A/C Vents that can be closed off

rono

Active Member
It would be really great to have ceiling vents that not only control direction of airflow but can be shut off also. Would greatly helping zone cooling of trailer.
 

jbeletti

Well-known member
Most people prefer to keep all the AC vents fully opened. As a manufacturer, we're likely precluded by our AC supplier (Dometic in most cases) to have closable discharge vents.

But you can add them on your own. Here's one resource. Ebay and Amazon as well as online RV parts retailers would be others.
8850-photo.jpg
 

Garypowell

Well-known member
I installed closable vents in the bedroom thinking I could close them and let the bedroom a/c cool the whole coach. It kind of works.

What at I found is the a/c runs continually (when the bedroom vents were closed) and was not doing the job we wanted.

So I blocked the common two vents (ducts) that connected the two a/c units. One in the bedroom and the other in the bath such that it is cooled by bedroom a/c.

What a pleasant difference. Bedroom unit turns on and cools the bedroom/bath then shuts off. Same with living room unit. I got to thinking the coaches thermostats are set up like a zoned system but the zones are cross connected such that when the living area calls for cool some of it runs off to the bedroom....so living room unit runs and runs not being able to do the job it turned on to do.

There re is no way around the noise but by blocking the ducts each unit runs less and we get more effective cooling.
 

jmgratz

Original Owners Club Member
I installed closable vents in the bedroom thinking I could close them and let the bedroom a/c cool the whole coach. It kind of works.

What at I found is the a/c runs continually (when the bedroom vents were closed) and was not doing the job we wanted.

So I blocked the common two vents (ducts) that connected the two a/c units. One in the bedroom and the other in the bath such that it is cooled by bedroom a/c.

What a pleasant difference. Bedroom unit turns on and cools the bedroom/bath then shuts off. Same with living room unit. I got to thinking the coaches thermostats are set up like a zoned system but the zones are cross connected such that when the living area calls for cool some of it runs off to the bedroom....so living room unit runs and runs not being able to do the job it turned on to do.

There re is no way around the noise but by blocking the ducts each unit runs less and we get more effective cooling.

Also check the ends of the ducts as they run past the last vent into the front cap and rear cap. There is 38 inches of dead space at each end of the duct. We 'dammed' off each end and that made a huge difference. Poor design.
 

azbigfoot

Well-known member
I installed closable vents in the bedroom thinking I could close them and let the bedroom a/c cool the whole coach. It kind of works.

What at I found is the a/c runs continually (when the bedroom vents were closed) and was not doing the job we wanted.

So I blocked the common two vents (ducts) that connected the two a/c units. One in the bedroom and the other in the bath such that it is cooled by bedroom a/c.

What a pleasant difference. Bedroom unit turns on and cools the bedroom/bath then shuts off. Same with living room unit. I got to thinking the coaches thermostats are set up like a zoned system but the zones are cross connected such that when the living area calls for cool some of it runs off to the bedroom....so living room unit runs and runs not being able to do the job it turned on to do.

There re is no way around the noise but by blocking the ducts each unit runs less and we get more effective cooling.

Hi Jim,

What material did you use to build the dams???

Thanks, Jeff
 

Garypowell

Well-known member
I did not mention it in my first post but I also closed off the ends. I did that about 2 months of ownership when I removed a ceiling light and cool air came out.

I simply took silver heating and cooling tape and slowly built up enough tape to seal off the end.

When i recently blocked the cross connect I had an extra swim noodle that I cut to size and the jammed in. There were still some gaps but put in a little silver tape and all was sealed.
 
Top