Monday, 27 April 2015

Trav-l-cool evaporative aircon units as fitted to many 90's Hymers

Just got up on th roof and noticed a considerable hole in the air conditioning unit. Is it fixable? Does it matter? Not tested the air con yet so don't even know if it works.

Victoria Grey's photo.
Victoria Grey's photo.
  • Ron Bentham This is a TravlCool evaporative aircon unit. It works on the principle of water evaporation as opposed to refrigeration as found in cars and houses. It works on the same principle as when you spray cold water on your skin in summer and then blow on it you feel a cooling effect. Somewhere in the van there will be a plastic container with tubes leading from it to the unit on the roof. This is the water reservoir and if you are unlucky it will be half full of rancid old water!
    I also have one of these units on my van, and I must be honest they are not really much good. It does provide some cooling effect in reasonably hot weather but when you get to a really hot climates say 30° or more it really doesn't perform. It is also power hungry and noisy and needs constant maintenance.

    The hole in it looks to be cosmetic damage caused by a low flying tree or similar. It should patch up quite easily and you should at least attempt a temporary repair otherwise you will find birds and other creatures making it their home eventually!

    I suggest you give the unit and its water tank a good clean and then see how you get on with it over the summer. The problem is that if you take it out you will be left with a hole in your roof.

    If you don't have the instruction manual for it in your document pack either I will find a copy online for you are you can have a copy of mine.
  • Victoria Grey Thank you. I've just found the rancid water! I'll attempt a repair job. No animals yet. I doubt we'll use it at all but it's nice to have just in case.
  • Ron Bentham Give the vents a good vac ..... they have a nasty habit of blowing acculutaed crap into the van the first time you switch it on after storage!
  • Victoria Grey Good tip, thank you.
  • Ron Bentham also a few drops of bleach stops the water going rancid - but don't overdo it otherwise the van smells like a freshly cleaned toilet!
  • Mark Burchell If you do decide to take the unit off it might be worth installing an omni fan or similar if the aperture is the right size or smaller...
  • Linda Grant Ron Bentham could we have a copy of your manual please? Thinking about recommissioning ours dependant on effort & cost.... Looks like the tube & water have been taken away, but the power supply still works.
  • Josef Williams There is a water jack under my sink with two pipe's and a witch for a water pump the water in the jack is blue i'v not checked it but i think it's antifreeze I'v cleaned it all up and had it running but not used it for any length of time.
  • Ron Bentham Linda - I finally found it but it's in German! I had a good Google around and found a pdf online....and also one in Dutch, but there's not a sniff of an English version. I suggest you try this online one and do the Google translate thing!
    https://www.gebruikershandleiding.com/.../preview...
    Bekijk en download hier de handleiding van Industrial...
  • Victoria Grey I've got an English one. I'll try and scan it.
  • Josef Williams Thank you Ron Bentham Trav-l- Cool is the same has main pump is different .
  • Roger Godwin I have one of these units fitted on my S700. Never found any drain tubbing or water container though. Any chance of a copy of your English instruction booklet Victoria. Willing to pay. Or would it be possible to upload it to the Group files for all.
    Thank you.
  • Victoria Grey Just trying to find it now. I've got too much paperwork! I'll upload it as soon as I do 
  • Linda Grant Thanks Ron, thanks Victoria - we found some tubing in the wardrobe but it stops abruptly - I'd like to know where to put a water container 9if we do) and how it all works....
  • Peter Curry drain tube from aircon needs to run outside of van, the damage can be repaired it is just the outer weather case but does need doing before traveling too far as wind will rip it to bits once it has a toe hold, a good clean and some fiperglass repair matt job done
    21 hrs · Like · 1
  • Ron Bentham Well Linda..... My aircon unit has been the least useful of the extras on my S700. My tank is fitted in the void under the wardrobe floor, behind the heater - yes you read that right - I have to take out the wardrobe floor to fill the tank! The tank is a standard plastic container with a screw top, about 10 litres ish .... the top is modified to allow the two tubes to pass through. One tube is the feed tube that goes down to the bottom of the tank, with a small filter on it, and the other is the drain tube, which, contrary to what peter says (in my case) drains return water back into the tank. The main tube goes from the tank to a pump that is monted on the wall between the wardrobe and the kitchen cupboards, and then up to the aircon unit.
    The best think I can say about it is that it works, but having to do the wardrobe floor to fill the tank proved to be a real pain. One day in Portugal I had a brainwave - I drilled a hole in the bottom of the tank and ran a clear plastic tube to the outside which is tacked vertically to the wood panel situated between the left hand side of the heater, and the under sink kitchen cupboard - photo on request. This then gave me a visual indication oif the water level - similar to the tubes you see on big external heating oil tanks to indicate their level.
    Of course the top of the tube is above the level of the top of the tank - otherwise disaster!
    I then rigged an attachment to the shower fitting which enabled me to direct water from the shower into the top of the tube - thus taking away the need to take out the floor. I was quite pleased with my contraption, and i got some decent use out of the unit during my long trips round Portugal, Spain and Morocco a few years back.
    It was with heavy use that I discovered it's other drawback - if you have it on full for a long time it occasionally drips water onto the floor below - no big deal as the water is clean. It is also noisy on full, and not so effective on low.
    Unfortunately the intervening years have seen the plastic level pipe discolour with scale and bacteria, so it now looks quite disgusting and needs replacing - I believe a few drops of bleach would keep it clean - would have to experiment as too much would smell, and too little would be useless.
    Ideally the tank needs to be more accessible - in the boot is the obvious choice, but routing of the pipes might be difficult. 
    So you need to see where your pipes are, and also do you still have the pump?
    4 hrs · Like
  • Peter Curry Ha but what you describe Ron is not a air con unit but a perigee effect cool air humidifier
    4 hrs · Like
  • Linda Grant Hi Ron - splendid detailed answer as always thank you! Yes we need to hunt down the ends of the pipes (didn't think to look underneath the wardrobe floor - there's a safe on top of that now so that won't be a 5 minute job!) - I've no idea if we still have a pump. I'm guessing a pump wouldn't cost much though, I'm wondering if we could bypass all that work & install a new water container and pump somewhere more accessible? Although a 10 litre container is much bigger than i had visualised, and tbh that would take up valuable packing space. I was thinking it would be a little tub like a margarine tub or something. It's low down our priority list, I just saw Victoria's post and was reminded. Is there any chance that this entire conversation thread could be filed in the group files so I can come back to it in a few months? 
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2 comments:

  1. Anonymous16 May 2018 at 10:19

    How good to hear of others who have "thoughts" on the Trav-l-cool perigree effect cool air humidifier. [Thanks Peter]
    We have had our S555 for 12 years now............ wondered why we had water coming off the roof after 2mins running?
    Cleaned out, ensured that all pipes were clear. Now, after all this time............
    THERE SHOULD BE A FILTER IN THERE....................
    OK... OK... BUT WHERE DO I FIND ONE ?????? [ROGER]

    ReplyDelete
  2. funkyronster16 May 2018 at 10:49

    Mine always dripped too - sorry I have no idea!

    ReplyDelete