So you’ve probably heard of a common modification done to RV air conditioners.
They’re usually referred to as a soft start, or an EasyStart, some people talk about adding
a capacitor or what’s called a hard start.
This was actually the very first electrical modification I did to our 5th Wheel back when
we started full-timing and so today I wanted to talk about initially why we installed it
and then why it is so important still today for our big solar setup.
Air Conditioners typically create a huge power draw right when they start up.
But only for a few milliseconds.
With an RV, this can mean that you could not be able to run an air conditioner off of a
2000 watt generator, or it can give you problems if you’re trying to run your AC with just
a regular 15 amp connection at a house.
Sometimes with larger RVs on a 30 amp connection, it can also give you problems if both ACs
happen to cycle at the same time.
That combined surge will easily pop a 30 amp breaker.
Or, let’s say you’re running just one AC and it happens to come on when you’re
running the microwave or another high draw appliance.
That will also pop a 30 amp breaker and you will be going outside to flip that breaker
yet again.
Adding a soft start device solves these problems.
Now, earlier I had mentioned adding a capacitor or, a Hard Start.
And sometimes those terms get used interchangeably, but a hard start’s actually a different
kind of device.
It is way cheaper than a soft start, but it doesn’t stop that huge initial surge of
power like a soft start does.
Think of a Hard Starter as having extra power on hand to make sure that the AC starts up
properly.
A Soft Start device is like a little computer with several different types of surge control
circuits inside of it that actually learns how your AC unit starts up and the best way
to spread that surge out just a little bit longer so you don’t have quite as huge of
a power spike right at the beginning.
So with soft starts installed in your AC units, you can run two ACs on a 30 amp connection
no problem.
In our first couple of years on the road we would run our main AC unit on our 2200 watt
Honda generator and that was also without issue.
You can also run it on a 15 amp connection at a regular house.
Or if you’re visiting family or friends for a long period of time and it’s hot,
you can get a Y adapter like this one, plug your 50 amp connection into this side and
it splits it out into two other sides.
Then with another 30 amp to 15 amp dogbone, put it on this side, you now have two places
that you can plug into two plugs on two separate breakers and then run both AC units while
you’re visiting someone’s house.
We’ve actually done that on a couple of occasions, and I will admit, make sure that
you get everything plugged in really snug.
Make sure that the plugs that you’re using are high quality and really good extension
cords, because I may have melted an outlet or…
Another benefit to having soft starts is being able to run your air conditioner off of an
Inverter that draws power from your battery banks.
Otherwise, that surge can damage an inverter over time.
So this is exactly why they’re still so important to us today with our big solar setup.
There are a few more options on the market now for AC soft starts than there were when
we put ours in.
We went with the EasyStart from Micro-Air.
I would still go with them.
They’re warranty is really really good but the best part is their install instructions
are just so good it makes the install super easy.
If you’re comfortable doing your own wiring, it really couldn’t be simpler.
If you’re not comfortable doing your own wiring, the ease of install should translate
into a relatively low install cost.
So here we are up on the roof.
This is my main AC unit.
I’ll show you where I installed our EasyStarts.
Using the included double sided tape, an EasyStart fits perfectly underneath the exterior fan.
I installed one in both our main AC, a Coleman Mach 8 15k BTU unit, and the front AC, a 13.5k
BTU unit of the same model.
I did put these in several years ago so you might notice that the new ones look a little
bit different.
And I will admit that about 6 months post install one of them developed a crack in the
case and let a little bit of water in and stopped working.
But the warranty process was really great, they sent me a replacement and here we are
4 years later and both of them are going strong.
Like I said, the install was super easy and mostly because the EasyStart instructions
are REALLY good.
Most AC units actually have a wiring diagram inside of them.
Ours was inside of this little metal box where the circuit board is.
The EasyStart replaces the capacitor and this thing called a PTCR which is really just a
fancy resistor that helps that starting capacitor start your air conditioner.
Really all I did was pull this out, crimp some spade connectors onto some wires, and
just followed the directions.
Like I said, it really couldn’t be easier.
Every AC model is a little bit different.
The EasyStart instructions covered lots of different models so I’m really not going
to go into any further detail here.
The only thing that I would add is don’t completely remove your startup capacitor,
and make sure you hang onto the PTCR.
If anything ever does go wrong with your EasyStart, you will need those to put your AC unit back
together again for it to work while you wait for a replacement.
Check out our related blog post in the description below for a parts list of everything I mentioned
in this video as well as a link to Micro-Air’s install instructions.
And, like always, if you have any questions feel free to leave me a comment below.
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