Portable ac

[Tx River Rat]

I have a 12000 btu portable I use in my cabin and it works great,will freeze you out on a hot day. I know a lot of folks on here have tried them and they didnt seem to perform well .
Ya'll have me wondering why, do you think the trailers are so tight that they dont let it work well ,maybe opening a vent would make a difference. Most folks vent through the floor, hot air goes up not down ,I wonder if that could be the difference .
There has to be a reason they dont work in a trailer but do in a house.
Any Ideals or opinions?
Ron

[citylights]

They work in a trailer just like a house.

Problems in the trailer...

Sizing, you need about a 2000 btu unit to cool a teardrop. The smallest non-RV unit commercially available is 4000 btu. An oversized unit will cycle excessively, overheat and freeze over.

Vibration, bad for AC units. Ever wonder why them RV units are more expensive than a regular window shaker? Some of it is better construction to withstand movement and vibration.

Ducting, inadequate ducting makes the unit overheat, freeze over, or simply not cool right.

Power supply is an issue. It is cost prohibitive with battery and inverter. Can do with the right size generator (2000 watt, minimum, if I remember correctly.) or plugged into shore power.

With that said, I stuck a 4000 btu window shaker in my teardrop. At $100 on sale, I can buy 6 replacements for the cost of one RV unit. I think I got the ducting worked out. Mine is set up for shore power now and a generator in the future.

As for it being oversized, I plan to use it with the windows or vent cracked. Not very energy efficient, but it works.

As for freezing over, I plan to use it in non humid places, like the desert southwestern USA. Freezing over is mostly a non issue there. Try it in a humid climate though and your condenser will turn into an ice block! All done cooling until it thaws out.

Time will tell if it lasts, but I can tell you it works well right now!

[jwhite]

Mine does work better in the house but I also am running the home AC along with the AC but I did notice the same thing,
In the trailer I thought that the hose was giving off a lot of heat and that was part of the problem in the trailer so I wrapped the hose with insulation and it cut down on the heat from the hose but it wasn't enough to cool properly.
I noticed that in the trailer the portable AC works OK at night it does get down to 62 degrees but by mid morning it's back up to 85-90 degrees inside.
another thing I found was that it said in the instructions it said the AC needed to be 2ft from the wall and in the trailer it was always in the way.
When I went to lowes to buy the window AC and told the guy selling them what I was doing he said they have the portable ac's returned all the time because they didn't work that well?
I will continue to use the AC in my bedroom at night to keep my home AC set at a higher temp, but I would never buy another one.
I just wish I knew this before I bought one thinking it was going to work.

[Tx River Rat]

Jwhite
How did you have your vented through the floor?
Citylights
We are talking about a 7+14 6 ft tall trailer , thats a lot more sq feet than a teardrop.
Ron

[Shadow Catcher]

Same idea inside out

[jwhite]

I did have it ducted out the floor but I can't see how it makes a difference, glad I didn't cut a hole in the side of the trailer?
not only did I wrap the hose with insulation I mounted a fan directly towards the intake to make sure it got plenty of air flow ?

[citylights]

Jwhite
How did you have your vented through the floor?
Citylights
We are talking about a 7+14 6 ft tall trailer , thats a lot more sq feet than a teardrop.
Ron

4000 btu probably just right for a 7x14 trailer. 4000 btu window shaker is typically rated for a 12x12 house room.

[rowerwet]

we don't have air conditioning in the hangars at work, we do avionics installs and had a few large (like to people to lift them size) air conditioners on carts. we run the air through a duct and stick it in the airplane window. no air return from the cabin to the air conditioner. Probably the least efficient way to run it, but it works. The more you can close up the cabin doors and windows the more comfortable it is, not sure how well this would work with a 5k unit, these were 10 or 12K units we modified.
when we run the a/c in our tear (6k unit) we leave the smaller windows and vents open.

[tnriverluver]

I put a 12,500 btu portable in my 7X14 when I first built it and it worked fine at night but couldn't get the trailer below 80 during the day on hot sunny days. It will cool our 16X18 bedroom with 9 foot ceiling just fine and occasionally use it for that if our central unit is on the fritz. The metal framing transfers so much heat that the units simply can't cool fast enough in most trailers. Mine is a dual hose set-up also. Roof air is the way to go and don't look back!

[OverTheTopCargoTrailer]

My 7 x 18 and 5,000 btu window unit works great while parked in the full sun at 100 deg.
Gets her down to 70 deg.
It's all about the insulation.

[Hiflyer]

My 7 x 18 and 5,000 btu window unit works great while parked in the full sun at 100 deg.
Gets her down to 70 deg.
It's all about the insulation.

I agree here. Mine cools quite nicely since the spray foam.