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quotePOLL NOW CLOSED – Thanks to everyone who voted
Keeping cool in your caravan in the summer months can be a challenge, particularly if you’re heading south and into Europe.
But there are plenty of air conditioning units and cooling fans on the market to lower the heat when temperatures (and tempers!) start to rise.
In this month’s community poll, we’d like to know if you use an air conditioning unit in your caravan – whether it’s fitted to the roof or a more portable cooling accessory.
And as always, feel free to add any comments about your preferred way of keeping your cool in your caravan in the comments box below.
We had an aircon fitted to our Bailey Senator when we bought it years ago and it has been a godsend when we have needed it especially in the south of France. Wouldn’t be without it and we are definitely going to fit one on our new van. In fact we are thinking of also getting one for the house!
We had a roof mounted air con in our Swift but it used up the payload. When we bought our current coachman we decided we would not have it fitted and have been looking to buy a stand alone unit so we can put it in the car when travelling.
We looked into air conditioning, so bought a portable unit – the one with a compressor unit outside, and evaporator unit inside.
at only 700W it wouldn’t trip the pitch abroad (don’t forget 10A or even 6A are popular in Europe). South of France in August – we were very glad we took it, and so was the dog. Weight wise there isn’t much difference between it and a roof mounted version, the advantage being we could have carried it in the car. Roof mounted version would have taken our outfit above 1.8m which is the height limit for “normal” outfits on the ferry, but we have never been close to the ceiling so I don’t understand the ferry companies asking if the outfit is above that height – do they just want to charge more?
Our unit lost it’s gas towards the end of the holiday, and was replaced by the supplier when we got home – no hassle strait swap, 2nd unit has been fine. The compressor unit does make a noise when going flat out, you can’t hear it in the van, but your neighbours might appreciate low power mode at night.
Am seriously considering a roof mounted a/c system as some one who stores their van near me has one. And is very impressed when th it.
When we ordered our new Bailey Unicorn we specified a roof mounted air conditioning unit on the understanding that the Maximum All Up Weight of the caravan could be increased sufficiently to almost negate the weight of the air conditioning unit.
We later found that the only weight increase available was insignificant so we cancelled the addition of an air conditioning unit.
I suspect that many caravans fitted with roof mounted air conditioning units exceed the MAM when being towed.
Had A/C as a fixture since the caravan was new. Not often used in this country, but when Mother nature brings on the heat it is a very useful object. However, to operate fully the windows and door need to be in the closed position and on a site where ALL windows and doors are fully open it makes you appear to have lost your marbles.Wouldn’t be without it!!!.
My caravan is old and lightweight and did not come fitted with air con. Although I have a reasonable payload for the van extra weight for a stand alone air con would mean leaving something else behind. There have been times when air con would have been very useful, I remember there was one occasion in Belgium being sat on the caravan steps with the caravan door fully open at midnight, having a wee dram for a night cap and the temperature was 30 degrees. I soon moved back inside when I saw a large electrical storm approach.At least when the storm came the temperature dropped to a more bearable figure.