Our Dometic Harrier AC has chucked a wobbley, It hadn't chucked up an error code at first, so bright and early monday morning I contact one of dometics service tech's.
Explained to him it had just stopped cooling everything else was working ok, so he says it looks like its dumped its gas, we dont do on site calls so bring your van over and leave it with us we will get to as soon as we can. The regas and repair the leak will be $800 with no warrenty (I think this chump is angling to sell me a new AC that why its so dear).
Went and saw two other outfits who will only supply and fit Dometic Harrier or Ibis 4 about $2500 to supply and $900 fit the other bloke was similar in price but only $600 to fit FFS you can swap an AC over in less than 2 hours, but what would I know.
Found another Dometic agent who does onsite visits but we are out of his service area fair enough.
Lo and behold yesterday arvo I switched on the AC and it chucked up an Error Code E8, that means one of the sensors had chucked a wobbly, anyway rang a the dometic agents if they had a harness in stock and how long would it take to get a couple of weeks was the reply, got online to Caravans Plus in Queabeyan ordered a sensor harness, it was despatched via express 2 hours after ordering.
Hopefully I can find a mobile fridgey who can come and fit the replacement harness, and maybe give it a gas check as well.
-- Edited by Gundog on Friday 20th of October 2023 03:14:35 PM
I discovered earlier this year that my Harrier had dumped its gas, due to a hard-to-find leak. The symptom was that neither heating nor cooling worked, so if yours is heating but not cooling then my experience would lead me to conclude that the fault is something other than loss of gas. I had mine fixed under warranty by the Dometic service agent in Young, whom I can recommend if you're in that region.
I discovered earlier this year that my Harrier had dumped its gas, due to a hard-to-find leak. The symptom was that neither heating nor cooling worked, so if yours is heating but not cooling then my experience would lead me to conclude that the fault is something other than loss of gas. I had mine fixed under warranty by the Dometic service agent in Young, whom I can recommend if you're in that region.
Thanks for the heads up, I will check to see if it heats but that may not work because of the faulty sensor cable.
Sadly my harrier is about 3 years out of warrenty.
Our Dometic Harrier AC has chucked a wobbley, It hadn't chucked up an error code at first, so bright and early monday morning I contact one of dometics service tech's.
Explained to him it had just stopped cooling everything else was working ok, so he says it looks like its dumped its gas, we dont do on site calls so bring your van over and leave it with us we will get to as soon as we can. The regas and repair the leak will be $800 with no warrenty (I think this chump is angling to sell me a new AC that why its so dear).
Went and saw two other outfits who will only supply and fit Dometic Harrier or Ibis 4 about $2500 to supply and $900 fit the other bloke was similar in price but only $600 to fit FFS you can swap an AC over in less than 2 hours, but what would I know.
Found another Dometic agent who does onsite visits but we are out of his service area fair enough.
Lo and behold yesterday arvo I switched on the AC and it chucked up an Error Code E8, that means one of the sensors had chucked a wobbly, anyway rang a the dometic agents if they had a harness in stock and how long would it take to get a couple of weeks was the reply, got online to Caravans Plus in Queabeyan ordered a sensor harness, it was despatched via express 2 hours after ordering.
Hopefully I can find a mobile fridgey who can come and fit the replacement harness, and maybe give it a gas check as
Hi Gundog.
We have used this guy at Clontarf, a very good person, gave us good and bad news.
Our Dometic Harrier AC has chucked a wobbley, It hadn't chucked up an error code at first, so bright and early monday morning I contact one of dometics service tech's.
Explained to him it had just stopped cooling everything else was working ok, so he says it looks like its dumped its gas, we dont do on site calls so bring your van over and leave it with us we will get to as soon as we can. The regas and repair the leak will be $800 with no warrenty (I think this chump is angling to sell me a new AC that why its so dear).
Went and saw two other outfits who will only supply and fit Dometic Harrier or Ibis 4 about $2500 to supply and $900 fit the other bloke was similar in price but only $600 to fit FFS you can swap an AC over in less than 2 hours, but what would I know.
Found another Dometic agent who does onsite visits but we are out of his service area fair enough.
Lo and behold yesterday arvo I switched on the AC and it chucked up an Error Code E8, that means one of the sensors had chucked a wobbly, anyway rang a the dometic agents if they had a harness in stock and how long would it take to get a couple of weeks was the reply, got online to Caravans Plus in Queabeyan ordered a sensor harness, it was despatched via express 2 hours after ordering.
Hopefully I can find a mobile fridgey who can come and fit the replacement harness, and maybe give it a gas check as
Hi Gundog.
We have used this guy at Clontarf, a very good person, gave us good and bad news.
So the saga of my Harrier continues to be an annoyance being unable to get someone out to check the problem, If it is the case that the compressor has dumped it gas and having confirmed from a couple of other sources that a repair and regas is not the best solution, considering the age of the unit 5-6 years a replacement is likely the best option.
That being the case I am about 75% sure I will go with a household split system, that decision is based on experiance of when we replaced the 3 way fridge with a 228l Samsung Digital Inverter household fridge 8 years ago at a 1/4 of the price of a 12v 185l 2 way fridge. The numbers stack up in favor of domestic split system, purchase price between $800-1000 with an installion cost of around $800 plus about $100 to infill the roof opening compared to $1800-2800 for a caravan AC, with an installation cost of $600-900.
Crunching the numbers clearly shows the the split comes out in front with the loss of 1 overhead cupboard, no great loss. weight for weight both units weigh about 40-45kg, but that sees 31-36 kg removed from the roof.
Finally its not hard to do a self install of a new caravan AC, one off clean off any residual goop new one on, but for me now the roof of the van is out of bounds, likewise I could self the inside and outside units of the split system, and the get someone to fit the piping and electrical connecction.
