I know everyone is dealing with heat this summer, but in Northridge , CA its been over 105 several days in a row. It’s weird because once you leave the valley the temps drop between 10-20 degrees, but where we are its been insane. Unfortunately our site has no tree cover and even with two air conditioners running constantly at times we were reaching 97 degrees inside the RV. Then the worst happened. The bedroom AC froze up and we couldn’t turn it back on.

In all fairness we’ve never had to replace an air conditioner so they are around 10 years old and we’ve definitely got our money’s worth from them. The bad news was that it happened two days before Lee left for a two week out of town work gig which left me dealing with it alone. Thankfully Lee was able to get a good repair tech to come out on Friday and we decided to replace them both while he was gone. The costs came in at a whopping $3712, but since the parts themselves are $1350 (total for two $2700 + Tax) I was willing to pay it.

But the parts weren’t available until Monday morning, so it was a long hot weekend for me dealing with the heat. If I didn’t have Jack I would have been able to just leave for long stretches of a time but instead I just tried for as little inside movement as possible and prayed the remaining AC would last through the weekend. Thankfully it did and as of this writing the repair tech is here and on the roof starting the work.

Replacing AC units can be done with just one person (our friend Bill has done it alone twice), but it requires a ladder and ropes to pull the boxed AC units up to the roof. Don’t unbox them before trying to get them up because the boxes provide some extra protection getting them on the roof. And really it should be a two person job. One of the roof pulling and another down below steadying the box. It’s also not something to be done lightly because you could seriously hurt yourself wrestling with these things.

To be honest even if Lee wasn’t going out of town I wouldn’t want him to do it. First off chances are you are doing this repair when its crazy hot, and secondly it would be done under pressure. Those factors aren’t a great combination for a non-professional even if it does same on the repair cost. IF we couldn’t find someone to do it though (which has often been the case with needed RV repairs) Lee would have done it and I would have had to help in whatever way I could. The boxes aren’t that heavy in the grand scheme of things but they are bulky. Plus you have to get the old ones down and since they aren’t boxed that can be tricky also although you don’t have to worry about damage. Still it’s not like you can just throw them off the roof.

As far as hooking the new ones up since Lee isn’t doing it I am not even going to attempt to explain how its done. My understanding is it isn’t that difficult and thankfully the repair person hasn’t made me turn off the power in the RV while he’s doing the work. We are turning off each AC in turn as he removes them but the main power so far has stayed on and I can run the front one as he replaces the bedroom. Since it doesn’t take long for the RV to heat up I am very grateful for that.

Lastly by hiring a repair person disposal of the unit is included in the cost. Old AC units should be taken to special recycling centers and that’s one more thing we don’t have to worry about. As much as the cost hurts I am grateful that we found someone good to get it done and Lee’s work will more than cover the cost. As always I choose to be grateful for how much worse this could have been (happened after Lee left, the second one stopped over the weekend and I had to get a hotel room, etc) and I always think in these situations that if I owned a house it would have been much more expensive!

Oh and a quick side note. I work for an HVAC company and they offer employees rebates when we buy their units. Turns out 20 years ago my company made Dometic products but the brand split off and is now its own company. It’s interesting though that the warehouse that probably made these units is across the street from our plant in Kansas. Small world. As much as I hate the heat and worry about global warning, it’s not the worst time to be in the HVAC field. Our stock prices have jumped considerably over the last two weeks as people and governments are coming to the realization that these temps are probably the new norm.

And hooray I have two brand new AC units and wow does it make a difference!!! I slept great over night and upgrading from the 1350 to the 1500 size really makes a big difference. For the first time in forever I am putting the fan speed on low and it actually feels cool in the house when I walk the dog. Yes it was pricey but totally worth it!!

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