Portable air conditioners are available at Costco and other stores. Has anyone ever tried one of these in a pup instead of buying the noisy rooftop unit?
TV: 2006 Hyundai Santa Fe
Pup: 2007 Coachmen Clipper 1070ST
Favourite Campgrounds: Lake Superior Provincial Park; Chutes PP; Sharbot Lake PP; Rainbow Falls PP; Neys PP
I haven't tried it, but I am as curious as you. For the once a year that I may actually use the AC, its a much cheaper alternative. We were just going to pipe the hot air hose out the fabric of our slide.
JCH
New TV: 2008 Dodge Ram 3500, 6.7L Cummins, 6 Speed Auto, No mods yet (but they are coming)
2008 Fleetwood Evolution E-4, Reese Round Bar Weight Distributing Hitch
Me and the Wife: Scuba Dive, Mountain Bike, Kayak, Hike
Two Dogs: Mako and Amber
Several issues come up with portables.
They do take up floor space.
They need external venting.
They have lower BTU ratings than roof top units.
Single tube units draw inside air and exhaust it outside so they draw in part already cooled air and/or draw in hot outside air through openings reducing their efficiency.
Handling condensation can be an issue as well. Units with a tank need periodic emptying. In high humidity areas this can be as often as every two hours. If the reservoir is full the unit shuts off.
So look for two tube units that draw outside air and exhaust it for functioning and also look for units that pump condensation outside with the exhaust. And get the largest BTU rating especially with larger, 12 foot and up, box trailers.
Cost with these larger BTU units comes close to the price of the more efficient roof top units.
I returned our portable unit to Circuit City last week and had a rooftop unit installed on our PUP yesterday. There's no comparison. Plus, the portable was taking up too much valuable floor space. They are in the way, they are also quite noisy, they are heavy and unwieldy to move around and their lower btu's really are an issue.
If you are going to use a portable unit I would highly recommend getting POP UP GIZMOS for your bunk ends. They will make a tremendous difference. Actually, I would recommend getting them even if you have a rooftop unit.
I will say that one of the features I really liked on our portable was the fact you could always look at it and see what the temp was in the PUP. But that was easily replaced with an indoor digital thermometer/clock for around $10.
We just found them to be inadequate. Opening the door at all seemed to make a titanic difference almost immediately. You could also watch the temp rise when you got multiple people inside the PUP. A trip to Florida made me see the light.
The roof unit does a better job, isn't really all that loud at all, and blows the cool air directly into both bunk ends. It's WAAAAAAY better.
But that's just my opinion. Others may disagree.
Me (69), DW (69), DD (95), DS (00), DS (01) and 1 camping toy fox terrier (08)
95 Fleetwood Utah, 02 Ford Explorer Limited (V8)
Wish I had a picture of it, but I don't. We had a Starcraft 2101 for 3 years, which did not have AC. We had a storage compartment that ran across the front of the PU.It had the wide hatch across the front, access doors on the sides, and an access door on the inside. I was able to put a window A/C unit on the inside, raised up 4". I would leave the side doors open and raise the top door as high as it would go for outside ventilation. (it would raise about 6" then hit the bottom of the fwd bunk). I used a large tray (cookie sheet type) to collect any water. We used it for 2 1/2 years that way and sold it with the PU. During 90 degree days in direct sunlight was a loss. In the shade and at nights it would cool very nice. We used a small fan to help circulate the cool air and had the bunk fans as needed. It was a $125.00 investment that worked for us. What was nice also, during the cooler weather it would take about a minute to remove the AC from the PU when not needed. Hope this helps some.
Don't like the view?? Then change it and Go Camping
Our popup does not have A/C, and here in Texas, that is not good! We do most of our camping during the fall/winter/spring seasons, so we really haven't missed the A/C.
However, we just returned from our summer trip to Arkansas. We usually go to Colorado (or some place COOL), so an A/C was a must-have item. We are planning on trading for a hybrid in another year, so we really didn't want to invest the money in having the rooftop A/C installed. So we bought a portable A/C unit.
How did it work?
It did an adequate job. We purchased a 13,000 BTU unit. It vents most of the condensation out the exhaust hose. We are able to unzip a portion of our canvas, and vent the exhaust to the outside. It worked really well.
Pros:
1) cost - cheaper than having the roof-top installed
2) instant A/C - couldn't have our trip without it
3) cooled the popup - it was on the counter at the back of the popup, and we had a fan at the front, which keeps the cool air circulating.
Cons:
1) no contest to roof air - my inlaws have the same popup, and they have roof A/C. while our popup was cool, their popup was FREEZING!!!
2) takes up counter space
3) bulky, heavy - just one more thing we have to move in & out of the popup when setting up camp.
4) make sure you have a way to exhaust the heat, and the water condensation.
Overall, it was a good option for us. But as I mentioned above, we will be moving to a hybrid in about another year. Plus, we are finding other uses for our portable A/C around the house/garage. If I was planning on keeping my popup for quite a number of years, and I was going to be camping regularly in hot and/or humid weather - - I would go with roof A/C.
Well for years we have just bought the window air cond. We now have a 5050BTU and it works great, no cold air blowing on our food when eating or sleeping. Bought a GE cool air comes out the front and can be directed to either side. I set it outside up to back screened window, unzip both screen & canvas and sit it on our small alum. ladder with a board under it, I made a cover to go all around it and velcro it right to the canvas, 100 outside,it cools inside right down and we run it on low fan and about a 5 or 6 on dial and best part I never paid over 45 bucks for it. Haul my ladder in truck and AC slides in the door on our Palomino, winter time I'll just store it in our shed. We belong to TT/Naco so we plug right into the electrical box at the site. Good Luck
I have a factory installed 5,000 BTU Maytag a/c in my Aliner. Even though the Aliner is well insulated, I added reflectix coverings over my windows to help this little unit cool it down in our hot and muggy Louisiana summers. With the reflectix window coverings, I must turn it down to low or it will freeze me out. I highly recommend them on any PUP.
A high-efficiency 5,000 BTU a/c has a big advantage over a 13.5k unit if you dry camp in hot weather. I can run my entire camper with a/c and microwave on a EC2000 Honda generator. If I plug my a/c directly into the generator, a 1,000 watt Honda will marginally suffice (where I live at sea level) for the a/c only. That small of a generator probably won't work in the mountains, but it's so cool up there, you won't need one anyway.
Plus, my 47lb. a/c and 28lb. generator together weigh less than most roof units by itself, not counting the weight of the 2,400-3,000 watt genny (or the extra gas) it takes to run one. If you tow with a little 4cly car like I do, every pound of additional weight is scrutinized.
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