RV Air Conditioning Service in the Okanagan: What Actually Works

Most motorhomes and larger travel trailers have two A/C systems that don't share any components: the chassis A/C (for the driver/passenger cab, running off the engine belt and using automotive refrigerant) and the roof-top A/C unit (for the living area, running off 120V shore power or a generator and containing its own sealed refrigerant circuit).

The failure modes, service requirements, and tools are different for each. A mobile technician who works on both needs capability for automotive A/C (R134a, R1234yf) and residential/RV appliance refrigerants (R410A, R32, older R22).

Chassis A/C on an RV is, functionally, a large vehicle A/C system. The charge volume is typically larger than a passenger car — often 900g to 1,400g of R134a or R1234yf, depending on the size of the coach and whether there is a rear-zone loop for a driver/passenger bed area.

The same principles apply: nitrogen pressure decay test before anything else, deep vacuum to ≤1000 microns, charge by weight on calibrated scales. The only difference on an RV is that pull-down time on the vacuum is longer because the system volume is larger.

Common failure points we see on chassis A/C: compressor front seal leaks (often from long idle periods in storage), condenser fin damage from gravel, and hose O-ring failures on older coaches. Nitrogen testing locates these before refrigerant is loaded.

Most modern RV roof-top A/C units (Dometic, Coleman, Advent, Atwood) are sealed systems. They are designed as replaceable units rather than serviceable components — the refrigerant circuit is brazed shut with no service ports. When one fails at the refrigerant level, the industry standard is to replace the unit.

Older roof-top units (pre-2005 or so) sometimes have accessible service ports. For these, refrigerant recovery, leak diagnosis, evacuation, and recharge is possible. We can also recover refrigerant from failed units prior to disposal, which is required under Canadian environmental regulations.

If your roof-top unit is blowing warm, there are several potential causes before refrigerant loss: dirty evaporator coil, failing run capacitor, weak fan motor, or thermostat issues. These are worth checking before assuming the refrigerant circuit has failed.

RVs are difficult to move to a service bay — they don't fit through most shop doors, storage lot access is restricted, and many owners leave their RV at a seasonal campground for months at a time. Mobile service makes sense for this reason.

JANTECH services RVs at owner properties, storage yards, and campgrounds throughout the Okanagan: Vernon, Kelowna, Armstrong, Enderby, Lumby, Lake Country, West Kelowna, Salmon Arm, and surrounding communities. Remote sites (longer drive, no grid power) are handled with our onboard generator at a remote-site rate.

We recommend scheduling RV chassis A/C service in the spring before summer travel, or pre-storage in the fall if the system has any known issues that should be resolved before the coach sits. Catching a slow leak in April is much better than discovering it on day one of a road trip in July.