RV Air Conditioner Repair in Sebring, Florida

In Highlands County the rooftop air conditioner on an occupied RV runs more hours than any other component on the rig, from late April into November, against 79 percent humidity and a July average high over 91°F. The weak ones announce themselves in June. We diagnose and repair rooftop units at your site across Sebring, Avon Park, and Lake Placid: common repairs run $200 to $600, and a full replacement is $1,200 to $2,500 installed. The trip fee is $75 to $150, and we meter the unit before quoting anything.

What actually fails on rooftop units here

A rooftop RV air conditioner is a sealed appliance: compressor, condenser coil on top, evaporator coil underneath, a fan motor turning both, a couple of capacitors, and a control board or thermostat. In this climate they fail in a fairly predictable order:

Condensate problems first. Cooling air at 79 percent humidity pulls gallons of water out of it every day. That water collects in a pan under the evaporator and drains out onto the roof through small ports. Algae loves a warm, dark, wet pan. The ports clog, the pan overflows, and water comes down through the ceiling assembly, usually onto the bed under the unit. It looks exactly like a roof leak. It is a cleaning job, and we do a lot of them. See AC dripping water inside.

Capacitors. Start and run capacitors are electrolytic components with a temperature-dependent life, and a rooftop unit that runs twelve hours a day from May to October shortens it. The symptom is a fan that runs with a compressor that hums but will not start. This is the single most common non-water AC repair we do, and it is cheap.

Coils packed with pollen and mildew. Oak pollen in spring, mildew all summer. A condenser coil that cannot reject heat makes the compressor run hot for years and die early. Annual coil cleaning is the highest-value maintenance dollar on these units in this county.

Control boards after lightning. Florida recorded 305 lightning events per square mile in 2025, more than any other state. A strike near a resort’s electrical service sends a spike through every pedestal, and the AC control board is one of the first things it kills. We carry meters, not guesses; the compressor is usually fine.

Fan motors. Bearings, usually announced by noise well before failure.

Compressors. The end of the unit’s life. At that point replacement is the answer, because a compressor swap on a sealed rooftop unit is not economic.

Check this before you call

• Measure the split. A thermometer at the return grille and one at a supply register. A healthy unit gives a 16 to 22 degree drop. If you have that on a 92-degree afternoon, the unit is working and the problem is heat load: shade, window covers, a second unit.
• Look at the filters. They are small, they clog fast with pollen, and a clogged filter freezes the evaporator. If there is ice on the coil inside, shut it off, run fan-only until it thaws, and see whether it cools normally afterward.
• Check the pedestal voltage if you have a meter or an EMS. A resort circuit sagging into the low 100s on a hot afternoon when every rig on the loop is running AC is hard on compressors and it kills capacitors.
• Listen. Fan runs, compressor hums and clicks off: capacitor. Nothing at all: breaker, thermostat, or board.

The AC not cooling page walks through this in more detail.

Repair or replace

Replace when the compressor has failed, when the unit is 12 to 15 years old and repairs are stacking, or when a modern 15K unit’s efficiency matters on a 30-amp site. Repair when it is a capacitor, a fan motor, a board, a clogged pan, or a dirty coil, which is the large majority of calls, and when the unit is under about ten years old and has been maintained.

A replacement is a standard 13.5K or 15K BTU unit set on the existing 14 by 14 inch roof opening with a new gasket and wired to the existing ceiling assembly. Heat pump models and high-efficiency units sit at the top of the range. We will tell you if a bigger unit makes sense, and we will also tell you if your 30-amp pedestal cannot support it, because the Dometic and Coleman page covers exactly that trap.

What it costs

Same figures as the pricing page, with labor at $125 to $190/hr inside those ranges. You approve the number before anything is done.

If you are living in the rig

Say so when you call. A full-timer or a summer resident with no cooling in July is a different priority from a stored rig, and we schedule it that way. If the unit cannot be repaired the same day, we will tell you honestly what the lead time on a replacement looks like rather than leaving you guessing in the heat.

The maintenance that actually matters here

Clean the condensate pan and drains every spring, and again mid-summer if the unit runs all day. Clean the coils annually. Check the filters monthly in season. Put an EMS-style surge protector between the pedestal and the rig, because a $300 protector is cheaper than a control board, a converter, and a fridge board on the same afternoon. And check the gasket every few years; a compressed gasket leaks water into the ceiling assembly, and people spend money resealing roofs chasing a leak that was the AC all along.

Tell us the make and BTU rating if you can read it off the shroud, what the split is, whether the compressor is starting, and where the rig sits. We work on site across Sebring, Avon Park, Lake Placid, Lorida, and out to Okeechobee.