Gas and Oil Home Heating Furnaces - Camper A/C Unit Trouble

I hope this is the right forum to get some help!

I have a Duo-Therm Briskair 13,500 BTU A/C unit on the roof of my camper. The unit seems to operate correctly when first turned on. You hear the compressor engage, and the air output is cool. After about 2-3 minutes, the compressor shuts down and will not cycle back on. Intermittently, if I cycle the temp selector switch to warm and full cold several times the compressor will re-engage and operate for another 2-3 minutes and shut down. I've cleaned the filter in the trailer and rinsed out the condenser on the roof (very clean to begin with). I don't believe I have a refrigerant leak because it's been behaving in this fashion for 1.5 yrs. Any suggestions?

Thanks!!!!

How long of power cord do you have for the trailer and how heavy is it. Is where I would start.;) ED

I agree with Ed, My parents had that problem before with too small of cord w/ a long run from the house to the camper.. Are you using some type of adaptor to change the larger prong to smaller prong for avg homes?

Make sure the sensor bulb for the thermostat (if it is mounted on the unit) is where is it supposed to be. If it got moved and is near the cool air supply, it may sense cold and shut down the compressor. The thermostat could also be defective. It might be helpful to know if the compressor is hot at the time it is off. Like Ed says, a low voltage condition will make the compressor overheat too. If the system has a leak, the lack of residual cooling will make the compressor overheat too. Not trying to add too many things to check but it is hard to know without seeing and measuring a few parameters.

Ken

I do have an adapter to go from the RV proprietary plug to a standard household plug. If memory serves me correctly, it acts up either way. I never use an extension cord if I'm planning on using the A/C. I'll check if the compressor is hot, but strangely enough the lights never dim and the fan speed stays constant. I could be wrong but I don't believe I have a voltage drop concern.

Early in the summer when I had the cover off the roof unit, I could see the temp sense bulb was soldered securely to the evaporator or liquid line (I can't remember - I just know it was secure).

From looking at the unit, I'm going to assume the worst that thermostat is the entire console/switch assembly. It doesn't look as if anything is serviced seperately. I'll need to get on the phone with some RV dealers Monday!

Any other suggestions or past experiences? Thanks!!!

Put a amprobe on the compressor and see what it draws in amp's
from when it starts and goes off.And if that is the same amp draw on the units I D ;) ED

The sensing bulb for the cold control is not soldered to anything. Usually it is clipped to the front of the evaporator coil with two little stand-off clips. That way it is measuring the entering air temperature. If it contacts the fins it may sense a colder contition than the air actually is. Also if the bulb or its cap tube has leaked a slight amount of its juice, it will think the temperature is lower than it really is and throw the unit way out of calibration. The cold control shouldn't be too expensive and is not difficult to replace. If you wired a test light into the circuit to know when the compressor should be on you could tell if the problem is in the thermostat or the refrig. system