling off of the roof finally!  Haven't had a chance to measure the humidity drop, but water is a sure sign things are working better.

[Minnesota Oli]

On 4/9/2021 at 3:37 PM, Minnesota Oli said:

I will chime in because I went with Dicor lap sealant non leveling. I applied it to the under side of the outside mount frame and put it in the opening with four bolts in place. Then I put the inside mount frame in place and hand tightened the nuts with very little force. This assured me the all was lined up properly. I smooth out what squeezed out by dipping my finger in water and forming a bead around the frame.  I let this sit for 24 hours before installing the ac. When I torqued the bolt to 9 ft lbs I looked up on top and saw a couple spots where my formed bead had some small bulges but I'm satisfied that I have a good seal. When time permits I'm planing to write up my version of this AC install.  

My version of Houghton AC install.

Start out by cutting 120 volt power to AC and 12 volt power to furnace. Next remove the plenum of the Dometic Penguin II on the inside of the Oliver. This will expose a group of wires that are in a black sheath, these are the control side of the wiring for the AC. These go to a LCD relay board that controls Cool/Furnace/Heat Strip that is mounted up in the AC. You will also see a metal electrical 4" x 2" Handy Box that will have the 120 volt power supply for the AC. Both sets of wires can then be disconnected and the four bolts holding the AC on can be removed, this allows you to remove the AC from the roof of Oliver.

 

 

The Houghton AC will not be using the Dometic thermostat that's mounted on the wall because it comes with a remote but your furnace still needs the wall thermostat which works with the LCD Relay Board. I wanted to preserve my old AC with the LCD relay board intact for resale, so I purchased a replacement board mounted it in a plastic box. I installed it in the area where my tank monitor is with the access through pantry. 

 

 Where I disconnected the control side of the wiring harness from the AC I then connected wires long enough to be routed back to the new LCD relay board that is mounted next to the pantry.

I then connected those wires to the relay board. One other item is the relay board has a freeze sensor that needs to be hook up or you will get a error message. That sensor is mounted in the cooling fins on the AC, so I had a temp sensor left over from a refrigerator repair I did a while back and that worked as a replacement.

The Houghton comes with a roof mount frame, this gets a sealant applied to the under side of it and that is set in the opening in the roof, I used Dicor Lap Sealant. The roof has a slight radius built in to it to help shed water so the flat roof mount frame will tend to teeter in the opening. I applied the sealant  to the under side of the outside mount frame and put it in the opening with four bolts in place. Then I put the inside mount frame in place and hand tightened the nuts with very little force. This assured me the all was lined up properly. I smooth out what squeezed out by dipping my finger in water and forming a bead around the frame.  I let this sit for 24 hours before installing the ac. When I torqued the bolt to 9 ft lbs I looked up on top and saw a couple spots where my formed bead had some small bulges but I'm satisfied that I have a good seal.

 

 

 

I made the 120 volt connection to the AC with waterproof connectors and discarded 4" x 2" Handy Box so I would have less obstructions in the air passageways. I also used aluminum foil tape to smooth the transition between the two mount frames.

As a sidenote halfway through the install I thought of a different way of doing the wiring for the thermostat. If a person replaced the LCD thermostat with a older manual style you could do away with the LCD relay board. If you look at the first picture that shows a group of wires that are in a black sheath, these are the control side of the wiring for the AC. In that group of wires there are two blue wires one with a white stripe. The one with the white stripe is hot 12 volts DC and the solid blue is the wire that goes to the furnace relay board. So re-allocate the existing thermostat wires by doubling them up ,two of them hooked to the solid blue and the other two hook to the blue with the white stripe. Then at the wall hook the two thermostat wires that are hooked to blue with white stripe to the power in on the new manual thermostat and the other two to the power out. The reason I would double them up is because of they're small gauge. This would do away with having to pull wires and using the LCD relay board. Also save you having to toggle through the unusable modes (heat strip, cool)  on the LCD thermostat to get to the furnace mode.

I am very pleased with the sound levels of this AC, you can easily have a conversation between two people without any difficulty of hearing each other. Plus it also has heat mode and dry mode.

