Best AC Options for PopUp Campers

hey everybody this is hobbit and i wanted to do a quick follow-up video um to the initial video i made about installing a portable ac in the pop-up and i wanted to do that just based on the feedback and questions that i've gotten about it and essentially give you some pros and cons about the alternatives to rooftop ac so i wanted to go over a couple of things real quick and then i'm going to make another video about what i have decided to do in the new pop-up that i have because i sold the other one um so i hope you enjoyed hope that's helpful and i'm going to include some time stamps here um to give you an idea of where we're going and some stuff that i'm going to cover in the video my theory in my my opinion is is that rooftop acs are they're fantastic um i've been in pop-ups that have them and they they absolutely keep the camper cool and they they work really well but the issue that i have with them is almost all of them require at least a 14 by 14 inch hole or square to be cut in your roof and even though a pop-up uh some pop-ups come like pre-framed to hold that weight um it's just it's a matter of physics these pop-ups the roofs are not they're they're made to be lightweight they're not made to be a heavy duty they're not an enclosed bumper pool or travel trailer or anything like that um so even if you keep it in the garage just from you know when you're traveling and that weight is just hitting the roof you know if you hit a bump or something just over time your roof is going to sag um and you also have the issue of leaking around the gasket that that the the ac is on i'm sure there's people that will you know differ an opinion and that's totally fine but couple that risk with the financial investment um to to buy or to install a rooftop ac and given the uh the effectiveness of other alternatives that are a lot cheaper and then have hardly any risk at all um i just i think it's a no-brainer to go with with alternative options as far as what's out there that you can use to cool the pop-up you've got the rooftop ac you have a portable ac you have window units i've seen and there's um there's this unit that you can buy it's called climate right i think or climate right or something and it's basically a unit that you keep outside the camper and you cut two small holes and you you hook up uh hoses and the the unit stays outside the camper or like on the tongue or you know under a bunk and you're you know uh you're pumping air in and you're you know feeding the the unit and exhausting outside so um i'll just start with that one i've read a ton of reviews on that because i thought about putting it in the old pop-up and it was intended initially um as a way to heat and cool dog houses in you know like the upper midwest northeast because of the cool temperatures and snow and ice and i've just heard a lot of i've seen a lot of bad reviews about them where they go they they crap out you know have a short life and for the cost i just don't think that's a good option um and they're pretty big and bulky and stuff um the other option is the portable ac and i have made a video and i'll put a link to that video in the description but you can find it on our page um or on our channel and where i used a black and decker uh 10 000 btu unit and i showed you what i chose to do which was use a marine deck hatch from seaflo and it has a foam seal on it and has this lid and you can just unscrew the lid and vent the ac out the floor you can also use this to vent the ac out the side of the camper if you want or you know wherever else but this is really handy and has a foam seal on the lid as well and on the flange so this works really well in the old camper i had i used that black decker unit probably five or six times and i used it in in some intense heat and uh it got the job done for us and um and so i would recommend it if that's a choice you have or you know that's something you want to do um when i got this pop-up i had the same intent to use the portable ac because i sold my old pop-up and when i did i sold the the ac unit with it with the camper and so i bought a um a new black necker unit and i'll show you that now i got this 12 000 btu unit and um it has an automated this is vent it like moves air and um it was about the same price as the 10 000 btu just um because of the uh kind of a special i guess on amazon and um and so it works really well it's quiet it's really really powerful and i would definitely recommend using uh this black decker brand um but i just have an issue that that i ran into with this unit that i that i didn't necessarily have in the uh in the old pop-up like i said i used uh the black and decker and the old camper and that was my intent and this uh this new camper that i got the reason i chose to go with the portable ac in the old camper was when i remodeled it i took out a cabinet and so i had a lot of floor space and it was really easy for me to cut the hole for the flange and to vent the ac out the floor without really affecting the functionality of the inside of the camper in this camper the new one that i have um it's basically brand new i got a great deal on it um i found it on craigslist and just got lucky and um and so i didn't want to remove cabinets and stuff i really