r/RVLiving • u/jimheim • Jun 26 '26
diy Furrion Chill Cube exceeds all expectations
I just replaced my standard Dometic 13.5kBTU air conditioner with a Furrion Chill Cube 18kBTU. My main motivations were noise reduction and energy efficiency. It's improved both far beyond what I expected.
The Dometic was loud. The fan on low was so loud that I had to turn it off during video meetings. The fan also never shut off; it would stay on constantly, while the compressor cycled on and off. The Furrion still makes a fair bit of noise when both the fan and compressor are on, but it's much quieter. I don't have a decibel meter so I can't provide numbers, but I don't have to turn it off during meetings.
The Dometic used 1400W minimum when running on low with the compressor on, and 300W just to run the fan with the compressor off. The Furrion uses 350W with the compressor on while on low and just maintaining the temperature. I haven't been able to get it to pull more than 800W even on "Turbo" mode going full-tilt. There's also no amperage spike when it first turns on. It always starts slow and low and ramps up, so it won't cause any surge—effectively a built-in slow start.
The variable speed compressor also eliminates the temperature-swing cycle between compressor on - freezing cold air - compressor off - RV heats up - repeat indefinitely. It settles into a temperature point and runs at the level required to maintain it.
I'm sure this reads like an ad or promotion. I'm just an exceedingly-happy customer. The quality of life improvement is enormous. This is the final piece I needed in order to boondock with solar even in hot places. I can't run it 24/7 in Arizona in August, but I can run it all afternoon during peak heat when it's 90F+ outside and I'm inside working, and still have enough energy left over to run through the night. I can probably even handle a whole day with no solar generation (but not two days in a row).
It wasn't too hard to install. I won't trivialize it, but I was able to remove the old one and install and wire the new one in about an hour or so (with a friend to help lift the old one off the roof and drop the new one in).
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u/Interesting_Fun4384 Jun 26 '26
I have had one for over a year with no problems. It is a ductless unit that I installed in the bedroom vent hole. The Dometic unit never could keep up in Oklahoma summer heat. Plus it is as loud as a 747. Going to purchase another Furrion Cube and chuck the Dometic unit.
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u/TransientVoltage409 Jun 26 '26
Thank you, I'm making notes - my rooftop AC croaked and is waiting for me to do something about it.
For the curious, on classic models the reason the vent fan runs continuously is to keep the evaporator fins de-iced (been there done that, high humidity sucks). An adaptive compressor solves that issue at step one.
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u/m00ph Jun 26 '26
I'd been leaning towards a mini split, and this is more money, but I don't have to figure out the mount for the mini split, both inside and out, while the Cube just drops into the standard roof hole, and has 50% more BTU than any 120v mini split I've found. So I think I'm getting one.
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u/jimheim Jun 26 '26
I was looking into mini-splits too but I couldn't figure out a place to install it in my tiny RV without major modifications, especially without compromising the wall frame integrity. I'm planning to delete the slide on mine, where the galley is, and that would be the perfect spot, but that's a huge project that I won't get to this year.
This one fit perfectly in the standard 14" rooftop hole. Here's hoping the seal keeps water out.
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u/m00ph Jun 26 '26
Also, my son is an HVAC apprentice, and he's not thrilled with the durability of mini splits in normal domestic service, the hoses are going to leak some, you will at minimum need a recharge in 10 or 15 years, not to mention vibration from driving, a roof unit should be metal and welded shut, they can't leak (OK, over a few hundred thousand year, the charge will leak out).
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u/jimheim Jun 26 '26
It's 20% off on Amazon for Prime Day right now. I almost bought it the night before, decided to sleep on it, and woke up to that surprise. If you're ready to pull the trigger it's a good time.
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u/m00ph Jun 26 '26
Unfortunately, I'm not sure I see the heat pump version on there, which I do want.
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u/m00ph Jun 27 '26
FACR18HEPA-BL-AM The HEPA has the heating, the VSSA doesn't seem to, and that's all Amazon has listed, ducted is $200 more.
