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Old 07-31-2022, 05:37 PM   #1
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THOR #27189
Ac ceiling grill replacement

I was wondering if anyone had done this before.

We have a Thor Miramar with dual 13.5 AC units. The units are the Mach 3. The grill design does not take full advantage of the air intake potential which is why the RV airflow product seems to be a good fit but it does not allow for the dump vents to be used.

Why not simply remove the dump vent cover and the ceiling grill and replace it with a side by side register/return like this? https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07X5GTQ4C

Any reason this would not work? When I sealed all the dividers and everything I turned on the ac without any cover and the amount of airflow was incredible. It just seems that this type of grill would make sense.

Anyone try it or has logic to reject the idea? I’m about to try it.

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Old 08-01-2022, 12:24 AM   #2
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That's just a grill cover and filter - it is NOT the entire cover housing.
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Old 08-01-2022, 05:56 PM   #3
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Correct, but it is the concept more than anything else. I see a lot of mods to add cents or rvairflow, it would seem that a small modification could be made to utilize a cover such as this (maybe a different one) and thus optimize the ac units intake and output.

Has no one done this or thought of it?

Or am I totally off track and just don’t understand at all lol.

I am curious
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Old 08-01-2022, 06:04 PM   #4
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Lots of mods add a louvered output vent such as:


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Old 08-02-2022, 01:52 AM   #5
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Yes. I am also thinking of this mod. But what makes me want to dive deeper is that the return side does not allow for the full capacity of air to get into circulation. I found a kit that allows you to replace a domestic AC with the Mach yet keep the controller and grill. I ordered that and the grill and I’ll post on the results.

Based on the amount of air that the unit can blow when the cover is off leads me to believe that this should be very fruitful.

Both pets less than the rvairflow.
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Old 08-05-2022, 01:23 AM   #6
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Phase 1

So the first part of my mod came in. This will set the stage for isolating the return and intake sides while maximizing the capacity of both sides. This will also provide the screw points for the dometic two sided grill. The dometic grill will come in tomorrow so I will update this weekend on the results.
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Old 08-05-2022, 02:00 AM   #7
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I will do comparisons between the well sealed factory based system vs rvairflow vs Coleman - dometic grill mod.

Unfortunately, the positionable and close able round vents are too large for me Coleman Mach so the dump vent mod requires a smaller vent which I will also examine using dash style small vents.
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Old 08-06-2022, 04:37 PM   #8
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Result are in with success

The results are in. The mod was a big success and the rig is holding temp near my settings here is the hot temps of Texas.

The most d only needed the grill kit and not the conversion kit so in total we’re talking about 80 bucks.

The sealed tests mean only the plenum area was sealed to isolate the intake from return using the standard Coleman Mach 3 grill. Two tests were performed one with the dump vents open and one with them closed. I’m all tests, only the front ac unit was on to avoid any outside interference.

#1 sealed with dump open- dump vents were 4.9-5.0 on the meter for airflow. And one intake was 3.3 and 3.5.

#4 new mod dump open is the direct comparison with 1. There the intake was showing an average of 4.8 across a large intake area of 13x8. Which is a large increase and more bandwidth. Which produced 7.8 at the dump vent. Another big improvement. The vent action had some + and - but I think that can be further improved by improving the vent area to not have dead spots and to be more tight.

The closed dump vent tests between the two also showed overall improvement.

All notes and recordings attached.

Good luck to all. I will definitely do this mod to the bedroom ac and add blocking to streamline the ducts. So nice to be able to overcome the insane heat here finally.
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Old 08-06-2022, 04:42 PM   #9
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Additional results
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Old 08-06-2022, 04:45 PM   #10
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This is the only part you need for this. I did use the insulation board to make sure I don’t create condensation issues with a thin wall between intake and out flows
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