Loud air conditioner

[marylynne]

Does anyone else think their air conditioner is loud? Our roof air on a 2003 3124ks is so loud that you have to turn up the radio volume or talk much louder to have a conversation. Our previous TM had a side air conditioner and it was very quiet and cooled the 2720sl just fine. The dealer says all Colemans are loud.

Any suggestions on how to make the fan quieter. The noise is in the fan not the compressor.

Thanks
ML

[BOB_STRONG]

We had a Coleman on our 1994 3326King. When the fan was on a higher speed, it was noisy. On our 2002 3326 King, there is a Dometic a/c. When it is on a higher speed, it too is noisy. For us, the 2 a/c units seem just as noisy when on the higher speed. It's not bad when you have the speed reduced down. I think that this is just the nature of the units when in an RV.

Bob Strong

[marylynne]

I would expect loud on high speed but the noise on low speed fan is what bothers us. Normal conversation, radio or tv can not be understood unless these volumes are raised considerably. How can you lower the fan speed below low. It is the sound of way to much air moving.

Thanks
ML

Looks like we are all in the same boat. I thought my 99 3326 was loud because it was older and I was considering a change. Any ideas? ??? ???

The cabinet air in my 2720 was great. You could sleep all night in peace and quiet. The a/c over the bed is a real annoyance but you get used to it.

In South Texas it is not possible to RV without A/C. Help :-[.

[G-V_Driver]

ML,

A jet engine turns at approximately 35,000 rpm. A ceiling fan turns at about 100 rpm. As the kids say, "do the math." Your vacuum cleaner is another example.

There are three basic components to the noise, excluding the compressor:

The motor noise (which you can check by removing the fan blade) Turn on the unit and see how much noise it makes.

The fan blades accelerating the air moving through the system.

The ductwork, which I suspect is the major culprit in the camper.

In a prior life, I designed HVAC systems for homes and small businesses. We had to be very careful when sizing the ductwork and registers. If we tried to force too much air through too small a pipe (cubic feet per minute or cfm) it would create excessive air noise and even whistle (like the jet engine and the vac).

Take a hard look at your TM a/c and notice the small ducts and the big fan. The apparent choices are to turn down the fan or talk louder. The positive side of the story is that running the air conditioner on high eliminates any noise problems from others in the campground.

Our sense is that much of the noise comes when the compressor turns on. When it's just the fan, it really isn't so bad. We also use the ceiling fan to pull some of the air forward, (and out, I know!) which gets the unit colled quickly, so the compressor doesn't have to be one for long. We also keep the unit a bit warmer than some folks might like, and since we don't tend to be in the unit much during the day, we generally aren't inside much when the compressor is going full blast.

In other words, we've fortunately been able to live with it and hevan't felt the need to try to modify it in any way.

[mjlaupp]

[quote author=F. J. and Ellen link=board=1;threadid=1687;start=msg11995#msg11995 date=1077547823]
Our sense is that much of the noise comes when the compressor turns on. When it's just the fan, it really isn't so bad.[/quote]

If most of the noise is coming from the compressor, then I would suspect that the shipping bolts may not have been loosened or removed when the unit was installed on the TM. Try removing the AC shroud and check that the compressor is floating on the sound/vibration dampers.
MJL

[marylynne]

I borrowed a decibel meter from church and measured the Air Conditioner noise.
low fan 73-75 decibels
high fan 74-75 decibels
low fan, compressor on 75 decibels

This seems to be somewhere between heavy street traffic and vacumm cleaner running. Dealer says this is normal and it is because the TM does not have a lot of insulation in roof around Air Conditioner.

We were looking at a generator. I guess we won't need to worry about super quiet. Even the Yamaha EF2800i comes in only at 67 decibels.

Still looking for ideas to quiet Air Conditioner fan on low speed.

Mary Lynne Moore

You're a smart person to check the decibels. The Honda eu2000i has a rating of 59 to give a comparision. There must be a solution and I guess it is to check all roof air models and the decibel level it produces. Let's not stop here.

[grill-n-go]

Agree with all the comments on loud air. Living/RVing in Florida makes airconditioning a must have. I am now considering a portable airconditioner such as the ones at the REWilliams web site http://store.yahoo.com/rewilliams/poraircon.html
Sunpentown appears to be the lowest cost one
Having been in the airconditioning business I can tell you that these portable systems are very quiet, you can actually hear yourself think. Venting can be done by modifying one of the velcro flaps.

If and when I get one of these I'll let you know how it works out. If someone beats me to the punch please let us know.