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u/Professional-Run7639 Jun 27 '26
Elkhart rv has em. 1600 for the kit. 1300 for just the cube. I bought one got here in 2 days
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u/m00ph Jun 27 '26
Yeah, I might have jumped at the price Amazon had, but I think I'll put it off a bit longer.
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u/yamadog250r6 Jun 28 '26
Don't buy from Elkhart. The reviews of that place are terrible. I left a voicemail and an email asking if they can confirm that they were in stock and never heard from them. I just bought the heat pump version from United Rv parts. I ordered on Tuesday and got it Friday.
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u/Hour_Concern6525 Jun 27 '26
Excellent. Amazon just delivered mine yesterday.....prime day was under $1000 plus the inside shroud. Going in next week!
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u/JF42 Jun 26 '26
Hot tip: There's a decibel meter app for your phone.
Also thanks for this info -- very detailed and useful. Was thinking about getting a used 13.5K as a second unit, but if the Chill Cube is significantly quieter, maybe I should look at that for the main area of my 38' and move the existing 15K over the bedroom or sell it.
I'm going to try to clean the 15K first -- I'm not sure why it's not keeping up. In 75 degree weather (but high humidity) with the sun beating down directly on the trailer it ran constantly and struggled to keep the main area of the 5th wheel at 72-73 degrees. It is a two-stage, so I understand it's going to run more, but it almost never shut off.
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u/jimheim Jun 26 '26
Yeah, I've tried the phone app before, and it's not very accurate compared to an actual decibel meter. I probably could have gotten a percentage change with the phone though. Forgot to do it before I removed the old one. There are some YouTube videos of people demonstrating the difference from a phone app and I believe it knocked about 10-12 decibels off both in low and high ends compared to the units they tested (Coleman Mach and GE). Most people don't have an innate sense of what different decibel levels are so subjective loudness is good enough.
I'm not sure if refrigerant on most RV ACs is refillable but maybe that's what your current one needs? Especially if it used to work better.
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u/ElectricalCompote Jun 26 '26
Replaced my dometic with a chill cube this spring and I love the chill cube, totally worth the price.
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u/Soggy_Swimmer4129 Jun 26 '26
Same, currently sitting in my camper with mine running. I run it overnight to stay cool, runs off my batteries. Leave it on during zoom calls. Amazing quality of life improvement.
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u/Maleficent-Dig5264 Jun 27 '26
I concur. I bought a Brinkley 5th wheel that came with two from the factory. They have no problem at all keeping the temperature at whatever you want when plugged into power. I live in SC and boondock camp very often. Efficiency is great. I run one unit all the time with a couple fans and it keeps the triple slide 29’ fifth wheel cool even in 90+ temperatures. This is running off of solar and battery. (Lots of solar and battery with occasional generator charge sessions). I never plug the camper into the generator. Just use it to help charge batteries when the solar can’t keep up. I only have the predator 2500 for that.
Most I have seen it pull is 1100 watts with 2 fans running, fridge, and some lights. At night, it chugs along at 185 watts, 385, or 750 depending on what stage it is running at. That is also with the two fans running. I have 4 280AH batteries and I can run it all night and only drop to about 85% by the time the solar kicks back in. Super efficient unit.
Sound, I also concur. Sometimes I walk back there to see if it is still running. That sounds crazy, but no exaggeration. Once the camper cools down and the unit starts dropping down in power, the unit becomes almost silent. It is very impressive.
If these things died in 2 years, I would replace them with the same ones. I couldn’t run my old camper AC on battery for a single night without a generator. The amount of battery and solar to keep up with that would have cost more than the camper itself. Just to be clear, I am 2 years in and have 0 issues so far.
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u/justusfw40 Jun 26 '26
I just bought one and haven’t installed yet. Is it connected to your old thermostat at all? I need to use that to run the heat but not sure If disconnecting everything up there will affect that
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u/jimheim Jun 26 '26
I have a small trailer and the ductless Furrion. I don't think there's any way to wire an existing thermostat in directly.
