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Old 04-10-2011, 11:34 AM   #1
rgwilliams69
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Question 3640RL Dual AC Question

We have had our Alpine 3640RL for a couple of weeks now and just warm enough this weekend in the Midwest to run the air units. We have the dual AC setup, but I think maybe the ducts are connected wrong? It seems that when we have just the front unit on it blows to ALL of the outlets, and when we have just the back unit on it blows to all of the outlets as well. Shouldn't the front one just blow through the sleeper & bathroom and the back one blow through the kitchen & living room? What is the purpose of the dual zones if there is no separation between the units?

If anyone has one would appreciate if you could check and let me know if mine is just hooked up wrong or if they all work this way. Also if they all work this way, I guess I do not understand the dual zone configuration.

Appreciate very much in advance any help or insights.
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Old 04-10-2011, 12:45 PM   #2
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Our 3400RL works the same way. I have very limited experience with ours (we've had it a whole two weeks) but I like the system. If the temperature outside is below 80 I set front AC unit to come on first (lower temperature than rear zone) that way there is less noise in the rear of the coach. Then as the temperature rises the rear AC will kick in to keep things cool. At night I just reverse the settings, so the main air is cooling the coach and front only kicks in if it's needed.

If you don't want the front air feeding the rest of the coach you can open the quick cool vents and 75% of the output will drop into the front area. Same with the main air just open the quick cool vents and the volume of air going to the front will decrease.

Hope you enjoy your rig
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Old 04-10-2011, 05:11 PM   #3
hsmunoz
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the second ac is connected to the same ducts. It is there in case you need alot more AC than just one unit can pump. It also has a dump for just quickly cooling the bedroom. I if you really want zone coverage, then pick the location you want to cut off, and block the rest of the duct. I did that on my class A by removing the ducts amid ships, and stuffing some foam in there . If you don't like it you can always pull out the foam.
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Old 04-11-2011, 10:17 AM   #4
rgwilliams69
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Interesting - I didn't see the quick cool vents on the sleep AC - guess I need to look closer at it. The rear AC doesn't have the quick cool though because it no longer protrudes beneath the ceiling (the new central air system). If I have the quick cool vents then I am in business.

We had a 326FRE Outback Sydney prior to this one and had the front AC as well - was pretty nice to just be able to shut the sleeper door and get it as cool as you wanted in there (down to 65 degrees super quick with the 13.5 unit right there over the bed).

If I do not have the quick cool vents then I guess my front AC is different than what comes from the factory. It was dealer installed as part of the package before I picked it up. Then I might have to try and do the "block" thing to get separate zones.

Thanks very much for validating that mine wasn't just hooked up properly. Guess it is a "feature".
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Old 04-11-2011, 11:34 AM   #5
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A/C

RGWilliams69 -

On the A/C in the bedroom, is there a small "knob" or "slider lever" that protrudes from the A/C? If so, try sliding that from one side to the other. When you do, it opens the vents so the front A/C unit is basically flooding the bedroom with cool . . . Cool, eh? Otherwise, the slider directs the airflow into the overhead distribution vents for the fiver. Now, the plus we see in this is that we can "chill" the bedroom down, turn the Zone 2 A/C a little higher in temp and thus "Off", and then just rely upon the heat pump/AC to cool during the night. Much quieter until a dog decides it wants out - has nothing to do with A/C! The other plus is that we can use our generator to keep the Alpine's interior temp from "Bake" as we roll down the road. The EC30 works with the A/C to crankup/kill the generator. But if we stop and want to keep the dogs cool, we can put them in the bedroom, move the lever to "dump cold air here", and with the EC30/generator running, leave them in A/C comfort while we go into a store, etc. I also have a high/low temperature sensor that texts and calls my cell phone if the temperature goes out of range.

I would bet that if you move the slide lever, you will find that you can change the A/C from "distribution duct" to "dump here".