wanted the storage and the counter space and stuff like that and so trying to put the ac you know vent the ac through the floor just wasn't an option because it basically was going to just get in the way and just be you know more of a hassle so i tried to use the unit and tested it out in my garage and i i put the hose through the uh the canvas because this camper has uh the canvases in sections and so you can unzip it and stuff and so basically right behind me where my thumb is there is a zipper right there and so i unzipped it put the uh hose through there and i set the the uh the ac up on the counter and tried to run it and here is the main drawback with the portable acs i'm not an hvac guy but here's my understanding and this is what i've experienced with portable acs you have two sort of tiers and far and away the dual hose units are way way better i have a huge portable ac that i use upstairs in the heat of the summer i've used it all summer this summer it's a winter unit it's 14 000 btus amazing amazing unit cools the space unbelievably well it's quiet it's it's really effective but with the the two hose units you've got you're sucking air from outside and cooling that air and then you're venting hot air out through us through a second hose um so you're just continually adding cold air to the room with a single hose unit you are sucking cold air from in the room to feed the ac and then venting hot air out and so eventually what you start doing is sucking hot air from other areas into the space that you're trying to cool with a single hose unit and so when i tried this 12 000 btu unit in here i was hoping man this is going to be really powerful and do definitely do the job um but when i turned it on literally you can see the canvas it starts to suck the canvas in like the canvas starts like this and then as soon as you turn the ac on it goes like it's sucking it inwards and it's because it's sucking the air from inside to feed the ac and it's pumping air hot air out and so basically through every little crevice or crack or you know seam you can feel air from outside the camper being sucked in and that's ultimately like um you know it's affecting the temperature inside the camper because hot air is coming in even though you're adding cool air and so that experience led me to choose something different and so the the other option that you have for portable or for acs is a window unit and that sounds crazy and i've seen a lot of pictures online of people installing these and so i guess one thing i would say about it is don't start cutting freaking huge holes in the side of your camper to put a window unit um that's just asinine you're gonna you know create leaks and problems and maybe cut wires and stuff that's just a bad idea don't do that um particularly for something that you're not going to use year round unless you live somewhere where it's really hot all the time i've seen the pictures and stuff where people try to like lift one portion of the canvas and kind of put it in there and you know one of the issues that i ran into when i i did the first video about the portable ac is i wanted to vent the ac to the floor because i just didn't like how it looked i saw a bunch of pictures where people were putting you know exhausting the ac through the canvas and cutting holes and stuff and it just looked really crappy um and so you can do that with a window unit but you can also just use the screen and send the air right through the screen in the window now that i've used a portable ac and the other pop-up and it worked well i've also been in pop-ups with the rooftop ac and i've put a window unit into this new ac or new camper i definitely would say this without a doubt a rooftop ac is going to work better and cool quicker and and be less hassle in the short run in the long run i think your roof is going to sag you're probably going to have leak problems um and not to mention the the financial difference between the other options so i think where i fall on it is buy a window unit and you can you can buy one at walmart or uh you know lowe's for like anywhere from you know 150 bucks to 250 bucks and um it's easy to store it's small it's smaller than the portable ac so it's going to be able to stay in the camper and it will absolutely get the job done and cool the camper so for me money plus function um i would absolutely go with the the window unit and um if you're interested in how to do that how to use the window unit i'm i'm gonna make another video and post that as well um and add it to our channel check that out and see how i did it um and uh i hope this helps if you've got any questions about specific units or how to you know um to brace the unit or how to vent the portable ac if that's the route you choose um shoot me a comment email something like that and let me know and i'll try to get back to you as quick as i can hope this helps as always like share send us flowers and uh stay tuned subscribe um check out some some of our other videos thanks for watching

Channel: Hobit & Knobbin

Views: 5,990

Rating: 4.830986 out of 5

Keywords: pop up camper, air conditioning, camper mods, installing ac in camper, camper ac unit

Id: oKxSVKUPSYw

Length: 13min 13sec (793 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 02 2020