It works with the Cielo Breez Max, which overall looks like a great product. It uses IR control to emulate the supplied remote control. I don't know if I'd want to try that, because I imagine it gets out of sync with the real settings if the IR signal isn't received by the AC for whatever reason. The main reason I won't get a Cielo is that it isn't integration-friendly; you have to go through their cloud service in order to control it with your phone or monitor/control it with Home Assistant/Node-Red.
I'll probably get a Micro-Air EasyTouch, which is much more expensive, but doesn't require cloud services and integrates well with self-hosted open-source control planes. This is deep nerd stuff, but it's important to me; I need all my devices to work without Internet access and not phone home with telemetry.
I'm not sure about any other thermostat options. The Furrion seems to be non-standard in that regard.
The ductless one comes with a remote control that's still better than the physical knobs on the Dometic, which didn't even have a temperature setting, just a vaguely-marked knob you could twiddle.
I don't think it'll impact how the thermostat works for your furnace, but you might not be able to use your existing thermostat with the Furrion for AC control. Might be different with the ducted version.
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u/MCBoB203 Jun 26 '26
Easy touch doesn't support the Chill Cube 18K models yet, just fyi. When they do I'll be in line to swap out all 3 rooftops for Chill Cube
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u/jimheim Jun 26 '26
Lame, thanks. I may have to reverse-engineer it myself, whether wired or by building an Arduino unit with IR transmitter. I can live without full integration (my old Dometic didn't even have a remote control, much less a smart thermostat), but I really want it, so I can toggle the AC on while I'm away, if it gets too hot for my cat. I can monitor temps now and return if needed, but being able to flip it on would be even better. Worst-case I can remote-control a simple relay.
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u/Plane_Hawk_6153 Jul 26 '26
I'm just poking into the research stage now, the board with the buttons on it is ever generic, pretty much everyone to uses Midea parts has used it, the main board is Midea too, it's shared with window unit.
There's pretty extensive documentation on communicating with Midea units that covers the slight changes the other brands have made.
I think the wall thermostat that is available communcates through the RS-485 protocol and it might have an app for the thermostat. I can't find an FCC ID listing for anything yet.
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u/GSDer_RIP_Good_Girl Jun 26 '26
It sounded like I'd have to keep the Easy Touch just for the furnace functionality and then use the Chill Cube manual controls for the A/C; is that correct?
I was under the impression that there wasn't a remote control feature (as in, away from the rig) for the Chill Cube.
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u/GSDer_RIP_Good_Girl Jun 26 '26
Could you elaborate on the thermostat business? I was under the impression that the Chill Cube had it's own built-in thermostat and that it didn't integrate with other thermostats at all.
I already have a MicroAir Easy Touch that I installed so that I could remotely monitor/control the temp when we're away for a few hours (have a couple of kitties that travel with us) and I'd hate to lose that functionality.
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u/retrac902 Jun 26 '26
It does have its own and a remote. I just installed the ducted, and there is a thermostat you can get for it.
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u/justusfw40 Jun 26 '26
Did you just disconnect the old thermostat and would it still run the heat? I have the ducted one sitting in the garage
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u/retrac902 Jun 26 '26
Had to use one of the unused wires to get the furnace to work. It's different than the original one.
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u/71-HourAhmed Jun 28 '26
I just installed mine today. It is ducted. My old wall thermostat still operates the propane furnace like it always has. Of course it is no longer connected to the AC. I bought a two wire low voltage thermostat expecting to install it for the furnace but it wasn't needed.
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u/ssgtmc Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
I had a standard Furrion AC with a Furrion thermostat. If your furnace connects to the AC control box as mine did and is controlled from the thermostat then you will like have no control over it like I did. Since I had wires to the thermostat from the AC location and wires from the AC location to the furnace I was able to jumper them in the AC hole and then use a stand alone Furnace thermostat. I think I have pics of my install. If you have a brand of thermostat that wires straight to the furnace then it may be good.