Ron
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Old 04-11-2011, 05:47 PM   #6
rgwilliams69
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Well I went out and checked tonight and unless I am missing something, the bedroom unit doesn't have any way to push air other than the ducts. In fact it sits virtually flush on the ceiling with the only opening being the intake for the filter. What everyone is describing sounds okay to me, but I seem to have a different AC unit in the front than what Keystone might have intended.

Any way someone could send me a picture of what you have?

I did have the second unit installed at the dealer I bought it from - so maybe they installed the wrong one (or a different one from what everyone has). If I knew this for sure I could take it back and have them put the correct one in.

Originally I asked that they just install the stand-alone unit with the controls directly on it, separate from the dual-zone thermostat so I could run it individually. But they said this one would work better, of course the controls are on the thermostat for both AC units (Zone 1 and Zone 2).

This probably wouldn't be such a big deal other than we do a lot of dry camping at race tracks, and because my Onan 6500 loves (and I mean really loves) propane, at night we run just the front AC on a Honda EU3000is. But if the air is being pumped all over the coach rather than just the sleeper that probably won't cut it on those 100 deg nights at the races. When we have them both fired up at the same time on the Onan I expect that will be fine.
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Old 04-12-2011, 02:30 AM   #7
mikell
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We have only the heat pump and I wasn't really impressed Sunday when it was 85 out. I may look into a second unit for the BR. The heat pump may be fine if it's on all the time but there just doesn't seem to be much air coming out. I took all the vent covers off and had a look but it just doesn't seem like much intake.
Some people had their units redone at the factory any idea of what they did?
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Old 04-12-2011, 06:01 AM   #8
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2nd A/C

I did have a second A/C installed when we ordered our 3640. I'll drop past the unit on the way home tonight and take a picture and get the model number. I'll try to get this posted later this evening.

Ron
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Old 04-12-2011, 06:17 PM   #9
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Factory installed second AC

The factory installed bedroom AC is a Dometic DuoTherm. I have annotated the slider bar lever in the picture. The cover does fit fairly flush with the ceiling. Admittedly, I quickly scanned the inside of the unit (took the cover and filter out) and could not see a model number - not that surprised. But I can say that this AC will cool that bedroom in nothing flat!

Hope this helps.

Ron
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Old 04-13-2011, 06:06 AM   #10
mikell
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Thanks and so the controls are all in the thermostat that was allready there then? I have a junction box that says it's for a second unit bu the roof vent I'll have to open it and have a look. We'll give this some time being they are predicting snow AGAIN this weekend
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Old 04-13-2011, 07:42 AM   #11
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Junction box

There is a "control/junction box" behind the filter. I do have a picture of that also, though I didn't think I needed to post it. The bedroom A/C is controlled off the (midnight-challenged) Dometic thermostat. About the only thing you can physically control on the bedroom A/C is whether the slider controlled baffle allows the cooled air to "plunge" into the bedroom or if it is diverted to the ceiling ductwork. Beyond that, it is just keeping the filter cleaned and the unit serviced.

Two tangents from this:

1) Does it disturb anyone else that the rear Dometic Heat Pump does not seem to have a filter on the return air? Dust, hair (dog and human), lint, etc., can all find their way into the return vent and clog the unit. Has anyone else been looking at replacing the return air vents with filtered vents? (Found some on Amazon that I'm thinking about.)

2) If you add-on an Onan EC30 unit, the control box in the bedroom A/C is different than the "standard" control box. This caused the selling RV dealer quite a few prep problems until they found someone at Keystone and Onan that actually knew what they were talking about.

Ron
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Old 04-13-2011, 02:54 PM   #12
rgwilliams69
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- Ron

Thanks so much! That certainly explains it. Mine is the low profile unit I think called the Penguin. Apparently it can be installed with "cover kit - return air" or "cover kit - return air with quick cool grill", which is I think what your picture shows. I just need to contact the dealer and tell them than I need the cover kit with the quick cool grill for a replacement. And since I have looked this up on the Dometic web site I can go ahead and give them the part number also.

Thanks so much everyone for your help and comments - a great community here on keystonerv.org!
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