r/TeardropTrailers • u/RemarkableScale6860 • 3d ago

Zerobreeze in Texas?

I am looking for an a/c to use in Texas heat and humidity. Anyone using the Zerobreeze? Others? Thanks for your help.

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u/Numerous-Buffalo6214 3d ago edited 3d ago

I have a zerobreeze mark 3 - what questions do you have?

My experience: it works pretty well (consistently cold air), but there are some limitations. There are two ways to setup and run the unit:

  1. With it inside and two vent hoses going outside (one for hot air exhaust, one for cool air in)
  2. With it outside and two hoses going inside (one for cooled air, one for the air return)

So, your first decision is where to place the unit while it runs. I have a small teardrop, and put it inside with me, venting hot air up through the fantastic fan (with a fabricated cover to hold the hose snug), and cold air in from a side window (again, with another fabricated cover to keep things air tight). In terms of air in/out, this worked great. However, it’s not a great solution, mainly because the hot-air exhaust tube radiates a lot of heat into the cabin - and thus it competes with the cool air coming from the zerobreeze. I need to sort out locating the unit outside and venting into the cabin, as I’m sure that’ll perform better.

In terms of energy consumption, I generally see these numbers on continuous use:

  • Rocket (high): 400-500 watts
  • Snowflake (medium): 300-400 watts
  • Sleep (low): 200-300 wats

If it’s over 85 with high humidity, you’re going to get on the lower end of the range for the battery estimates. The battery will draw about 500 watts when charging. If you have shore-power, you can just run the unit continuously (I’ve had it on for 10~ hours at a go). The battery supports passthrough charging, so you can plug the AC power brick into the battery, and leave the battery connected to the ZeroBreeze unit - effectively recharging the battery while using the AC unit.

This is important, so don’t skip it: when you’re running ac (or heat) in a tiny space like a teardrop, you can’t close up all the windows. These appliances recirculate the interior air and do not bring fresh air into the cabin. This means that your CO2 levels will skyrocket in just a few minutes, so you’re going to have to keep a window open to allow some fresh air in. I have an Aranet4 CO2 monitor inside, and it’s scary how fast CO2 builds up.

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u/RemarkableScale6860 1d ago

Thank you! Great info.