RV Air Conditioning Maintenance Video

RV Air Conditioning Maintenance Video

Professor of RVing, Jim Twamley shows you how to perform annual maintenance on your RV air conditioner.

When an air conditioner runs, the compressor builds refrigerant pressure. If the compressor is then shut off, either manually or by satisfying thermostat demand, it must stay off for some period of time, usually 3-4 minutes, to allow pressure in the system to equalize before it can be safely restarted. Trying to restart the air conditioner compressor before pressure equalizes is known as "short-cycling". If an air conditioner is "short-cycled" the results may be; 1) tripped air conditioner circuit breaker; 2) generator shut down on overload; or 3) tripped air conditioner thermal overload. The air conditioner thermal overload will reset itself after the compressor cools. It cannot be reset manually.

Some, but not all, RV air conditioner thermostats have built-in time delays to prevent short-cycling. Short-cycling occurs in some RVs when the thermostat is mounted so that cold air blows directly on it. If this happens, the thermostat shuts the compressor off before the cabin has cooled, but quickly warms back up and signals the compressor to restart before refrigerant pressure equalizes. In this case, the flow of air from the air conditioner should be directed away from the thermostat, or the thermostat should be relocated. Short-cycling can be prevented by always being sure the air conditioner rests for 3-4 minutes after the compressor shuts off before trying to restart it. .