air conditioning Ibis or Dometic B3000+

The only personal experience I have had is with the Air Command Wren which is very similar to the Ibis (both Air Command) fitted to a 22' van. A mate of mine has a Dometic (not sure which model) fitted to a 24' Jayco. Both seem to be reliable and effective units in that both are able to cope with heat in the Pilbara region of WA. The only major difference we have noticed is that mine will run on a Honda 2.0 generator while his Dometic needs a larger unit such as a Yamaha 2.4 or similar.
I guess if you only use mains power such as caravan parks this will not make any difference.

Cheers
Pop

Hi Garth

We have a 21ft sterling that has the Ibis Aircon fitted and it keeps the van very cool. It has only been tested to temps up to 31degs though because of all this rain.
My Honda generator runs it ok though I tested it when we first bought the van.
Hope this helps

Dick

HI Garth,

I can't speak from personal experience yet but this background info may be relevant to your decision making process.
WE recently ordered a brand new van (in the vicinity of $100k) and requested an Ibis a/c as I had read that they have a soft start system that allows a quality 2kw generator to start and run them (whereas the Dometic 3000 won't start on a 2kw generator). The van manufacturer said if I wanted Ibis they would cut and leave the vent for it in the roof but not fit it as they had had far too many complaints from previous customers with the Ibis and would not use them again. So in the end we are getting a Dometic B3000.

Since that converstaion I had a look on the caravan forum and there are mixed opinions of them there- main complaint is they struggle to cool the van on very hot days (some comments were not very kind to Ibis I must say).

Anyway I wanted a completed van with everything from the one place so we will go with Dometic. When our new van is delivered I will be able to give feedback on the Dometic ...but thats some months away yet.
Cheers

Gooday,
Forget either of the caravan specific ones & install a Domestic (NOT DOMETIC) Inverter Split system. WE do not have one but know several that do and couldn't be happier. Efficient, quiet and will run from 1 KVA generator.
Cheers,
Boroma 604.

Just in case you haven't already - there has been a fair bit of comment on those AC's here and on the caravanners' forum, via the respective search tools - lots to read.

Check the warranty conditions of the Air Command. We have had trouble with ours and no satisfaction from Air Command. Plus ours does not like very hot days and just stops cooling and you have to spray water over the air inlet vents to cool them down. Si CAUTION CAUTION
Regards
Peter M