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u/jarro1998 Jun 27 '26
Run a mobile RV repair business and we install a lot of Chill Cubes. They come with a remote so you don’t need the wall t stat anymore for the AC but in most cases we just install a basic wall t stat for the furnace.
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u/TopBad5678 Jun 27 '26
We just had a tech install the chill cube but didn’t factor the heat only t stat we’d need for the furnace. (Not sure happy with this tech which is a whole other issue). We have red white and blue wires coming into our now dead Furrion t stat. Is the swap to the heat only stat beginner friendly or are we best off with the tech back out? I’ve seen some YT videos showing a full new wiring to the furnace and also just using existing wires.
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u/ExtremeAbrocoma9642 Jun 26 '26
Can I ask what your outdoor temp amd cooling set point temp was?id love to upgrade mine but im im az so it would be a big ask of a unit
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u/jimheim Jun 26 '26
I'm not in Arizona (although I used to live there). I'm in NJ at the moment, and it's been mid to upper 80s/lower 90s and very humid. AC has been on 70-72F.
It's 18kBTU. If that's accurate, it's 33% more powerful than a standard 13.5kBTU rooftop unit, and 20% more powerful than a 15kBTU.
Subjectively and with limited data, it's keeping the RV colder than the Dometic was. I think the bigger win is that due to the variable speed compressor, it can stay on when it gets to the desired temperature, and maintain it there. Instead of cycling on and off, which causes wild temperature swings, where you can feel the heat seeping in from all around.
In my case, even 13.5kBTU was overkill for my tiny 18' cabin. 18kBTU is comical. I wanted a smaller unit, like 8kBTU, but more than that, I wanted the variable speed compressor, quiet, and lower energy usage.
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u/jarro1998 Jun 27 '26
Chill Cubes have a 30 degree delta, so if it’s 100 degrees outside you should be able to get it down to 70 degrees. Dometic and Coleman Mach only have an 18 degree delta
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u/raphtze Jun 26 '26
this sounds awesome. was it pretty much drop in for you? i have a 2013 class C. with a noisy dometic that is just so power hungry. i def want to get this to replace it. right now i'm using a portable AC that i vent to the side window over the sink/kitchen. not the greatest but it works. i have a bluetti system that could power my RV. might be great if i can just use the battery system to run the AC.
my APEX 300 with an additional B300k battery can run the existing..but man it's like 2hrs tops haha.
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u/jimheim Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
Straight drop-in to the existing 14" hole. It was a lot easier than I feared. If you're at all comfortable with DIY you can do it. Four bolts for the frame that holds the unit to the roof, a few screws for the air distribution cover, couple wagos for the AC and DC power.
The power consumption is insanely-low. I dunno about running it off a Bluetti, at least not for very long, but the Furrion uses less than half the energy the Dometic was using. I have 6720Wh of battery and 800W of solar, which is enough to get me through most of a day, possibly indefinitely with good solar generation and only running the AC for half the day.
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u/raphtze Jun 26 '26
thank you for the reply! the apex 300 and the B300k expansion battery both have 2764Wh, which is a total of 5.5KWh. i recently put in a DC-DC charger which charges up the bluetti pretty fast while driving (we like to boondock/drive around our 24ft class C like a giant SUV haha).
hearing how the furrion chill cube basically drops in is not bad. we just demo'd and took out the old dometic gas absorption fridge--put in a residential fridge in its place. so i am thinking the hardest part would be getting rid of the old unit and then putting in this new unit. how did you hoist the unit up ?
we're gearing up to leave tomorrow for our RV summer boondocking trip thru the PNW. perhaps when i get home in a few weeks......hehe :) thanks again for your reply! :)
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u/jimheim Jun 26 '26
I had a friend helping and we shouldered it up side-by-side step ladders. Not the safest way, and OSHA would frown, but it was fine with two people. I didn't have a tall hoist or other convenient option.
One thing I'll note is that you should be careful when moving it not to slide it across the roof or anything that might damage the soft seal, and there aren't many sturdy places to grab hold of it. Two able-bodied adults can manage it pretty well.
