Dometic RV Air Conditioner Capacitor Strikes Again!!
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- Опубликовано: 24 ноя 2024
- Join my wife Amanda and I as we cruise along the Gulf Coast of Alabama on service calls for our customers. In this video our customer's complaint was the AC was cooling but not blowing air. Watch as I explain step by step instructions on how to change the capacitor in a Dometic RV AC.
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I wanted to let you know, how valuable this video was to me. We put on the AC in the middle of the day(never do that usually, only the morning before it gets hot) and shut it off quickly and turned it back on and no fan. So I went up and checked the fan(had to start it by hand and very slowly moving), added oil no change. Go down and put AC on but didn't help and in fact breaker trips. End of AC and time to get a fan, thinking that will fix it. Get the stats look it up and videos show up on how to install new fan. While watching it I saw video "Dometic RV Air Conditioner Capacitor Strikes Again" and thought I should see this and was convinced this was probably it. After seeing the vids on changing the fan and getting the courage to discharge(which was a non issue it was toast), I found a local source and within 24 hours it worked again.
But the fan rumbles a bit and seemed hot to the touch, it was holding a 60+10 and all I could get was a 60+7.5 though the specs say 60+ 5 is enough for the fan. We ran it late in the day with no issues for 4 hours. Does it sound like the capacitor isn't strong enough(it has a hard start cap on it as well that checked out fine( I think both caps were mods as we are the second owners)?
Edit: this may just be the sound of the compressor working, the fan is cooled off by the cool air circulating I suppose.
Thanks very much for the great video
Yeah, the motor will have a capacitor rating on the label like " 5 uF" or " 7.5 uF" it should be replaced with the correct capacitor, under rating your capacitor will greatly reduce its life span. Thanks for watching!
Thank you for comment. My Ac is doing exactly what yours did.
A lot of videos on youtube sing the praises for an Easy Start kit $349 when a $42 capacitor is the simple fix. Thank you. New subscriber.
The main & only advantage for an Easy Start kit is it allows you to run your Roof Air off a 2000KW generator rather than a 4000KW generator.
Capacitors are 8-15$ in the US
just today discovered you and watched your video on 30 Amp power distribution. What an excellent video for anyone and especially new RVers. As a former instructor in the military I appreciate the quality of your instruction. The detail and step by step guidance had lights going on for me that others just gloss over. The same is true for the Dometic A/C video. My only recommendation is that you make more! I live in TX and I will make a to do list of projects for you when we roll through AL. Again, great work
Thank you
Great Video!! Thank you for showing how you took it apart as that is exactly what I needed to know to fix my AC!! Thanks again!!
You're welcome
Greetings. The best to you and family. Wanted to thank you on your video. Made repair on my ac. On point and well done. I be happy and cool.
Awesome
Thanks for you video - informative. I see that this unit is very similar to the B3200 that I think came before the Pengium which now I believe is the Harrier. I have had two of these aircons and in New Zealand they appear to last 4-6 years before developing a leak - mostly in the evaporator. I also have had, prior to the regrigerant loss, the thermistors on both the condenser and evaporator go on multiple occassions. In each case when I replaced the thermistors with ones from an electrical wholesaler (5k ohm) it is rare for the thermistors to fail again.
My conclusion is that these Dometic aircons are generally poorly made. They seem to suffer from poor thermistors and this means two things - the defrost cycle is not engaged for the condenser early enough (end up with block of ice) and poor heating in winter as a result. The same appears to occur for the evaporator when cooling. Because the evaporator is smaller than the condenser the evaporator (when cooling) appears to get frosted up far more frequently and this will happen even more frequently is the fan is not on high. Given the gas leak ultimately occurs in the evaporator the frequent icing up, along with the very thin pipes in the coils, means that ultimately a crack is formed in the evaporator coil pipe and we add to the global warming. The unit is largely unrepairable as no service ports are installed so the rest of the unit heads down to landfill.
I would be interested in your thoughts on this diagnosis and general thoughts on reliability of RV air con units. I have found them to generally have a poor lifetime. My aircon in my Mazda car, which is 22 years old, still works and has only had one regassing. It is therefore possible to make an aircon that lasts 20+ years. It would appear to me that Dometic are more interested in short life. A youtube search of aircon repairs.
Geoffrey, NZ
This is the video I needed. Thank you!!
Thanks for the great video, personally not a fan of the impact tool for this kind of work, I prefer a drill with adjustable torque setting to prevent damage to screw and bolts. However, each to their own.
Thanks for watching!
Hey man. You are super useful content creator. Hey I have a question. I have a 3 year old fifth wheel with domestic roof ac 15k. Bought it new 2020. On Monday we had power outage. On Tuesday I came home from work and camper was oven. Looked at beaker box and that breaker was tripped. Reset breaker and boom back to working. Woke up in am same problem. Reset breaker, everything working. Come back from work second day same thing. Breaker tripped and hot. Reset breaker and everything is working. Next day come home this time fan is running but no cold. Reset power and boom, ac working. Next day come home same hot inside, fan working but no cold. Reset power and cold working. Next day come home everything dead. Breaker tripped. Reset breaker but ac does not come on. Go on roof, open up top and hear compressor running, lines cold fan not spinning. Spin fan by hand, kick start it and it starts spinning. Minute later ram stops. Kick start again comes on, runs and stops. Again and again until my dumb self broke the fin from kick starting it. F$@k. Ordered a new fan and motor. Do you think it’s the motor that’s bad or capacitor or mother board? Have you seen this before?
Motor 100%
Thanks for the video.
Thanks for sharing!
You're welcome!
