Advent Air RV Air Conditioner w/ Air Distribution Box, Start Capacitor, and Heat Strip - 15,000 Btu

Video Transcript for Best Rooftop RV Air Conditioner Options

Randy: Hey, guys, it's Randy here, at etrailer.com. We get questions about AC units all the time, so we spent about the last week and-a-half running a bunch of tests on the different manufacturers. And what we are going to talk about today are the 15,000 BTU class, the Furrion, which we have here, in the middle. It's actually a 15,500 BTU AC unit. But we've got some really good results. Now, we'll just run down the summary now, so if you're just worried about the information, we'll give it to you, and we'll explain it a little bit more in depth if you want to stick around.But basically, the first concern most of our customers have is going to be noise.

As far as noise go, the Furrion and the Atwood inside your RV are going to be the quietest. They are about 10 decibels quieter than what the Advent, based on the testing we we're able to come up with. Basically, the Atwood here, it runs at about 67 decibels with the compressor on, fan going. The Furrion's at about 66. Now, both of these are going to be very similar to a normal conversation at about three to five feet away.

When we look at the Advent, this was up 77, 76, just depending This is going to be . You get the additional airflow, but this is going to be closer to the sounds that you generally get from a washing machine.The next big question is always temperature difference, like how much cooling capacity does it have With the Atwood and with the Advent, they both brought down the ambient air temperature about 20. The Furrion was closer to 30. So, this one's definitely better at cooling the air. Surprisingly enough, even in June here in Missouri, we've still got pretty nice weather.

So, we tested all of these at about 74. 74, 75, something like that.And what we got essentially, is that with the Atwood and with the Advent, they both brought our air temperature from that 74 down to 55, 54, somewhere right in that range. So, these are about 20 cooler than what the air is outside. Now, if it's at 100, you might not get a full 20, but that's where they sat. With the Furrion, I was really impressed with it.

Same temperature, 74, 75, this thing got down to 43 a couple times, 44, 45. So, this one's closer to 30. Now, that's measured directly where that air comes out of the duct. We put our temperature sensor right there so we could pick it up as close to the source as possible.As far as generator use, a lot of times you'll be out boondocking, you'll be out somewhere where you don't have access to plug-in power or shore power. And they all would start with our generators. We used our 3200 watt etrailer generator. We could start each of them without any problems at all. The thing that comes in, and the one that I would recommend for generator use is going to be the Furrion. The Furrion's compressor uses a separate motor than the evaporator, versus the Atwood or the Advent. So, these, while they don't really require any more power to start than the Furrion, these take a little bit longer. So, they put a longer period of drag on your generator. That could cause, in some cases, depending on your generator brand, for these not to fire.The Furrion has a much shorter cycle there. The compressor kicks on very rapidly. So, I like this one the best. The generator doesn't hardly have time to recognize the load before it's up and running. So, that's something to keep in mind there. Another question we get are about capacitors. Capacitors are a small, kind of like a coil, or kind of like a battery, and it can store power inside. When we ask the AC unit to come on, that capacitor discharges that energy it's got, and it helps out. It wants to help it along.So, basically, what we we're doing is testing them. The Atwood comes standard with a capacitor, the Furrion comes standard with a capacitor, the Advent does not in most cases. So, what you'll need to do if you want to use this, especially if you're going to be using it with a generator, get a capacitor, install it in there, and it's just going to help with that initial start up. It's going to help it out just a little bit, trying to give it that little bit of boost that it needs to get everything working properly.As far as the generator questions, we get those a lot, and people want to know which generator they need to use to power them. And basically, this is going to be pretty specific, but our etrailer generators, whether you're using the 3200 or two of the 2000's paralleled together, they started these each and every time with no issue. To go a step further than that, our two etrailer 2000 watt generators really surprised me. We ran the Atwood, which we started first. After the Atwood was running, we started the Furrion, and they fired right up. I was really surprised. Same to be said for that 3200 and parallel, or the 3200 and 2000 watt kit we made. So, if you've just got one air conditioner on there, any of those are going to work out really well for you.If you're going to be running two, the only exception would be if they both try to start at the exact same time. That's one of the most rare instances, I think, that you'll ever encounter, but if it does happen, it's going to trip your generator. You'll have to restart it. So, just keep that in mind. But outside of that, they all work really well, even with the large BTU ratings, with those generators that I've mentioned.The last is going to be airflow. And basically, the Advent, while it is the noisiest like we talked about, it seems to put out the most air. But it's not quite as cool as what we get with the Furrion. The Furrion's a little bit cooler, doesn't blow quite as much air. The Furrion's going to be for me. I like that bigger temperature difference. And then the Atwood, it just kind of stays right there in the middle. The airflow on this one's a little bit less than the Furrion. It cools at the same rate as what the Advent does. So all in all, they all do a good job and they're all going to work.I think the biggest reason you might want maximum airflow is if you've got a ducted trailer. We're going to have one AC unit in the back, let's say, of the trailer, and we're trying to get it to push through those vents all the way up to the front. Outside of that, I think all three of them are going to be really adequate in that department. Now, looks are something that can sometimes be important. Back in the day, campers, none of them looked very nice maybe, except for the Airstream. It had a nice look to it. But the rest of them just looked like squares or rectangles.Anymore, the campers are stepping up their game. The camper manufacturers are looking nicer and nicer. And in my opinion, I know beauty's in the eye of the beholder, but in my opinion, I really like the looks of the Furrion. It has a really nice, New Age kind of a look. You can see it's got good lines on it, very aerodynamic. This one happens to be the one with the white top. It's also available in a black top. My second favorite in the looks department is going to be the Atwood. It's a little bit more outdated in the appearance, slightly. But again, this is something that's going to sit up on top of your camper, and you're probably not going to look at it very often.But if you want your camper to look nice sitting out there, again, Furrion is where it's at. With the Advent here, I think it's slightly more outdated than what that Atwood is. So, again, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Everybody likes what they like. But with the new lines and kind of the new design on this Furrion, I think it's going to stand out amongst the other ones.Now, as far as which one I would pick and which AC unit I would choose to use, basically, that's going to be the Furrion. I like the colder temperature, I like that quicker start when we are dealing with generators and things like that. All three of them are going to be adequate. I mean, the Atwood is extremely popular. The Advent, we sell just about as many as we can get. So, they all do a good job. I just, after playing with them for the last couple of weeks, I think the Furrion would be the way I would go.