Will T@B400 2021 A/C work well on a 20A service

Gravens

Has anyone ran their T@B400 A/C on a 20A service?

If it worked, did you have to be careful about what else you were running?


— Added “/“ for abbreviation for air conditioning. (“AC” is typically used for “alternating current” for electricity.)   Verna. T@B Admin 

Verna

@Gravens, which year of your 400, please?  

The 2020 T@B 400’s had an Air8 A/C unit, instead of the Cool Cat used in the other years theT@B 400 models were manufactured. 

m_lewis

My cool cat will work fine on a 20 amp service. If the Alde is on, it must be set to use the 1kW only or propane only, or the load will surpass 20 amps. 

Of course, use of any other high wattage devices, like an Instant Pot, hair dryer, etc would be excessive. 

Verna

https://tab-rv.vanillacommunity.com/discussion/comment/152883#Comment_152883

Good discussion about A/C units towards the middle of this discussion. 

Sharon_is_SAM

@Gravens - your CoolCat in your 2021 400 is fine on 20 amps.  If you add too, too much load, you will just trip the circuit.

Katydid

I’m happy to say that my 2021 400 A/C has worked well for the last two weeks in 85-99 degree temps plugged in to a household circuit. I haven’t used much other electrical draw except for a coffee pot in the morning .

Gravens

Thanks everyone!

bergger

Yep the coolcat works great on 20 amp.  I also had no problem running the Alde heat on 2kw on 20amp, as long as I did not use other appliances that had a large draw on the electric.  If 15 amp circuit then only use the 1kw setting.  

bayernfan

This gives me hope that my 2024 A/C will run on 20-amp house power.  I've ordered a 20-amp rated extension cord and I'll be running it into an EPO Power Watchdog.  Will give it a try tomorrow.

Jake_Elwood_and_us

It will also run on a Honda 2200 watt generator as long as you don't have it on eco mode.

pthomas745

The trailer's AC is rated at about 900 watts.  It will work easily on a 15 amp or 20 amp circuit.  The limitations are trying to use "something else" that needs a decent amount of amps while running the AC's.   The Air 8 tops out at about 900 watts, and it seems the CoolCat hits 1300. 

jimcenname

I use the cool cat on a 15 amp circuit at the end of a 100 foot high capacity extension cord. The cord doesn’t get hot. I run nothing else at the same time. I live in my 400.  This set up has been working for several years in Southern California. 

bayernfan

To follow up: Using the Power Watchdog EPO app, the CoolCat used between 9 and 11 amps running on full power.  I would see around 1150 Watts being displayed on the app. 

The only potential problem is the start-up current, but I experienced no issues running it on a 15-amp circuit with the 30-amp cord connected to a camco dogbone 15 amp adapter.

I purchased a 20 amp Yellow-Jacket brand cable should I need extension in the future, but I have not tested it yet.

Jake_Elwood_and_us

My experience with cords is the smaller gauge wire they are, the more resistance they will have and this results in heat which adds to the load. Additionally, the more connections one has (ie: plugging one cord into another or adapter) one risks failure at that point. You want to make the connections from shore power or from a generator as simple as possible. We lost our generator power on a recent camping trip due to a bad connection at an adapter (30 amp RV to standard 20 amp) which was smoking and no longer able to complete an electrical connection.

bayernfan

Jake, yes I have seen reports of adapters smoking and this continues to be a concern of mine. 

What kind/brand of adapter were you using?

Were you using a ground neutral plug into a surge protector?

Jake_Elwood_and_us

bayernfan  I didn't use a surge protector. Just used this adapter plugged into my Honda 2200 inverter generator. I have replaced the 30amp male connector on the factory supplied cord with a 20amp NEMA 5-20T slot. We have never stayed anywhere where the power stand had a 30 amp RV receptacle. We generally boondock or stay in campgrounds which do not have power. I also now have an adapter which would allow me to adapt to a 30amp RV receptacle if ever needed.

cameron

Our Tab 400's CoolCat with the EasyStart slow start mod ...

... runs at just over 10a max (just over 1200w on the high fan setting, if I remember correctly.) So 15a is plenty to run the CoolCat with the EasyStart. I set the max amps to draw based on where I'm plugged in, and often set it to 12a if I'm on a lower gauge extension cord on a 15a circuit. (But I do have the 6000w peak inverter that fills in any shortfall in power.)

den1jen

cameron said:

Our Tab 400's CoolCat with the EasyStart slow start mod ...

... runs at just over 10a max (just over 1200w on the high fan setting, if I remember correctly.) So 15a is plenty to run the CoolCat with the EasyStart. I set the max amps to draw based on where I'm plugged in, and often set it to 12a if I'm on a lower gauge extension cord on a 15a circuit. (But I do have the 6000w peak inverter that fills in any shortfall in power.)

Added easystart to our 2023 tab 400 and it has been great, the AC can start/run with microwave going and no problems. I have the easystart app and last time I checked it showed start amps at 10 and live (running) amps where 7.2