Plumbing and Appliance
Air Conditioning and Heating Repair
In short: An RV air conditioner that cannot keep up in a California summer is more often a duct, seal and insulation problem than a refrigeration problem, which is why replacing the unit frequently disappoints.
- Typical range
- $400 to $9,500+
- Labor hours
- 2 to 40 hours
- Updated
Climate control in a recreational vehicle is fighting a losing battle by design. The building envelope is thin, the windows are large and mostly single glazed, the roof is dark and horizontal, and the whole thing sits in the sun with no shade.
That matters because the most common complaint we hear, an air conditioner that cannot keep the coach cool, is usually not an air conditioner fault at all.
Why cooling disappoints
Before condemning a unit, the things that actually cause it:
A blocked return air filter. Restricts airflow across the evaporator, which reduces capacity and eventually ices the coil. It is the first thing to check and the most commonly neglected.
A failed roof gasket. The gasket between the rooftop unit and the roof opening compresses over time. When it fails, conditioned air escapes and hot outside air is drawn in around the unit. It also leaks water, which is a roof problem in the making.
Duct leaks in the ceiling plenum. On ducted systems the plenum is frequently poorly sealed, so a meaningful fraction of the cooling ends up in the ceiling cavity.
Genuine capacity shortfall. A single 13,500 BTU unit on a 36 foot coach in a Southern California August is undersized, and no repair will change that.
Heat load that could be reduced. Reflective window covering, a roof vent shade and parking in shade routinely make more difference than any component replacement.
We check all of that before quoting a new unit, because selling someone a replacement that also cannot keep up is a poor outcome for everyone.
Systems we work on
Rooftop air conditioners. Coleman, Dometic, Furrion, ducted and non-ducted, single and multi-unit installations.
Heat pump variants. Efficient in mild weather, which covers most of the year here, and progressively less effective as it gets genuinely cold.
Propane furnaces. Suburban and Atwood forced-air units.
Hydronic systems. AquaHot and similar on larger coaches, providing both heating and domestic hot water from one source. More complex, more capable, more expensive to repair.
Soft start devices. Reduce compressor inrush so a unit can start on a 30 amp service, a smaller generator or an inverter.
Commercial and specialty. Ambulance and mobile medical climate control, food truck ventilation and cooling, and driver cab systems on trucks and buses.
What fails
On air conditioners: capacitors, which are the single most common failure and are inexpensive; fan motors; control boards; roof gaskets; and eventually compressors, at which point replacement is usually better economics than repair.
On furnaces: igniters, sail switches that confirm airflow before allowing the burner to light, limit switches, blocked or restricted exhaust, low propane pressure, and control boards. A furnace that lights and then drops out after a few seconds is almost always the flame sensing circuit.
On hydronic systems: burner faults, circulation pumps, zone valves, and control complexity that requires system-level diagnosis rather than component swapping.
Electrical capacity
A large share of air conditioning complaints are electrical rather than mechanical.
Compressor inrush is several times running current. On a 30 amp service, with a converter charging and a microwave running, there may not be headroom to start it, and the unit will either trip a breaker or stall and overheat. On a generator that is marginal for the load, the same. From an inverter, the same again.
A soft start device addresses that directly, and it is one of the more worthwhile upgrades on a coach with limited service. Where the underlying problem is service capacity, a 30 to 50 amp upgrade is the real fix.
What it costs
| Job | Typical range | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Service and diagnosis | $400 to $900 | 2 to 4 |
| Capacitor or fan motor replacement | $500 to $1,200 | 2 to 5 |
| Control board replacement | $700 to $1,500 | 3 to 6 |
| Roof gasket replacement | $450 to $1,000 | 2 to 5 |
| Soft start installation | $500 to $1,100 | 2 to 4 |
| Rooftop unit replacement | $1,800 to $3,800 | 6 to 14 |
| Furnace repair | $400 to $1,800 | 2 to 8 |
| Furnace replacement | $1,500 to $3,500 | 6 to 14 |
| Hydronic system repair | $1,500 to $9,500 | 6 to 40 |
Labor is $260 per hour for mechanical and electrical work. Diagnostics are $285 for the first hour, credited back against an authorized repair. See the pricing page.
Before summer, not during
Air conditioning fails in July, because that is when it is asked to work hardest, and July is also when every shop in Southern California is booked with air conditioning work.
Service in spring. Clean or replace the filter, check the roof gasket, verify the capacitor, clean the condenser coil, and confirm the unit pulls its expected current. It is a short job and it moves the failure from the hottest week of the year to a convenient one.
Estimates are $150 and credited back against an authorized repair.