Removing Dometic Cool Cat from 2008 TAB

HollyO

Our Cool Cat quit working and we need to replace it.  It is mounted on the floor in a cabinet.  I have opened up the cabinet and the outside grill, but how the unit is mounted is not obvious.  I appears that it might just be glued in place to the floor.  I don't see any obvious screws or bolts holding it in place.  I assume it has to slide to the outside through the grill opening.  Anybody have experience removing one of these?   
I am replacing the cool Cat with a Frigidaire 5000 btu window ac that is small enough to fit in the space.

rfuss928

It does slide out through the grill opening.  I don't recall any fasteners holding it in place.  It's surprisingly heavy.
There were several posting in the old T@B forum of CoolCat removal and window AC retrofits.
https://groups.io/g/tabtrailers/topics
 A couple of photos of the finished replacement in my 2014 T@B CS are here:
https://tab-rv.vanillacommunity.com/discussion/comment/96249#Comment_96249

HollyO

Thanks very much! It's of course a last minute project that we should have checked on before heading off to the desert, Hah! We have a few days to fiddle with it and have already bought a window AC unit. 

rzabel

I removed ours and it was a pita. There are screws in the front behind the faceplate and screws down into the subfloor. However, the worst part was the two condensate drains that go through the subfloor. I couldn’t raise the unit up enough to get them to clear and had to cut them off with a sawzall, then I could slide it out through the vent opening. It is awkward and heavy. 

HollyO

I got the Cool Cat out.  It is primarily held in place by caulking around the 4 edges. facing the outside grill.  I used a chisel to pry it loose, then it mostly peeled off. 

There were two screws holding down a drain tube on the right hand side.  The drain tube went through the floor and prevented the unit from sliding out on the right side.  Once the screws were removed, I used a rubber mallet to hammer the tube up from below.  

Before all this, I did open up the cooler cabinet.  The top is held on by some screws on two sides.  Some of those screws face the battery compartment.  I had to take out my battery and battery box, then remove a thin panel separating the battery compartment from the cooler compartment.  Then I could access some screws holding down the top piece of the cooler compartment.  Oddly there was a single screw in the back corner underneath the cooler compartment lid, holding the lid down.  I needed a long extension on my driver drill to reach this screw while prying the lid up a bit.  It was an oddly placed and unnecessary screw.

The inside front panel is held on by screws all around the edges.  I successfully used a phillips driver, but the screws also accept square drive.  I used a phillips driver for all of the screws I dealt with in the removal process, but all or almost all could also use a square drive.

Once the compartment was opened up I could start disconnecting the electrical connections.  The 120 v wiring connections were in a box on the top of the unit and could be disconnected immediately.  They needed to be disconnected before the Cool Cat could slide more than a few inches.

The control wire connections are under a panel at the front right corner.  The cool cat had to be slid out a bit further before this cover could be removed.  There is a wiring schematic diagram on the inside of this cover, thankfully.  The control cable from the thermostat has 7 wires entering the cool cat.  Four wires leave the cool cat.  Two of those wires are 12v power and two go to the furnace.  The schematic is fairly clear on the 12v wiring, but less clear on which thermostat wires connect to the furnace.  I will have to experiment a bit.

Paul

rfuss928

It took me awhile to find my way back to this old captioned photo file of my AC retrofit.in 2009 T@B CS.  There are other similar files nearby in the Photo Albums of that forum.  Have fun...
https://groups.io/g/tabtrailers/album?id=136842  
BTW - Your descriptions of uncovering all the hidden screws in the battery compartment brought back lots of memories.  I made some ~1 inch holes in the inner panel to access the top screws without removing the panel (and battery) in the future.