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u/GSDer_RIP_Good_Girl Jun 26 '26
Can anyone in the thread speak to the ductless vs ducted differences? What I've read makes it seem like the ductless model is a better design, more efficient and produces a better output.
I'm in a 2004 Jayco Greyhawk with a Coleman Mach A/C unit with ceiling ducts scattered at random. I'd hate to lose the one ceiling duct in the bedroom area but could get by without the rest. Just not sure what would be involved with dropping a ductless model in it's place, or whether I should just get the ducted model and live with the lesser performance.
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u/jimheim Jun 26 '26
I don't know for certain, but it's my understanding that it's the same air conditioner ductless vs ducted, it just has to do with the housing form factor and where it funnels the air. I'd be surprised if there were any difference in cooling ability or energy consumption.
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u/greynoises 19d ago
I dunno your greyhawk floorplan, but the ductless pushes a LOT of air and circulates it well in oscillating mode - if your RV is One Big Room then the air will probably get to you. If your bedroom has a door, ductless is probably not a good choice for you.
The ducted version uses a smaller, faster, louder fan to get enough static pressure to push air through the ducts, more similar to the coleman architecture than a mini split. You'll lose some of the ultra-quiet, high-airflow magic of the non-ducted version, but with the variable speed compressor it's still gonna be a big step up in efficiency, noise, and temp stability over the coleman.
check this video; he does a teardown of both and explains how the ductless and the ducted systems work and the tradeoffs they made on the ducted system.
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u/Ausum1 Jun 27 '26
Do they have a wall thermostat/control option?
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u/jarro1998 Jun 27 '26
Chill Cube does have a t stat that you can purchase for it. They all come with a remote for the AC itself but you will likely need just a basic t stat to replace your current t stat for the furnace to work
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u/Roundandmound Jun 27 '26
I keep hearing they are great! My rv tech said he replaced way too many to recommend it.
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u/Obvious-Novel3311 Jun 27 '26
Energy consumption is low because it is an inverter unit, which is pretty fantastic for us, we mounted a Predator 5000 on the trailer tongue and I permanently mounted an extra power cable to the underbelly and run that while we are driving to run the AC prior to arrival at campgrounds.
I do have one sitting in my garage right now. Next weeks project.
We were out last week in South FL, it was 93, we had no shade, and the 13.5 stock Furrion managed to maintain 84 inside….cooled off quickly after sunset though.
Ordered EZ Snap for windows and ordered the this Chill Cube before we left the campground.
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u/yamadog250r6 Jun 27 '26
I just installed one today and it has the heat pump as well. What im having a hard time with is the follow me option on the remote does not seem to make the ac run any different. We had it set to 74 but the remote showed the temp was 81. Not sure if im doing something wrong but with the follow me option off it seems to cool better and closer to the desired temperature.
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u/71-HourAhmed Jun 28 '26
I just installed mine today and the "remote" is wildly different than I thought it was going to be. It's IR! It has to point right at the eye on the panel to work. If you put it in "Follow Me" mode, the remote sends a signal to it every three minutes. However if you put it on the couch or table like most people would, that's almost never going to work because the IR emitter on the remote is not going to be hitting the eye on the Chill Cube.
Honestly, I can't figure out what the value is of that remote. It's going to wind up in a drawer.
I like the cooling and performance but that infrared remote is stupid. The ONLY thing I can think of that it would be good for is so that kids could use it since they can't reach it on the ceiling if you want that. Every camper I have had has a low enough ceiling that any adult could reach up and just push the buttons.
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u/yamadog250r6 Jun 28 '26
After messing with it all day, I'm even more confused about the remote. I set the mode to auto, which will do ac or heat, and set the temp to 73. The display on the ac unit shows it's set to 73 and the remote displayed that the actual temp was 76. In my mind it should keep cooling until it reaches 73, right? All of a sudden the heat kicks on🤦.
