Noisy Roof Mounted Aircon Unit

Hi Gizmo,
Yes they are a noisy beast - however this is the price you pay to have a robust unit. A standard household unit you will be used to would just fall apart.

We rarely use ours - preferring to follow the sun rather than the extreme heat.

Cheers John

Hi Gizmo,

We had a noisy Dometic air con that spent more time not working than working. On the few times we would use it we would have the internal temperature gauge next to the read out from the remote outside temperature gauge trying to work out if it were cooler in the van or out!

About two days before Christmas last year we gave up. After all the recommendations from BOG members we went and bought an Air Command Ibis and threw out the Dometic.

In the last month we have been 'stuck' in a caravan park on the Sunshine Coast it has been really hot and the Ibis has been in constant use. What a blessing it has been. Quiet, peaceful, and it works.

Now all we have to find out is how it travels on rough roads!

Hope this helps.

Cheers

Allan and Sharon

Hello Bob,

In our caravan the Ibis reduces the outside ambient temp around 8 to 10 degrees. The other day it was 37 degrees when we came home. Within 30 minutes it was down to 27 degrees. What we do is open the hatch above the bed and let the hot air out for 15 minutes.

In answer to your questions on why we chose the Ibis against the Cormorant. First of all there was favourable information on the web site and after a lot of research we found.
1. Coromorant was nearly 126 mm higher and we prefer the lower profile
2. Although we have not tried it, yet, we believe the 2kva Honda Genny will power the Ibis
3. We don't need the extra heating capacity of the Cormorant as we have the Webasto

Even though the cooling capacity is listed as the same as the Dometic we replaced we find that our new Ibis actually works and cools the van down. We presume the original Dometic never functioned according to specs.

The other problem with our Dometic was the usual mounting screws coming loose these have been fixed twice.

The final straw was when we had the air con fixed after the capillary pipe rubbed through and let the gas out. We had it fixed in Ceduna and the poor chap was on the roof fixing the thing in 43 degrees temp. We thought all was well, all be it noisy and all be it not that cool and once we got back to Brisbane the air con had karked it again. We decided that forking out good money after bad was not for us.

And after all of that the quietness is something to behold. Previously we probably needed radio communications between us just to talk to each other from one end of the 19ft van to the other.

Cheers

Allan and Sharon

I have just replaced my Dometic with another Dometic. These units are a load of rubbish. Cannot even cool down on a moderatly warm day. I have had enough of this life style and constant struggles with the heat and cooling. My complete rig is for sale effective imeadeately.
$195000 ono. Will be listed on RV point if anyone is interested.
Jack

Hello John,

We had the folks at Capalaba Caravans simply take out the 2 year old Dometic and 'pop' the Ibis in.

However, word of warning, we have not tried the Air Command on any roads other than the freeway from Rochedale Caravan Park, up to Tewantin and down to Maroochydore. So cannot comment on the performance on the rougher roads.

We love the Ibis and we love the BT lifestyle.

Kind regards

Allan and Sharon

After two failures of our noisy Dometic (Electrolux) unit from rough roads, the Ibis can hardly be much more fragile. Good to know it will just slot in and replace the Dometic if (when) it fails us again.