I should have done this write up sooner when it was fresh in my mind. Oh well.

Paul

PS  I also installed the Micro Air EasyStart. I wanted to ensure that my Honda 2200 would be able to start the AC from eco- mode. You can see from the pictures it was very tight space to mount the unit.

The captured inrush amps before installation was 67.1 and 48.9 after install.

 

 

[SeaDawg]

Nice! Thanks for all the great photos.

In our older ac, only the furnace has an analog thermostat,  so, no problem with the sensor when we installed the Houghton smaller (ac only) unit.

 

 

[katanapilot]

Great write up! 
 

Still holding out hope the OTT will make the switch to this or one of the other available quiet units. No excuse in my opinion that they continue to install the painfully loud Dometics. 

[SeaDawg]

I suspect you might see an option when supply chains clear up.

Right now, it's hard to get a lot of things. 

I know one manufacturer offered the coleman ndq quiet ac, and had to backorder, ad they could not get them . I waited two or three weeks for my model to come into stock. I  can do that. 

A manufacturer can't.

I do hope so, anyway. Right now, it's tough to find syp good lumber, electrical conduit, parts. And that's just our projects. Everything has increased exponentially in price in building materials. I never thought I'd have to pay almost 17 dollars for 10 ft. 2 x 6 boards, but I did, today. And was happy to find 20 in stock that looked good. I waited 3.5 months for common size windows, usually 3 to 7 day ship.

It'll get better.

[Ocala Guy]

Minnesota Oli  I am in the process of changing from a Dometic A/C to the same unit you just installed. I see you also installed the easy start for your unit. Can you maybe provide a wiring diagram on your install? It looks like you may have made brackets to hang the easy start on? I see a junction box for the wires. Did you add that? I installed the easy start on my last a/c but it had a diagram to follow. I don’t want to screw up a new a/c so I would appreciate your expertise. Thanks.

Thermostat issues for heat can be resolved using a Honeywell Pro TH 1100DV1000 thermostat.  Intercept two wires that come from the furnace to the Dometic a/c control box and use two of the wires that go to the current  Dometic digital unit and attach them to the Honeywell unit.  The Honeywell uses double A battery that you change once a year. The thermostat just makes and breaks the connection when you call for heat and the Honeywell unit is not very expensive.    
 

[Minnesota Oli]

Ocala Guy

 If you go to Micro Air Easy start website, they have resources on how to install their product plus specific schematic for the Houghton AC. Print them off for reference when installing. Under the hood of the Houghton space is limited, you can't see from the pictures but there are two electrical boxes, one on each side of the insulated portion of the AC. Looking at the pictures, the enclosure that has the lead wire from the Micro Air soft start going to it contains the capacitor you will need to connect to. You will also have to run wire to the other enclosure  to connect the black wire from Easy Start to the switched-L-1 connects coming from the main control board or main contactor that connects to the compressor common terminal wire. I chose to make a shorter wire run directly to compressor just in front of the over load protection devise.

 For mounting the Micro Air I used Velcro but added two straps made from banding to help support it since it was hook to Styrofoam.

Paul

[Ocala Guy]

Thank you for your help. You did an outstanding installation. Have you fired it up yet with your gen set. I have a Honda 2000I and with the easy Start installed on my current Penguin and it works very well. Again thanks for your reply.

 

Carl

[Minnesota Oli]

Carl

 I have the Honda 2200 with propane conversion and has no problem starting AC from eco mode running from ether fuel source. Wish you good luck with your project. Happy to answer any question you might have.

Paul 

[katanapilot]

Looks like there may be yet another quiet a/c available soon. 

https://go.truma.net/aventa

[Mike and Carol]

5 hours ago, katanapilot said:

Looks like there may be yet another quiet a/c available soon. 

https://go.truma.net/aventa

Looks like a nice unit.  Dometic better up their game….

[SeaDawg]

That would likely be a good choice, as Oliver already has a good business relationship with Truma. The Truma German engineering is tested in eu, long before it gets here .

