RV Air Conditioner and Return Vent

In another set of articles,

• Here is an article about the rv air conditioner and how you could locate it on the external part of the RV
• You can see  a picture of the roof with the air conditioner clearly showing.
• I created a page which is a how to information guide for everything RV air conditioning.
• This article shows the air conditioner return vent removed while we were replacing the air conditioner.
• Here an air conditioner was acting poorly when the lights turned on.

In this article, you can see a picture from the INSIDE of the RV, looking up at the ceiling, where the rv air conditioner is located along with its return vent.

On almost every RV with an air conditioner, you’ll see a very large rectangular GRID on the ceiling of your RV. Each one of grids is the air conditioner return vent.

Why?

For one reason, it is the direct input to the air conditioner and the return vents are located so that the conditioners can get air. You can’t very well get outside air since the air conditioner has to suck in and cool the air and the outside air would be too hot.

The BIG idea is that you cool air that is already cooler so your air conditioner doesn’t have to work so hard.

Another reason, one of simple physics, is since the air conditioner blows OUT air, it stands to reason that it has to SUCK IN air from somewhere so that it has air to cool and blow out. So that is why you need a air return vent.

Some RV air conditioners will also just blow their chilled or cooled air out from a vent right next to the air return vent.

Ductwork versus Non-Ducted AC units

The advantage to this non-ducted air conditioner configuration is that is is cheap and simple – the RV manufacturer doesn’t have to put in an ductwork. Another advantage is that the air conditioner has to work less since it doesn’t have to push air into ductwork. A disadvantage is that the cool air is located mostly in one spot. Many an afternoon I have spent directly under the vent in our first RV – Puma.

Our second RV, the Open Range 399BHS had ductwork. I would recommend against an RV with ductwork and encourage you to get one that has a straight dump out. In our Open Range, the ducts are very small.  These small ducts seem to make it very difficult to route the air efficiently.

With two $20 fans from Walmart you could just as effectively get the cool air where you want it – with the added advantage that air would always be moving on those warm days. Even with our ducted RV, we ended up buying fans anyway.

I thought I would list just a small handful of RV air conditioners from Amazon (disclosure) for your convenience.

• Brisk Air Dometic Duo Therm RV Air Conditioner Shroud (New Style)
• the Dometic A/C Brisk Air Roof Top Air Conditioner 13,500 BTU Upper Unit Polar White 457915.XX1C0
• a Dometic Brisk Air 457915 13,500 BTU Upper Unit Polar White RV Rooftop A/C Unit
• Dometic A/C Penguin II 13,500 BTU Roof Top Air Conditioner Upper Unit White 640315CXX1C0
• RV Motorhome Solar Battery 12-Volt Evaporative Swamp Air Conditioning Cooler

 

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