Truma Saphir Comfort Air Conditioner Review

I know, I know… I have said in the past that I was not going to install an Air Conditioner inside Gigi as I honestly believed I didn’t need one…

During the day, especially if you work, I still believe that you don’t need one, but it just happened that a couple of nights in the past summer, it got really hot, to the point of making it impossible to sleep. Something had to be done…

At first I opted for a portable unit (DeLonghi Pinguino), and while he was actually doing a good job, there was a problem…, actually two..

The first one was that being on wheels, it had to be held in place while driving, not an ideal situation. I could have removed the castor wheels, but it would have then being very hard to move around if need it. The second one was that he need it an outlet for the warm air to be pushed out of the vehicle.

They give you a kit for it to be installed on a window, but not a motorhome window, so I ended up using a very long large hose extension for the air to be expelled behind the fridge floor. It was never going to be an elegant or practical solution, so in the end I gave up and started to look for an alternative.. There were only three option really:

• A domestic split system
• A roof mounted Air conditioner
• A storage compartment Air conditioner

The domestic split system is probably the best value for money, but I don’t really have a wall where to install it. Also, all the bin’s area has being allocated, so there was no room for it.

The roof mounted Air Conditioner could have been a good solution, but I got the entire roof covered in solar panels, so the only option would have been to utilise one of the roof hatches. I do enjoy the roof access and being able to get the daylight coming in. I also didn’t wanted to add any extra weight so far up…

I did however have plenty of room under the main bed and so it seems that the logical solution was to go for the Truma Saphir Comfort RC.

Before I decide to go ahead and buy one I wanted to see what other people that already had one installed had to say about it, but beside a couple of very silly video, I couldn’t find any information..

So here we are, after three months of testing, making a review as usual…

Before we dig into the review, there is in the market a slight cheaper alternative to the Truma Saphir. The Finch HB9000 sold in Australia but of possible Chinese origins, that sells for around $500.00 less than the Saphir. Specs are very similar between the two, but I can’t say that I fully trust all Chinese products, yet…

I had so far a very good experience with the other German company Webasto, so I decided to stick with the German even for this one..

The floor is ready to take the unit

The Saphir is well built and for the given size it really does work well. In the box you will find everything you need to install it yourself if you wish, including a 1:1 scale paper template for the floor, necessary to cut the holes in the floor in a precise manner. One thing you will need to buy separately is the ducting, that it is available on Ebay in any length you may need, based on your situation.

Tools required are a drill, a jigsaw or even better, an oscillating multitool, a hole saw (50mm) and some Sikaflex adhesive (or what ever brand you like)… You will also need a 10 amp wall plug as the unit comes only with a cord but no plug, a pair of wire cutters, for the wire mesh included in the kit, a Phillips N2 Screw driver, if you don’t have one for the drill and a 3mm drill bit to help with the little screws, again provided in the kit.

In the box you will also find two manuals and the three vents. One manual for the installation and one for the operation of the unit.. The unit has a three speed fan for all modes but even at the lowest speed, it is still quite fast and unfortunately a bit noisy.. In the manual it also states that there is a night fan speed, but unfortunately that only works for the cooling and not when in heating mode.. It is also exactly the same speed as the normal low setting, so a bit of false advertising there.. Other than that, I can’t fault this little Air conditioner. It does work extremely well for the advertised medium size vehicle or like in my case for the bedroom..

The three outlet

The only negative note for this unit, is in my opinion the remote control and the infrared receiver.. The remote control is quite big but it uses an LCD screen that unfortunately does NOT have a backlit, so there is no way to operate this unit in the dark or at night without having to turn a light on to see the screen..

There is also the replacement cost involved if your remote is lost or broken… At $321, I really cannot explain why it does cost that much and it doesn’t even come with a .50c backlit. It is definitely way too much money for such a simple plastic gadget…

The infrared receiver is large and bulky and it also has three LED lights to let you know what the unit is doing.. This is all good for a daytime living room situation but a terrible idea for a bedroom as those LED are quite bright.. Oh, and just in case you have misplaced the “very cheap” remote, you can always use a toothpick to turn the unit on or off by pressing the little dot on the infrared receiver…

A backlit screen on the remote and a multidirectional infrared remote sensor, would have made this product a ten out of ten.. As it stands, it is still a great unit for a daytime use in a living room or centrally located in your caravan.. A bit too noisy for a bedroom even at the lowest speed and virtually impossible to use or adjust any setting in the dark by using the very expensive remote…

Finally, you will need to replace at least once a year the particle filter on the front of the unit, so make sure that you can easily access the front of the unit..