by John Haygarth 2000 U295 36′
Today I learned three good reasons to keep your roof A/Cs covered when the coach is going to sit any length of time:
1. Wasps
2. Mud Daubers
3. Squirrels
My friend and I went up on the roof today and pulled the roof A/C covers for a detailed inspection and cleaning. Found a couple of small wasp nests, two old mud dauber nests, and… looks like squirrels were living in both units. The front cover was completely filled with nesting material. The rear unit, not so much. The covers were badly embrittled and were cracking and crumbling in spots. The inevitable effect of UV over time.
It was pretty obvious that it has been a LONG time since these units got any attention. The first photo shows the evaporator of the front unit. The rear was the same. The front unit didn’t have any filters; the rear was filthy.
The next two photos show how squirrels had chewed the wiring within the control box area – right through all the conductors in one case. The last photo is what surprised me. The squirrel had actually been chewing on the condenser coil. Unbelievable.
I could spend a lot of time straightening fins, cleaning out the filth, redoing the damaged wiring, but I get the sense it wouldn’t be long before they failed outright. Given these units are 20 years old, and have this many issues, I’ve elected to ditch them and start fresh.