Maxx fan or air con?

[Jane And Rog]

Our current van came with an air-con. At the time we thought we would never have specced it, but actually it is invaluable in hot countries where we can then leave the dog in the van and go out for the evening. However we do need to be on hook-up to do that.

Our new van will have a great deal more leisure battery capability, and can run the air-con we're thinking of putting in - but not for long, I imagine.

Would a Max fan be enough to keep the van cool for the dog when the outside temperature is in the 30s? I think we could assume no direct sun. If so, we could probably run it quite safely from DC power.

 

[Bessy765]

We have a Dometic Freshjet 2200. 700 watts of Solar 2 x 100 amp lithium. We can run it for a few hours a day if there is good sunlight. But the trick is not to try and turn the van into a fridge. We are about to have 2 x 280 lithium but the power has to come from somewhere to charge thrm

 

[LostInSpace]

Our new van will have a great deal more leisure battery capability, and can run the air-con we're thinking of putting in - but not for long, I imagine.

Which air-con are you thinking of getting?

I understand a few of the new ones can run continuously at low power, with needing to switch on and off.

Our last one was far two noisy switching on and off. It now sits unused at home, as we did not put it on the new van.

 

[Otter Spotter]

I have a Maxxfan but do not travel abroad so I am not sure if what I say will be useful but, it doesn’t cool the van but the draft it creates makes it feel cooler but not A/C cool, I think if you had it set on full power it may be noisy for your dogs.

 

[Reallyretired]

We use a maxxfan with dogs in the van at 30C and providing windows open a crack and blinds down on the sunny side they are fine for an hour or two. Feels much cooler than outside in the .

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[cyberyacht]

Basically I would suggest you need to think air-con = EHU and MaxxFan = off-grid. Depends on your style of use.

 

[Guigsy]

Maxxfan keeps our van cool enough in the low 30s. With shades on the windows and the canopy out to shade as much of the van sides as possible. We're fine with keeping the cats in the van through most summer heatwaves.

I'd only get aircon if I had about 500w of solar and about 400Ah of battery. Or if I knew I'd be hooked up all the time.

 

[Jane And Rog]

Which air-con are you thinking of getting?

Not sure about the specific model but it'll be dealer fitted and Eura Mobile say they use a 230v Dometic with electronic controls. That narrows it down to the FJX4 or FJX7 given the size of the van I'd expect the low or mid power model so maybe the FJX4 1700. It claims "quiet" on the Dometic page but no numbers.

 

[The Boofles]

We have two of the Fiamma turbo vent thingys that work off the 12v. They’re surprisingly efficient and worked well for us when we were in the heatwave in northern Italy the year before last.
I’m sure someone more technically minded could give better reassurance though especially for peace of mind regarding leaving Flynn.