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10:29 am
August 16, 2016
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Two things about our first outing. First my wife noticed a “soft spot” next to the bed on the starboard (or passenger or right) side. Second the temperature as well as the humidity that weekend were in the 90s. Needless to say we had the AC running from 8:00 in the evening until morning. At some point I remembered reading a Retro owner’s report that the deflection tray in her unit’s AC was poorly constructed and that, as a result, the water had leaked down the inside of the adjacent wall and down to her OSB floor which subsequently developed a soft area. At that point I noted that I didn’t ever recall seeing water drip from anywhere around the AC unit despite the humidity being so high. This week I stopped at a local RV dealership and spoke with a mechanic who suggested that modern AC units are more efficient some how and “boil off” excess moisture. He then suggested that I make sure that the drain hole (which he said should be on the bottom right of the unit) is not clogged by insects or whatever.
So my question to all Retro owners: does your side-mounted AC show any signs of drainage while running? I could not locate the drain hole. Does the exterior exhaust frame have to be removed? It is screwed in but also seems to be sealed around the edges.
8:26 pm
June 29, 2016
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We have a 2016 177 SE with the side AC unit. When we run the ac, there is always some water that drips out of the unit and down the side of the camper. It seems to come out of the bottom right, but I cannot see any specific drain hole or anything. I would suspect that if you don’t see any water dripping out, then there is a problem. I would get it checked out.
5:04 pm
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September 24, 2016
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My A/C drains the same as David555‘s. Not alot but may be due to geographical location of where you are.
1:49 pm
July 10, 2017
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We just bought a 2013 Retro with a window unit. We have the same soft spot and the ac leaked onto the board underneath unit. Never saw any condensation draining outside. Did you get this issue resolved and if so, what was the problem?
4:47 am
April 10, 2017
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I happened to hear a very practical tip from one of my friend.
Crimp a small hook at one end of a cotton rope like say 20’. Attach the hook to one of the vent holes on the A/C. Once your A/C starts draining, it will follow the rope and take it’s path. Have your cord run straight back under the left hand tail light and hang over the gutter minimum 10” from the canvas.
Have the rope run into the grass or woods beside me. Try for professional tips from some plumbing contractors in Toronto.
One very important reminder, all this will work only if the rope is wet. It would work fine with a dry one too, but it would take forever for the rope to get wet enough to allow water to pass. Try putting water in a jar or ziploc with the rope allowing it to saturate on the way to the camp.
12:37 am
April 4, 2018
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Thanks Emy for the info.
9:53 am
May 15, 2019
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Our 177SE retro A/C is not draining. This should be a recall !!! We all know where that water is running to !!!! And that will be another problem soon. I thought Retro is Amish made and blah blah blah. This is not the only problem that those campers have. We are trying to get the A/C unit out –no luck on that either. There go our hours of fun that should come with RV camping. Anyone have any ideas. We all should get together on this and ask for a recall and make that company responsible for their poor products
2:36 pm
June 16, 2020
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Hello, We just purchased a 181B. The previous owner told us the AC unit does have drainage problems. His fix was “when leveling the camper to make the opposite side of the camper from the one where the AC sits just a little bit higher.” This allows to AC to drain down the outside of the trailer. We spent 3 nights in it in very humid mid 90s weather and ran the AC constantly. Water did drain down the outside. On the last day as we were getting ready to leave we noticed a few drops coming from the lower front right side corner inside the camper but that was it.
I am planning to remove the grill on the outside and see if there is a plugged drain.
8:15 pm
July 10, 2020
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Yeah the AC has major drainage problems…namely the metal drain pad is screwed down to the wall with two screws with no waterproofing so water that gets in the pan goes into the wall below. We ripped ours out after some serious brute force bc it fits in there really tight. Once we had it out we removed the drip pan and puttied/waterproof taped the hole and lined the wall with waterproof membrane material like house wrap. It was quite the process but we got it done in a few hours.
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