The Penguin is quiter than the Carrier or at least out carrier.

Okay, I had a tech look at my Penguin air conditioner. Seems the main board in the upper unit has gone bad. Sooooo, I need to find a part #3101626.004 to repair it. Unfortunately, Dometic stopped making them. Now I need to find someone who might have one of these laying around or someone that has an old Penguin laying around that I can get this board from..... The search is on. If not, I'll be replacing the entire unit.

try Colaw's in MO. They are dismantling wrecked rvs and have a large salvage yard (been there). They are located near Joplin on I44 but also got an internet site and ship.

www.colawrvsalvage.com
Carthage MO

Did you try this place:

http://www.dinosaurelectronics.com/

Thanks for the leads folks and keep 'em coming....this is not going to be an easy find.
I can get a "kit" to retro-fit it, but that is half the price of a new one. So you know where that idea will go.....
If anybody has or knows of an old Penguin laying around, let me know.

Neil T,
Dinosaur does not look like they do A/C boards. And Swedish Automotive? I'm confused on that one...
Wait a minute...I just read your post again. And obviously Swedish Automotive is your business.

B&K This may be a long shot. This past month I had to replace my front A/C on my 1992 Breakaway. The unit worked perfect but due to a gasket leak, a new gasket could not be installed without destroying the A/C (too hard to explain). Suggest you call the shop where the work was done(I had more extensive work done). RV DOCTOR (239)277-1238.
Talk to Shelly or Dan, my old unit might be on a shelf in a corner...................

Thanks Carl! I'll give them a call.

Carl,
Good lead, bad timing. Shelly said that someone comes at the end of each month and they get rid of all the old stuff, so I missed this one. She is going to try to call them to see if they still have the unit, but says she believes they go directly to the scrap yard.....
Anybody else have a lead or know the where abouts of a old unit?

And the latest update....
Still waiting to see if anyone knows of an old unit laying around that I can get parts from, but in the mean time I found someone who can supply a brand new board still in the package. My dilemma....do I shell out $150 for the board (ouch) and hope that my unit works for at least a few more years? I'm leaning that way right now as finances are tight and replacing the unit with a new one would cost me $550+.

Hi Bruce.....FWIW: a local acquaintance & SOB owner w/ a dead A/C contacted a local parking lot business. They had a scheduled R&R program for the RV-A/C units they used on the roof of their attendant booths. He was able to pick thru their inventory of take-outs for next to nothing (like 50 bucks or so.) That was probably 5 years ago and it's still working fine.....

Like DC, I'd think that parts of NJ have to be the motherload for parking lots.......

Just a thought......

Final chapter to this post.... I ordered the new main board (it is in the upper portion of the unit) and hope that my tech guy is correct. I also was able to get a new control board (it is right behind the face plate in the interior shroud) from the same person. Both are N.O.S. items. Not cheap, but if they work it will save me $400+ for right now. If not, I'll have discontinued boards for sale.
And here is my suggestion to all: If you change out your Dometic Penguin A/C units for new, strip them down and sell at least the main and control boards, as they are no longer available. I had a heck of a time finding them and was told that the ones I'm getting may be the last of them around. When the day comes I replace mine, I will keep the inside shroud and take the componets I can from the main unit. You never know....someone else on this board might need a part to keep theirs going!

quote:

Originally posted by Bruce & Kathleen:
I ordered the new main board ... and hope that my tech guy is correct.

I do too. If not, then you'll have 2 main control boards to sell.

Did anyone you contact say that they can rebuild these control boards? Usually when something like this is no longer available you'll find several people who will offer to refurbish the failed component.

Maybe contact them and see if they'll buy your failed board. Might offset some of the costs. Also, any manuals that you get with your new boards might be of value here. Scan em in and send them to me so I can post on our site.

You got it Bill. I will start another post once I receive them and get everyone up to date.
One of the biggest things I learned was that the part numbers for the boards in these older units did change. But without the due diligence of the person I am purchasing these boards from, no one would have told me, including Dometic. You see, when I contacted them it is easier for them to just say " we don't carry that anymore" than to do the research. Unfortunately, these boards are no longer produced. I did contact a couple of folks who do repairs on these type of things and only one (ACS Industrial Services) said I could send it to them and they would advise me of what the cost would be to repair it once they received it. But, she also said there was a chance that they could not repair it at all as it was older technology and they do not have access to alot of the older componets.
Look for my new post in the near future. Hopefully it will be full of information and not "parts for sale"!
Until then, please remember that working componets on items you are replacing in your Barth may be valuable to someone else doing a repair. So before you throw it away, post on this board to see if it might help someone else.....