As summer is now in full swing our RVs can become ovens as summer temperatures rise. How do you maintain your cool when the weather heats up?

The RV air conditioner

The obvious choice for staying cool is to run the RV’s air conditioner. But what lots of campers don’t know is that the air conditioner is only good for about 20° of cooling. This is also under optimal conditions.

In addition to cooling another benefit of air conditioning is that it takes humidity out of the air inside the RV. In some places, this is almost as important as cooling the air.

The process of chilling air creates moisture on the outside. You’ll want to be sure that the air conditioner can properly drain. As long as your camper is reasonably level, the air conditioner should just drain out onto the roof which then drains down the side of the RV. There are a few brands that even provide specific drain points for the moisture to flow.

Maintenance

An important maintenance point every season is to get up on the roof (or pay someone to do so!) and make sure the air conditioner is clean. You’ll want to remove the plastic cover and clean the coils and other components of the AC.

You may be surprised to find needles, bird nests or just general dirt in the coils. All of this can reduce the effectiveness of the RV air conditioner.

Another thing that can happen when the air conditioner is running particularly strong is that it freezes up and just stops working. Talk about a severe bummer!

You may find that you have to increase the temperature that you set inside so the AC doesn’t freeze up. Whether or not this happens to your unit depends on so many factors. Freezing can be caused by extreme outside temperature, what temperature you’ve set the air conditioner to inside, and the condition of your AC unit. One big contributing factor is that the thermostat is set to such a low temperature that the air conditioner cannot cycle. That can cause the unit to freeze.

Further, there are filters inside your RV for the air conditioner. Even these simple filters work much better when they’re clean. Cleaning the filters is simple task in most cases.

There are also superior aftermarket filters from a number of companies. I like the filters from WackO products. Funny name, good products.

Power is crucial

A lot of RVers are concerned about over-voltages in their RV. But did you know that under-powering something like an RV air conditioner can actually cause it to fail?

If you’re using your RV on a household extension cord from your garage, for example, you may not have enough power being delivered to the RV to operate the air conditioner properly.

When you think of what your RV is doing when you plug it in there is a lot going on. It will work to charge your batteries, it may operate your refrigerator, and the battery may even try to perform other tasks.

Because the air conditioner is such a high-demand item, it might work for a while on a household extension cord. However, you absolutely do run the risk of damaging the unit by running it with not enough power. There’s more to it, but it is worth noting that this can be less than ideal.

We have a whole RV electricity section which you can find here.

Thermostat tips

Did you know that no matter what temperature you set the interior thermostat on your RV, the air conditioner does the same job? So whether you set it to 80° or 50° all that happens is the air conditioner runs at full blast until it reaches that temperature, and then shuts off.

Basically the way to operate your RV AC is to just set the temperature on the thermostat to where you want it to be and then let it cycle naturally. This also will reduce the likelihood of it freezing.

So if it’s 100° outside you’re not going to get below 85°F at best. Naturally this is a generalization, but it’s reasonably accurate.

So now what? What other options are there if the RV air conditioner isn’t beating the heat?

Made in the shade

In many areas nighttime temps can drop quite a bit. I’m sure this comes as no surprise.

But if you capture as much of this cold air as possible you’ll be ahead of the game.

If you have the choice, have your RV parked so the awning faces west. As the day heats up, you can extend the awning and provide shade to the camper. This can help keep things cool.

We use the MaxXair fans in our RV to draw in as much cold air as possible in the night and then use the blinds to help keep the sun from heating up the interior. As the day progresses we open or close blinds and windows to block the sun as much as possible.

If you camp where the sun is particularly strong you might even consider cutting some Reflectix or other insulating material to fill in the windows. It’s surprising how much heat this material can radiate out and help keep things cool in the RV.

You can also block windows with towels or blankets during the day. Some painter’s tape and a towel can help block windows to keep sun out of the RV.

Of course camping in the shadiest spot possible is another way to help keep things as temperate as possible inside the coach.

Reflectix

No matter how well insulated your RV is know that RVs are nowhere near as well insulated as a well-insulated building. Keeping the warmth out can be as much of a factor in keeping your RV comfortable as overcoming the heat.

You might find that the very thin baggage doors on many RVs can also let in a surprising amount of heat. Some Reflectix taped to the inside of a baggage doors may do a surprisingly good job of keeping the sun from joining you inside your RV while camping. You’ll also find that many RV entry doors are also really thin and, again, Reflectix might be the solution there as well. Sure, it’ll look silly but it can make quite a difference.

Other ways to block heat

Another place to look for heat sneaking into your RV is through skylights. We have an inflatable skylight “pillow” called the AirLight that we got from Airskirts store and it does a good job of keeping the warmth out. It was originally intended to keep the cold out but, like a Thermos, keeping the temp you want outside of a space and the one you do want in that space is all about insulation.

It is possible to make the inside of your RV comfortable even in the heat of summer. Following these six tips will help you keep your cool.