Dometic penguin ac units swap for Furrion units, any tips?

January 21, 2023, 01:56:57 pm

After being absolutely pounded by hail in Utah, (totaled my pristine Chevy tracker), the time has come to replace my rooftop units. I have not been able to find mfg. info, however, on what will be involved to swap these, and a new thermostat to replace my Dometic 4 button with a new gen thermostat. I Seem to recall that there's an issue with the teleco style cables, can anyone provide any insight into this? No aquahot, but current thermo controls two zones of AC and two furnaces. TIA for the help, Chuck.

Re: Dometic penguin ac units swap for Furrion units, any tips?

Reply #1 – January 21, 2023, 02:26:29 pm

Chuck,

I'm hearing that Truma will be making the 13.5 BTU model available for aftermarket installation soon. It might be worth researching this vs the Furrion. Word is the Truma is much quieter than the Dometic Penguin models. The downside it's A/C only, no heatpump mode.

Air Conditioning Systems | Truma

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Sandra Johnson - Leisure Travel Van Enthusiasts FB page
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I attended day 2 of the Tampa Rv Super Show and decided to go back and talk more with Truma about the Aventa. I discovered that the the 13,5000btu ducted version (currently OEM only) will soon be available to the public. There is also a 15,000btu version but they didn't have any information on availability at this time.

The Engineers told me that they would work with owners to back fit the unit to their RV. This means designing any form of new baffling required to adapt the Aventa to your current ducting system. The Aventa can fit roof openings of 13.5"-14.5", considered standard openings. The exterior dimensions of the Aventa is 26" x 10.4" x 44" and the Dometic Penguin ll (LTV uses the 15,000 btu model) is 29" x 9.5" x 40", so the footprint difference needs to be evaluated if you were interested in considering the Aventa as a replacement for the Penguin ll.

The Aventa has 3 fan speeds which draw anywhere from 9.4 - 10.5 amps (120vAC). The Aventa power usage, even on its high fan setting is at least 6 amps (120vAC) less than the Penguin ll. This translates to nearly a 40% reduction in battery draw to run the Aventa off the 3000w inverter vs what it takes to operate the Penguin ll.

I mentioned before that the Aventa does require a soft start to run from a 3000w inverter, because it still has the same high compressor start amp spike as the Dometic Penguin ll air conditioner.

As far as the soft start for the Aventa, Truma recommends the SoftStartRV model because it is a smaller sized unit and would fit better under the shroud within the confines of the unit itself.

When looking at the LTVs at the show, I particularly paid attention to the sound of the Truma Aventa running. It does run quieter, how much quieter I can only guess but it might be as much as 50% quieter. It didn't drown out conversations like my Dometic Penguin ll does. I actually only could hear it running over the ambient noise level of the show if I focused on trying to listen for it.

Re: Dometic penguin ac units swap for Furrion units, any tips?

Reply #2 – January 21, 2023, 03:45:59 pm

My first thought was that there are not enough wires to support four zones. Then I thought some more, and realized our coach has four zones - front AC and heat, rear AC and heat, belly heater and bathroom heat. The last two have independent thermostats.

Our FT had a wire that went from the front AC opening to the rear AC opening that is apparently not present on all coaches. We were able to operate both Furrion units with the existing wiring. I had no problems with the telco style wiring - I used inexpensive jacks I bought off Amazon, rather than cutting the wires.

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