I am not very knowledgable about these meters but I have three of them and not one of them has a microfarad (µF) setting. Do I need to get a whole new meter just to check the capacitor? Thanks
Yes
Josh, on my unit I changed the 3 capacitors but still the compressor fails to work ( it tries to spin but it stops after a few seconds). The fan works great. What is next for me to do? How can I test the compressor itself? Thanks
@@jaimelopez3991 sounds like it's time for a new upper unit
Can you post anything relative to date/size on the Dometic A/C? Great video!
I think my dometic capacitor is blown as well too. I guess it's just another one of those planned obsolescence built to break type of things. I want to do this but I don't know if I'll be able to figure out how to put the wires on properly again.
Take a picture with your phone prior to removing the wires....or label them with tape and a pen. You got this! Don't forget to disconnect power!
Capacitors go bad, it's just the nature of electronics
Our AC is blowing but very minimally, does the capacitor sound like a reasonable place to start?
It is a dometic looks like the same as in your video
Great videos and very informative
Thanks
What I forgot to ask is , can the fan still be blowing minimally if the capacitor is bad or going bad ?
@grumpowski64 It's possible. The capacitor, voltage, fan amperage need to all be checked.
I have a Carrier ac which they don’t make any more. If I find a capacitor that matches the specs can I install that instead?
Yes as long as the uF rating is the same
How much would this repair cost? I just found a bad capacitor and will be replacing it tomorrow but my local shop wanted $1900 to put in a whole new unit. He said they don't troubleshoot old air conditioners which to me seems a little silly if it's just the capacitor
My duotech dometic, was running just fine last night on high-power and I thought I would use the convection oven at the same time and I blew the 30 amp breaker on the generator. And now the front air conditioner doesn't work but the back one is still ok. This morning I had on a 1300 w space heater going in the front part of the RV and the power was flickering off every so many minutes. So it seems like a general power issue in the front half of the coach. My question isn't there just a basic fuse for the air conditioner?
No. I highly recommend getting a qualified RV Technician to Check your AC electrical system.
Would those caps die in just 2 years? If the unit was working intermittantly for a while then stopped working at all and won't start now, what could be wrong?
Do you recommend a specific brand of capacitor? Some better than other? I have a Dometic pingouin 2, capacitor 55/15 uF. Dometic sells one on Amazon but it’s over 66$,, so, I wonder,, is it a better quality ? Thank you for this video !
I don't have a preffered brand....in my opinion OEM is always best. You get what you pay for....
Thank you
URGENT REPLY would be nice.,
Where can a person source those caps at ? Any electrical outlet or something special?
@@DonB.-Mulefivefive any electrical supplier should have one
Does it matter which Dometic AC Unit that this happens to… or can they all fail on the capacitor?
Mine is doing the same changed capacitor and still motor humms sometimes it starts and then gets stuck any other thing to test.
Motor failure
I changed the capacitor and I still have to spin the fan in order to get it to work what’s else can I check ?
If you have good voltage and a good, correctly sized capacitor....you need a new fan motor.
@@MRRVTECH that was my suspicion is there away I can find my model number on the fan as the paper work on the outside is faded to much to read
My ac was working fine i change the capacitor and it still dont turned on it wants to but deems my lights! Please any Help. God bless you 🙏
Just an educated guess but you likely have a bad fan motor
@@MRRVTECHThank you, Do you know how can I change that part?
I have change capacitors 2 time and only work for about 1 week ??
Replace the motor
@@MRRVTECH thanks , I will. But Iam going to try overload protector firt
So, where would I get a new capacitor?
Amazon! A 3rd of the price the manufacturer charges for theirs and it does the same thing for the same amount of time!
@@MRRVTECH Thanks.
What size capacitors did you use here?
Nice video, capacitors usually suspect when a compressor or fan doesn't start. Question, I'm thinking of installing a hot start cap on my Dometic AC for boondocking purposes, do you have any words of wisdom concerning using these?
They do what they're suppose to, you can see a noticeable difference in the amperage on a volt meter at start up.
Quick question. Where do you buy the replacement capacitors for these RV AC's?
Can get them from dometic, depending on model they can be hard to find.
What were the MFD’s values of the capacitor you replaced
O.00
Isn't it extremely dangerous to work on a Capacitor? We have a similar issue but my husband is questioning whether to work on it because of the dangers of the work.
Biggest danger is working with the power still turned on to the AC. Turn it off at the breaker and verify the power is off with a voltmeter before touching ANYTHING in there. But capacitors can sometimes hold enough charge to give you a nasty shock even after power it turned off. After verifying power is off, use needlenose pliers or a screwdriver to briefly bridge between C and Fan, C and Herm, and Herm and Fan to ensure all residual charge is dissipated. Then it is safe to work on.
Over the years I have replaced capacitors. I always follow procedures to discharge the capacitors.
So far I have never seen so much as a spark while shorting the terminals out.
I have yet to have one
loaded. But I still follow safety procedures.
I buy those from my local AC parts distributor for 15 dollars
After repairs don’t you have to reset the thermostat
Usually o ly if you replace one or change the circuit board. Not after a capacitor swap
@@MRRVTECH
What about a motor
Nope
The only thing that would require a reset are the dip switches on the Printed circuit board. You could also recieve an E7 code from shutting the power off, simply restore power and turn the thermostat off and back on.
Ok so I just put the SECOND capacitor on my unit. It runs for a bit then kills the fan out and it just humms. Compressor runs fine. Here’s the catch, sometimes it will run the fan in high and low and sometimes it just humms. Wtf is going on??
Bad fan motor.
My shroud was black i spray painted it white
Ok
@@MRRVTECH 🤣