SoftStart RV for air conditioner

Refrigerator, stove, furnace, water pump, air conditioner, microwave, water heater, fans, lighting
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Hubie
Weekend Camper
Posts: 17
Joined: Mon Jul 21, 2008 12:00 am
B190 Year: 1999
Location: Greenville, NC

SoftStart RV for air conditioner

Post by Hubie »

Has anyone installed one of the SoftStart RV devices in their roof top AC unit? It is expensive but supposed to prevent the momentary power spike that occurs when the ac compressor starts. My generator has to struggle to keep going when the compressor kicks on. Hubert
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skater
Site Admin
Posts: 2569
Joined: Thu Mar 08, 2007 1:00 am
B190 Year: 1991
WBCCI: 13270
Location: Annapolis, MD

Re: SoftStart RV for air conditioner

Post by skater »

Hubie wrote:
Sun Nov 21, 2021 9:54 pm
Has anyone installed one of the SoftStart RV devices in their roof top AC unit? It is expensive but supposed to prevent the momentary power spike that occurs when the ac compressor starts. My generator has to struggle to keep going when the compressor kicks on. Hubert
I put an extra capacitor in mine; these are like $20 on Amazon. Pretty easy to wire up, too, but be careful with the plastic shroud.

Easy-Start (I think it is) makes a system that's much more expensive. I don't know if the extra cost is worth it or not. They're always at WBCCI's International rally selling them, and lots of people buy them.
1991 Airstream B190 - bought, 2005; sold, 2011; bought 2017
1995 Airstream Excella 30' trailer

WBCCI #13270, Washington, DC Unit
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Millennial Falcon
Seasoned Traveler
Posts: 114
Joined: Tue Sep 18, 2018 9:14 pm
B190 Year: 1994

Re: SoftStart RV for air conditioner

Post by Millennial Falcon »

I tried the Supco SPP7E SoftStart capacitor... that's been discussed at: https://www.b190.com/viewtopic.php?p=13432#p13432

I bought it new from Amazon in December 2019 for about $40. It operated just fine.. but didn't quite give me a "soft enough" start and would sometimes still trip circuits if I was plugged into a 20amp circuit.

I ended up giving the unit away to someone else on the forums here, and installing a Micro-Air EasyStart 364 Soft Starter ASY-364-X20-IP. I was MUCH happier with the EasyStart. It lets me run my AC off a small, portable inverter-generator.

Some people have had luck with the capacitor... it just wasn't quite good enough for my 30 year old AC unit.
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