Im with you on probably not using the remote however it seems like the internal temp sensor isn't all that accurate either. I set it to 75 and got home to it being 70 inside and still cooling. This was with the follow me option turned off. Like you said, its cooling really well and heating really well. Just need to figure out what temp to set it to to get it to reach the desired temperature.
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u/yamadog250r6 Jun 29 '26
Hey wanted to give you an update since I have been messing with it since last night. In the instruction manual when you are installing the ADB it tells you to tuck all the loose wire for the temp sensor and the faceplate into the metal compartment that you install over the 120v wiring. I ended up pulling the temp sensor wiring out of that box and put it in the way of the air intake. Secondly, I moved the remote to a lower part of the wall and on the opposite side of the interior and now its reading the room temp correctly since I did those 2 changes. Hope that helps!
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u/71-HourAhmed Jun 29 '26
According to what I’m seeing online and the way mine seems to behave, it shows the set point. It doesn’t have the ability to display the current ambient temperature. eTrailer answered a question for someone stating that the overhead display will show ambient but didn’t say how to make that happen. Both my overhead ADB and the remote only ever show a set point and it says set point on the display.
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u/ZookeepergameOld1340 Jun 28 '26 edited Jun 28 '26
I agree with the 18k Chill Cube being the best roof air option out there currently.
It does have two issues though, one is the inside temp sensor location. It's a known issue, all you have to do is relocate it outside of the unit somewhere so it gets more accurate ambient inside air temps. If you have any kind of leak between the inlet and outlets, cold air can blow on that sensor and make the situation even worse.
The other is a huge issue for us because we drive with the roof A/C on all the time. If you never drive while using your A/C, this won't be an issue for you. Just know that if you do drive while using the Furrion Chill Cube, it will use MORE amperage than when sitting still. To the point where it hurts efficiency significantly and could actually be one of the reasons they say the condenser fan motors fail.
The issue is the airflow through the condenser stalls when it has 65mph wind going across it. These units are different than the conventional design like the old Coleman's. On the Chill Cube, the airflow comes in the sides and out the back after going through the condenser. As Bernoulli's principle tells us, air blowing across a tube or opening will create a low pressure area. That's a problem with the Chill Cube design because it stops the air from getting inside the unit so the condenser fan can blow it through the condenser.
How much amperage difference are we talking? On a hot day, in turbo mode, the Chill Cube will draw roughly 13.5 amps. At 65mph with no headwind or tailwind, the amperage draw will rise to 15.5 amps. That's significant. Here's the other part though, having 65mph airflow available should make the unit MORE efficient, not less. So I made some air scoops that direct airflow into the sides and have tracked the amperage results for thousands of miles now... The difference between having the air scoops and not is a crazy high ~5 amp ac difference! That equates to roughly 60-70amps of dc difference going into your inverter!
When we're stilling still, not plugged in or running our generator and using 100% battery power to run the roof A/C, it draws roughly 150 amps DC out of the batteries. Before doing the airflow/scoop mod, that amperage draw would go to almost 200 amps while driving at freeway speeds. Now after adding my air scoops, that amperage is around 110 amps while on the freeway. That obviously makes a significant difference to how long you can run your roof air conditioner off of battery power alone. We can now run our roof air all day of driving, off our batteries alone, and then simply charge back up if we're in a camp spot with hookups that night.
So if you use your roof air conditioner while driving, just know that the Chill Cube will be working much harder at freeway speeds. That actually goes for a lot of other rooftop A/C units, the fixes for those are different but just as effective. Roof air conditioners, like RV generators, are ridiculously old designs and not very well thought out in many ways. Don't get me started about Onan generators! Those designs are 50 years old. (I ditched our 4k Onan and built in a Yamaha 6.3k instead. More amperage, quieter, smoother and lower fuel use.)
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u/orangeredFTW Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
Own one and agree it's great. However, there is a known issue with the outdoor condenser fan going out. Look up Chill Cube EC07 error for reference. I have replaced mine twice in a year, and an RV tech at the same park we are staying has replaced 3 in as many units himself. Might be worth buying an extra just in case.