Zerobreeze Mark 2 portable AC

That is spotless on the inside

 

My mini split is 9k btu and has been fine capacity-wise. Temps in the upper 90's the last two days and hardly noticeable. Even today I took an extended lunch at the Jellico rest area. Dash was reading 98º as I approached. Curtains wide open and it was plenty comfortable for an hour and a half.

Re: that 77º setting you mentioned. That's what I set mine at. I think your comfort with that depends on whether or not the vent is directed at you. At home I'm a 74º year round wuss. When I first put in the mini, 74º froze me out. I kept ticking it up a degree at a time, and 77º was where the comfort was. The vent in my truck ac is half on me. It's directed down and forward. If I'm sitting up on the bed, it's blasting my neck. Laying down it's a bit more even. I have woke up rolled against the back wall to get out of the air once or twice. Honestly I think 5k btu would be adequate, if it was ducted right. I always thought the btu ratings advertised on various apus was marketing fluff, now I'm certain of it. Remember the rigmaster ads? 30k btu cooling LOL. I guess if you couldn't survive the noise, your corpse would be well preserved.

Trucks are definitely not air tight. I notice it especially when parked up in Wisconsin or the like in winter, with a 30+ mph blast of sub-zero wind hitting the cab. Drafts everywhere.

Funny thing about bunk heaters and built in bunk HVAC: they don't have fresh air inlets. Recirculation only. You'll know soon as you have a bottle of fuel additive leak in the storage compartment. At least on every truck I've had. Only the main HVAC in the dash has a fresh/recirc door.

 

Now I know where that headache came from each time spent with that Wabasto heater... I never had that with heat coming from an idling engine.
I gave up on the bunk heater a few years ago, after it depleted my batteries after one night when the temps dropped from mid 30s to 15F.

P.S.

@RedForeman
How is your mini-split powered? The truck batteries only, or a power generator?

 

More likely the headache was from locked up sinuses, due to the heater drying out the air. The harder it runs, the worse it is.

My bunk heater will take the batteries down to a low voltage alarm if run overnight in very cold temps, below +20º or so, mainly if it's also windy. I think that's more a function of the worthless fiberfill insulation the oem's install. If I ran in colder climates more often, I might spend some time/money improving that situation. That said, it takes about 10-12 hours of heater abuse to win a low voltage alarm, so has only happened once or twice all last winter. After the first time, I watch the battery voltage and crank the truck to idle a bit before it gets critical.

A CO detector would be advised, just in case a defective or leaky heater is the cause of a much more serious condition. The burn can is a hefty chunk of metal, but is cast and castings can have defects. Also condition and routing of heater exhaust to make sure it's directed away from the cab. My old ones used a 1" flex pipe, the ones on my new trucks have an actual exhaust pipe made of stainless. Much harder to accidentally get crushed or torn open, which could lead to fumes building right under the cab and leaking in.

Truck batteries only at the moment. I swapped in a set of Northstar hybrids I had, good for about 25% more capacity and proven longer life than any other AGM I've ever used. They'll hold up to an overnight, but demand during the day is problematic for more than 5-6 hours, when voltage sinks enough I need to run the engine to recharge 30 min to an hour to make it through the rest of a break.

I already have 480W of solar panels in hand, but haven't had time to get them on the roof. Once I see how that works out, I may look at either more panels and/or going to a LiFePO house battery solution. Also noteworthy, solar charging ought also help with bunk heater run time in the winter, since the HVAC will not be in use. Not at night of course, but at least the batteries will be closer to topped off when the sun sets, then offset charging again soon as the sun rises.

I'm done with maintaining a diesel apu or other engine driven contraption for aux power.

 

Hey Dune, looks like this is the best way to stay cool at night, without idling the truck or spending a lot $$ on more sophisticated setups.
The A/C unit has some real life long term positive reviews on Youtube as well. Looking at your pictures, I am guessing this is the charger you are using to charge the battery?
Power Queen 29.2V 20Amp Lithium LiFePO4 Battery Charger Smart Lithium Iron Phosphate Battery Maintainer Fully Automatic Rechargeable 24V (29.2V) LiFePO4 Battery Charger with Multi Safety Protections
You are plugging it into the truck's inverter, correct? How many watts is your inverter? Mine is 2000W and I have to turn off my fridge when I use the microwave, so obviously will need to buy a bigger one to be able to charge the battery. I wonder how much bigger perhaps 4-5000W?
Also do you know how many amps is your alternator? I will be installing a 200A new one and keeping the old with me, in case the new one goes out.

 

Hey, good morning. Not sure where to post this, but I have what I think is a great ZeroBreeze tip for truckers. I have been frustrated with the recessed 4 pin connector on the ZeroBreeze batteries -- anybody who has tried it knows that you can't get your fingers in there to turn the knurled nut, leaving the connection loose. Not good and a good place for a battery surge.

Just guessing, I tried a Workman CP4 10" CB Radio Right Angle Microphone Extension cord. This fits perfectly (male to female extension for the recessed port) and allows the port to easily accessed to connect the unit or combo battery device. Use needle nose pliers and tighten the knurled ring nut ONCE!

You can find this on Amazon for $8.95 - I bought one for each of my 2 batteries.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GKRMDE8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Please spread the word as I'm a newbie and can't start a new conversation yet. Thanks!