So the saga of my Harrier continues to be an annoyance being unable to get someone out to check the problem, If it is the case that the compressor has dumped it gas and having confirmed from a couple of other sources that a repair and regas is not the best solution, considering the age of the unit 5-6 years a replacement is likely the best option.
That being the case I am about 75% sure I will go with a household split system, that decision is based on experiance of when we replaced the 3 way fridge with a 228l Samsung Digital Inverter household fridge 8 years ago at a 1/4 of the price of a 12v 185l 2 way fridge. The numbers stack up in favor of domestic split system, purchase price between $800-1000 with an installion cost of around $800 plus about $100 to infill the roof opening compared to $1800-2800 for a caravan AC, with an installation cost of $600-900.
Crunching the numbers clearly shows the the split comes out in front with the loss of 1 overhead cupboard, no great loss. weight for weight both units weigh about 40-45kg, but that sees 31-36 kg removed from the roof.
Finally its not hard to do a self install of a new caravan AC, one off clean off any residual goop new one on, but for me now the roof of the van is out of bounds, likewise I could self the inside and outside units of the split system, and the get someone to fit the piping and electrical connecction.
Have you looked at Daikin and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries reverse-cycle AC units?
Low power needs, and the MHI unit was $700 at Good Guys. No big deal to self-install. Cheers
P.S From memory(?) MHI 2.5kw unit was 35kg, and I mounted mine on drawbar.
-- Edited by yobarr on Friday 10th of November 2023 12:00:38 PM
Graham, I have a Sparrow Mk4 sitting here doing nothing since I replaced it with a higher capacity Haughton. Was working when I removed it, tried to sell it but no one showed interest despite several large price drops.
It is yours if you want it, just taking up space now.
Graham, I have a Sparrow Mk4 sitting here doing nothing since I replaced it with a higher capacity Haughton. Was working when I removed it, tried to sell it but no one showed interest despite several large price drops.
It is yours if you want it, just taking up space now.
thanks for the offer Barney I will have a think about it, do you think it would suitable for a 25ft Van
This is the 2.5kW Daikin I installed in 2014. Current models are more efficient (also a 5.0kW unit in 2010 I installed).
Quite frankly one would have to be brain dead on every conceivable level to install a "17th century" caravan air conditioner.
The manufacturers of caravan air conditioners should be hung, drawn & quartered (at least twice for their rubbish) of their dinosaur products.
Buy a product that with twice the performance, half the price, twice as quiet. Will provide turbo performance at reasonable power consumption when it's >47°C outside in the shade.
At least get your accountant to look at the numbers if you are incapable of working out the numbers for yourself.
Not to forget that a split system you can run it off a reasonable sized battery system with a bit of common sense. It will get you through those hot humid nights off batteries.
__________________
Procrastination, mankind's greatest labour saving device!
50L custom fuel rack 6x20W 100/20mppt 4x26Ah gel 28L super insulated fridge TPMS 3 ARB compressors heatsink fan cooled 4L tank aftercooler Air/water OCD cleaning 4 stage car acoustic insulation.
Harrier has been issued its redundancy notice today, it will be removed when we get back to Qld.
New splitsystem has been installed today, 21 is not the normal temp setting its too bloody cold, looks like 23/24 will be the go,. On low fan speed, you can barely hear it running.
Good to hear you are happy with the new set up. If you would like to remove the old one before you go home I have all the tools needed and only 5 minutes away.
Good to hear you are happy with the new set up. If you would like to remove the old one before you go home I have all the tools needed and only 5 minutes away.
Thanks for the offer mate but doing the infill is going to be a job for another day, haven't come up with a solid plan.
Will you be around tomorrow or sat, we have few jobs and family visits between the weekend and new year sort have thought of bringing our departure date to new years day.
Understood mate, got to get the aesthetics right. We will be out from probably 1100 to 1300 tomorrow doing weekly shopping, no plans for Saturday that I am aware of.
Update on the splitsysten airconditioning operating effectiveness.
Yesterday it got about 28 degrees I suppose that found make it in the low 30's in van after comming back from shopping, turning on the AC its quickly apparent that 21 degrees makes the van very cold, after a bit of trial and error, we found with the thermostat set on 26 degrees on low fan was very comfortable.
It was almost impossible to hear it running, as we have a big van a 25ftr before the harrier required the thermostat set on 21 degrees on low fan, later in the day as the setting sun hits the side of the van, we would close the concertina door separating half the van, with living area being cooled only fan would be on med or high (bloody noisy) the other half was like an oven.
I suppose time will tell how effective the SS will be in Western NSW and Qld on 40 degree plus days, I do recall the Harrier struggling when we were hit with a block of 45 plus days one year, and when it 50 one day it shut down.
Split systems have very large condenser area. It will be fine in the extreme temperatures. If you have access to water, spray the condenser with a fine mist to cool it down, it will only think it is raining! They are made for outdoors.
__________________
Procrastination, mankind's greatest labour saving device!
50L custom fuel rack 6x20W 100/20mppt 4x26Ah gel 28L super insulated fridge TPMS 3 ARB compressors heatsink fan cooled 4L tank aftercooler Air/water OCD cleaning 4 stage car acoustic insulation.
How happy am I with my new Kelvinator split system, compared to the box of crap still on the roof there is no comparison.
We arrived at a CP in the Mildura area yesterday afternoon it was around 36 deg, at midnight it was still 30, Its a bit warm so I got up and turned on the AC, thermostat set at 24 deg on low fan, back to bed it was so quiet it was easy to get back to sleep, so time during the night either Me or SWMBO had pulled the doona over us.
Another upside this unit is wifi compatible no more getting up to grab the AC remote, now I can just grab my mobile to do the job.
