Lamonte:
Since I'm not familiar with your coach's A/C layout, could you provide a few more details, like:
- Location of the failing unit: front, middle (if there is one) or rear
- number of zones, number of individual thermostats, and number of 13.5K A/C on each zone
- What models of Dometic 13.5K A/Cs do you currently have installed: Brisk, Penguin II, etc?
- are your current A/Cs ceiling ducted or non-ducted? Assume ducted for now.
What's most important to you in your replacement search, and how would you rank the following in terms or priority to you?
- best cooling performance (most BTUs) for the new unit; shorter run times, etc regardless of practical cost or looks? Would you be interested in going to a higher 15K BTUs unit, if the cost was right?
- cheapest unit cost, regardless of performance or looks
- quietest, regardless of performance or looks
- ease of installation: assuming that you still have old 5 button Dometic CCC thermostats and how/if new digital LCD thermostats will have to be retrofitted back to work with existing analog Dometic 13.5K A/Cs via control unit change outs, etc?
- Looks of the new unit: does the replacement Dometic unit need to visually match the existing Dometic A/C units on the roof of your coach: I.E.: could the replacement be a different shape; height, etc? E.g.: Domestic has a new model, NXT, out since last Oct 2016 that is more streamlined than the Brisk, supposedly their most efficient, but also still taller than then older Penguin II models, so the new unit still looks "different" than either of the older Brisk or Penguin II models..
I'm sure that are also a few other decision points to consider in the replace A/C trade study space.
