A/C swap? On 320 S Dimensions of inside box?

51chevy

I found a real nice small as possible 8,000 btu A/C it’s a Midea. That should cool a t@b off in Death Valley.l. Lol. My question is before tearing mine out, I’ve watched a few videos looks pretty easy. But still if someone has already been in there could save me the trouble. What I’m wondering is how deep is the Box in there, how much in inches left between the outside vent and the back of the Danby cause this one is deeper by 4 inches, and 2.5 wider, same height. I can handle the trim redo on the front. Thanks in advance any help is appreciated. 

jkjenn

Following....freezing out in Death Valley is my idea of comfort. 

klenger

No where near 4” of space.  More like 1/2” or so.  You should be able to see it by looking from the outside thru the vent.  

Bayliss

@51chevy, I took some photos when I had my Danby A/C out to install an exterior vent cover on my 2019 320S Boondock Lite.  I only photographed a couple measurements, which had more to do with the exterior vent/screen than the interior of the compartment.  However, the following photos may be of some assistance to you.  As I recall, there was very little wiggle room at the opening (in all directions), which appears to have been cut just slightly larger than the Danby.  The Danby slides in and rests on the metal frame that is oriented front to back (toward the driver's side of the camper.)  I am including photos of both interior sides of the compartment as well so you can see where the fan, electrical connection and condensation drain are located inside the compartment.  You can disregard the various colored arrows since I placed them there for a different purpose.  (Greg) 

ChanW

2½" wider! Sounds like a major change! The electric box uses that 'extra' space on the left, but also note the aluminum framing in the photos... 'moving' that framing over will be a trick, esp with the slope of the ceiling coming down...

Is the Midea shorter vertically?

Keep us updated!

Sharon_is_SAM

Not sure a bigger A/C is the answer.  Already the 5,000 btu unit is oversized for the TaB interior.  If the interior cools quickly, and the compressor turns off too soon, it will not provide for adequate dehumidification.  This has been a problem with the TaGs.

ChanW

That's an interesting bit of info. Bigger isn't necessarily better....

Sharon_is_SAM said:

Not sure a bigger A/C is the answer.  Already the 5,000 btu unit is oversized for the TaB interior.  If the interior cools quickly, and the compressor turns off too soon, it will not provide for adequate dehumidification.  This has been a problem with the TaGs.

51chevy

Thanks so much for the help. I think maybe a good dehumidifier might be the answer, and staying away from very hot climates. 

DougH

I went up to a 6000 BTU LG very inexpensive Danby replacement last year, and it was wider so I had to do surgery on the frame in the A/C box, but higher rating did definitely help with cooling.  In the lower altitude southwest our problem wasn't the compressor cooling the unit too quickly when 90-105F outside...  our problem with the Danby was getting more than ten degrees below the ambient outdoor temperature.

klenger

Doing some additional sealing around the Danby front panel might help prevent recirculating air around the case of the AC unit.  Maybe baffling the AC air intake and exhaust would help also.  A 5K AC unit should by large enough to cool the small space of a 320.

DougH

@51chevy ; @ChanW ; @Bayliss ; You can widen it a bit more.  In the pics below, I took out an aluminum vertical support on the right side, since there was another one a few inches away.  That's not just surgery to the front wood trim, but surgery to the internal cage. Looking at Bayliss's images above, I then flipped the angle bracket over, and used screws and strong adhesive to put it in place to accommodate a 17.5" wide air conditioner. I think the original Danby was only 16" wide. The height of the box is up to 12.3" high unit.

The Midea Easy Cool 6000 is 13.4" high (1.4" too tall) and 18" wide.  That's another half inch wider than I widened my box...  but as you can see in the pics, it will accommodate that width if you just place the front to back angle iron (well angle aluminum) a half inch to the right. Just barely.

The problem is, if the 8000BTU Midea you were looking at is also 13.4", it won't fit without hitting the aux fan at the top of the box and interfering on the top left side. You really need 12" or less on the height with the existing box. And even with the modifications shown below, I'd keep the weight of the replacement air conditioner under 45lbs.

