It's certainly been an interesting summer. After dealing with house business in MA my attention turned to doubling down on the old SportCam project. Plus a return to one of my favorite stomping grounds, the White Mountain National Forest. Camping an hour from Conway, NH afforded a great selection of stores for materials and supplies to facilitate the project. Including a Camping World, which just happened to be running a big sale on air conditioners.
I wasn't familiar with the Furrion brand so I did some quick research. This install inherently involves customization, including wall thermostat control. I talked with Furrion tech support then placed an order with Camping World. It came in the following week so I drove into town. It was a big, heavy box so CW staff helped load it into my truck. Then I went to nearby Home Depot and rolled one of their platform carts out to where I parked. That provided a work surface to slide the box onto, open it up, and figure out exactly what to go in and buy for the installation.
I didn't get their spendy wiring kit just for the plug 'n play connector. I had no problem cutting off their plug and making my own connections with a terminal block. What I did have a problem with was all the plastic.
It's one thing for the top shroud to be molded plastic. It even makes sense for some of its internal parts. But it didn't take long to start finding damage. The whole bottom bottom tray was actuallly made of plastic. And cracked!
Not just one crack. Several. The internal electrical junction box literal had its mounted screws torn free. There was tell tale plastic in screw threads. Maybe the shipping container got dropped by stevedors at the port of entry. These days everything comes from China it seems. Shipping damage is apparently a risk. Sigh.
It was reboxed and returned. Camping World was not only surprised but skeptical. I think they half thought I damaged it somehow after leaving their place. I was firm with eagle eye contact. There was no visible damage to the box which puzzled them. Shipping damage rang true as theories go.
They had an identical unit ready for another customer but offered me first right of refusal. I was by now leary of plastic construction but we opened the box anyway. Only to find it too was damaged! So I got my refund and it's back to the drawing board.
I was disappointed, obviously. So were they to be fair. Nate escorted my to a storage container out back where they keep overstock merchandise. He showed me a Dometic Brisk II they had in stock. We unboxed one to find its bottom pan was made of steel to its credit.
While I considered its construction quality better, it was twice the price. No other advantages were obvious to me. The Dometic was just as big and heavy as the Furrion. Moreover, I really don't need AC at this point. It was just a bargain opportunity that really wasn't. CW Conway had plenty of those in stock if I change my mind. For now I'll resume focus on other build priorities.
The exercise wasn't a complete waste. Scrambling to move AC up my list motivated working out install details sooner than later. That helped inform preparations like finalizing the future AC location to avoid original problems. Meanwhile, as all the electric work proceeds I can stub out the wiring and close up the new ceiling inside. Later AC installation should be more straightforward at that point. At least that's my hope.