[ScubaRx]

This Aventa unit has a cooling power of less than 8200 BTU's (2400 watts). That might work fine for an Elite, I'd not try it in our Elite II. Also, it's currently only available in 230 V – 240 V ~. 50 Hz models.

[SeaDawg]

So, there's a new player out there in RV AC-- GE. 13,500 and 15,000 btu models.

A few rv manufacturers are using them in new units, so we should have some meaningful reviews soon. I found a few on GE's own website, very mixed on noise level, and too many reviews stating the 15k stopped working after a couple months. 13.5k had only a handful of reviews, most very good.

To be fair, many of those saying the ac was noisy were new to rving. Many who said it was relatively quiet had owned rvs before. No decibel ratings that I could find, anywhere.

https://www.geappliances.com/appliance/Exterior-RV-Air-Conditioner-15k-ARC15AACB

https://rv-pro.com/features/ge-appliances-makes-inroads-rv-segment/

[Skipster]

On 3/1/2021 at 6:11 AM, katanapilot said:

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!

we too can't handle the noise..  what a shame.   we cool off the ollie then run the fan and open the windows.  very hot last week. My wife can not stand anything in here ears or headphones to sleep with.   I put ear plugs in but too we just can't use the ac except to cool off the interior

[katanapilot]

I’m sorry you have had to deal with the excessive noise level.

I have spent almost a week at EAA AirVenture in the Ollie with the new Houghton heat pump. It has performed beautifully, cooled well  (and heated some this morning) and is remarkably quiet.

The compressor does cycle a bit more often than I’d like and the condensate does run off the roof. 

My spouse and I were talking tonight over dinner (with the a/c running) about how satisfied overall we are with this modification. 

We had a severe thunderstorm last night with the threat of tornadoes and did not experience any leaks - so the RTV we used seems to be adequate. 

Report on supercharged Tundra to follow once we get home…

 

 

Edited July 30, 2021 by katanapilot
Added heat usage

[SeaDawg]

I've been checking the recpro site occasionally to see if the Houghton ac has been in stock, and lately, it's been good, both in black and white.

Today, I  noticed another interesting ac unit on their site. 

https://www.recpro.com/recpro-12v-rv-air-conditioner/

This one runs on 12v, not 110, with an average of 80 amps in their testing, so theoretically,  those of you with the big lithium installs might just be able to run ac overnight, without a generator or hookups.

It's way too big for my rooftop available space at 33 x 48, but very low profile.

Coachmen is supposed to be using this in their new model Galleria, on a sprinter chassis, so we'll probably get some reviews from those owners soon. 

All I  could find was one youtube, and some testing charts from Premier.

It's inverter compressor technology, so no easy start necessary. But, it also comes with a $2500 price tag. And, #2 wire needs to be run.

It's encouraging, however, to see some new players in rv ac.

 

[Geronimo John]

On 3/6/2021 at 1:09 PM, katanapilot said:

1. The internal drain does not connect to the Houghton, so the condensate will drain down the roof.  

Can you elaborate more on the drain incompatibility issue?

Reason I am asking is the Houghton unit is significantly shorter in height than our turbojet hammer mill OEM unit.  As such, maybe we could use some of this height for this drain issue.  One example for pondering would be to install rubber mat  or conveyor belt section(s) on the roof of Ollie under the Houghton unit?   It possibly could provide two benefits and still be shorter than OEM:

• A bit additional sound deadening.  Not all that necessary with the ultra quiet Houghton, but some benefit none the less.  Many older RV's use mats for this purpose.
• A potential access and gravity flow path to the existing Oliver installed drain system.

Your thoughts?

Thanks,  

PS:  Any owners installing a new Houghton:  Please send pictures of the Oliver and Houghton drain systems if you can.  GJ

[Geronimo John]

SeaDawg: Posted August 10

..."It's inverter compressor technology, so no easy start necessary. But, it also comes with a $2500 price tag.  And, #2 wire needs to be run".

Your assessment of the 12V unit reminded me to ask if the 120 volt RP-AC2801 and RP-AC3400 units are inverter units?  Multi-speed compressors and circulation fans?  Or just cycle on less often? 

thanks