You can replace the whole box, and weld a new frame into the existing side and roof supports, then create an ash veneer plywood enclosure for it, but that's a considerably larger effort.  You can look for a 6000 or 8000BTU unit that's 12" or less tall, but they're rare.  I put in an LG 6000BTU+ air conditioner last summer (LW6017R) that was 17.3" wide and only 11.125" high for $150 on sale, but it is more sensitive to having plenty of fresh air coming into the A/C box... you cannot seal the back of the A/C to the camper side and feed fresh air only with the roof vent fan like you can with the 5000 BTU A/C units.  Too warm of intake air and the LG will just turn off the compressor for 15 minutes before trying to cool again.  But comparing a Frigidaire 5000 vs an LG 6000+ BTU unit, I get 40-70% cooler temperature differentials in half hour and one hour testing compared to outside conditions when it's in the mid-90s, even though the LG is only 11.5 EER.

Good luck, and let us know if you find any nice 5000-8000BTU units that will fit within the 12H by 18W limits of a modified cage box. Besides adding a dehumidifier, switching to a better set of electronic controls than the stock Danby, or switching to a higher 170-250CFM flow rate even at 5000BTU would both help.

druthazer

Any updates on replacing my Danny in 2017 Tab 320s??

fstop32

@DougH, I've yanked my seized up a/c and I'm looking at ways to improve air flow around and through the unit to help pull heat off the a/c itself.  My 2015 has the roof vent but did not have a fan in the ceiling as shown in one of your pics above. I would assume the idea is to allow a bit more air to be pulled into the a/c cabinet to help cool it off, and the fan would improve the volume of air somewhat.  Adding the fan would be no problem for me but I have a couple of questions.
Has wind blown rain ever presented a problem for the fan, either electrically or mechanically on the bearings?   And, has anyone had better ideas for increasing the air volume such as using a larger vent or baffles to try to limit the hot air exiting the cabinet from mixing with the cool air it's trying to pull into the sides of the unit to keep it from overheating?
Thanks for any info you might have!

DougH

@fstop32 That fan above the A/C was stock on my 2017. Never was rain damaged. And yes as you say, the idea was to prevent overheating of the unit.  However, I found that once I took 100% of the exhaust from the back of any unit and forced it outside of the T@B, while letting intake air equalize, I found the fan was pointless. And you're also exactly correct that keeping the exhaust and intakes on the secondary side (in the box) is critical.

If you search old threads you'll find a lot of folks used air vent diverters to help out. With some people's stock units they were already installed where the exhaust was pretty well sealed to the outside, so they put one or two diverters on to prevent the incoming air from sucking the exhaust back in.

What I did was take off the outer vent, create a vertical bar made of duct tape 1/3rd over from one side of that opening. I then ran a dozen strips from the exhaust side of the unit to the new 2/3rds opening, and then followed up with horizontal strips until there was an airtight seal from the back of the unit to the outside.  The other 1/3rd of the exterior vent became the intake and would easily sweep to the top or the two sides, depending on where the intake was on the particular unit I had in there. Finally I used a diverter to make sure the intake air was pulled from the side of the T@B well away from the exhaust flow.

I had played with several other combinations, and I had a ton of thermocouples, digital thermometers, and a thermal camera, so I could find what worked best... at least on the air conditioners I used after the Danby.

The only hassle is no $150-300 air conditioner will last forever, so every time one needs replacing there's a couple hour job to create the same implementation.

I did sell the T@B a couple months ago though...

BrianZ

@DougH, how do you like the GeoPro, and is there anything you miss (or don't) about the T@B?  Did you buy new or used?

Lawyerboy

I have a 2018 Tab 320 cs s and replaced the Danby with another 5000 btu Frigidaire 

Model #FFRE053WAE

Includes an internal thermostat that will cycle it off if cool, sleep mode, eco mode, remote.  No modification of the space required.  Bought at Home Depot.