Zero Breeze Mark 2: Unbox, install tips and testing. Truck Camping Portable A/C!!

#camping #truck #outdoors #brianwatersoutdoors

Well, gang....Zero Breeze finally sent me one of their Mark 2 units for me to test out on my truck camper. Initial testing (driveway only, in Texas heat....) has me feeling pretty optimistic about this thing for the rest of my camping trips, and being able to stay somewhat cool at night now! Setup was a super simple, and even creating all the DIY items needed to make this unit work for me with my camper setup was quite easy.

This unit is not for everyone however. It's much more expensive than a typical "window unit" air conditioning, and does not even get it as cold as one. But, as is in my case, a window unit is not an option really, and this Zero Breeze was the only solution that I could find that could pump cold air into my camper. I'll be using this unit for the rest of the summer so i'll be able to give my honest review on if this thing is worth the price, and if I think it actually provides enough cooling power for a truck camper.

[trainwreck]

This is one of the best real world tests of a zero breeze that I have seen. Thank you.

[CrazyMan]

Thanks for the tip, Brian. I plan to put mine on a frameless window on the sleeper berth of a semi. I will be using an oscillating multi cutter to flush out the adapter so I can close the window when on my hometime. Also, using a self-adhesive square of window screen repair to keep the bugs and birds brom going through the tube if I decide to leave open.

[funkymonk]

You should put the AC unit in the back and run the exhaust hose into the cab and out the window. Let the intake hose use the air that you are cooling to run through the AC. It will cool the area down quicker and keep the area cooler. Once you get it to the desired temperature you can put it on sleep mode.

[YongKim-lphl]

as user of Zero Breeze in Florida Keys, I want to say that if he put at AC level, he will run out of battery in 2 or 3 hours. So one might need 3 batteries to go through night. (please note that Florida keys is much humid and we will need AC on some capacity till you wake up whereas interior of Texas where humidity is lower, temperature will drop in the early morning hours where you can turn off AC say around 3 am). So depending on where you are, battery usage will be different but nothing is more worst than summer in the Gulf coasts.
I used 2 Bluetti 1000 Whr battery for one Zero Breeze and Zero Breeze turned on from 11pm to 7 am goes through about 1400W of electricity. So based on that that is about 3 Zero Breeze battery. Please note that that is South Florida. Everywhere will be different. But nowhere is more extreme than South Florida in the summer.
So I have 4 Zero Breeze going on at same time and I can sleep very comfortably.

2500 BTU is very small capacity. Smallest store bought are 5000 BTU. But the difference is that store bought is much cheaper but very inefficient
I can vouch that Zero Breeze is most efficient and effective unit out there. For example I have 12000 Whr battery unit with me and on a 7000 BTU store bought AC unit the battery last about 7 hours whereas 4 Zero Breeze with 10000 rate BTU last in excess of 16 hours!
The store bought AC cost about $400 for 10000 BTU whereas Zero Brezee cost about $3600.00 to $4000.00 without battery.

In conclusion, Zero Breeze is by far highest performance AC that I have seen but also the most expensive too. You get what you pay for.

And battery cost is addition to the AC cost that mentioned above.

You have to do your math whether you buy Zero Breeze battery or other separate brand like Bluetti with inversion option.

[rubychen]

Great video, i also bought a zero breeze mark2 on Father's day, now my dad can enjoy the cooling on the truck, wonderful !!

[legendary]

I love ❤️ your garage organized and with nice tool 🔧 box

[StevenLaFrance]

I hotshot for a living and i have been think about stuff like this and AC was my last problem to solve, found this video and now I'm buying one. mine will just live in the box of the truck with a insulated dryer hose running into my back sliding window. should work but happy I found this video. thanks

[luketerry]

I already saw in the comment section about using the inflatable donut for in between your cab and camper. I used one on mine and it was pretty great until it deflated and left rub marks on my window. (Now I'm not saying that will be an issue with yours) but my secondary choice after using the window donut, was seat cushion craft foam you can get from a Joanns or Hobby Lobby. It's kind of a memory type foam that makes an excellent seal and an awesome sound dampener between your cab. I just cut the foam to the window frame size then cut a hole in the center for the actual window and squeeze it in between. I sprayed it down with Scotch Guard rain repellant afterwards. Been running that method for 3yrs and it's the best decision I've ever made! Just thought I'd throw that idea out there as well. Happy truck camping! And I enjoyed the video! Keep up the awesome content 🤙

[GiftHorse]

Nice set up. I think you could do the same thing with a much less expensive portable AC like the Black and Decker that I bought at Home Depot for about $ 325. Although larger, it only has one exhaust tube and you did the same thing using a 5 gallon bucket for the condensate. $ 1500 is kind of pricey for me. I ran the AC off of my Yamaha generator on ECO mode, which was very quiet. I bet you could fabricate a baffle that would extend from the truck's small back window into the truck bed, keep the unit on the back seat of the truck, exhaust out the truck rear window and dump the condensate in the bucket. The B & D comes with an insert for the exhaust tube that you could probably use and modify for the window exhaust. Consider buying a 2x2 piece of 1" think insulation board, cut it to size to use on the window gaps. Good Luck!

[arlenewolf]

Keep the A/C unit mostly in the truck just like you have it, it will keep the heat generated by the A/C unit out of the sleeping area. Also you can use Reflectx spray glued to speaker box carpet to further insulate the sleeping area over the windows. Great Video!!!!

[xplodr]

Maybe make another one of those window blanks like you made for the intake and exhaust but put it in the rear window where you had the ac unit. Probably alot easier to seal it up like that. Then just sit the ac unit in the back seat and use the remote to control it. Love your vids man keep it up.

[ginajones]

I have one. It worked well in my van on a Texas night!

[seymourwrasse]

you must be in southern Texas, I was in Lubbock and it was dryer then a popcorn fart, they could use swamp coolers. One store had rhe whole back wall set up as the cooler. they called your a/c refrigerated air

[sithieu]

If you make too of the swimming noodle glue back to back with the cutting face way. The bottom like in your video to glass and the top to your vent baffle. Then it will stay in place and seal good

[williamelliott]

Brian, I think the intake air tube needs to be sucking air from the bed of your truck not outside air. Like the air inside your home. Basically the way you have it set up, you are cooling outside air and what you really want to do is cool the inside air from the bed of your truck. Try moving that intake air tube to your truck bed so it sucks the air from that area and just have the exhaust air tube blowing outside. I'm pretty sure you'll see a vast improvement. Let me know if you don't see improved cooling.

[arlenewolf]

The topper places sell a boot for in between the cab and the boot that will seal off around the A/C unit.

[jhonnygarcia]

Best review. No one shows that it can be used with out the battery.

[TOTALLYRELAXED]

Hey Brian! Once I go full time in MY camper shell, like yours, I can see already that with my huge EcoFlow solar machine, my future IceCo fridge, solar panels taking up space, and, everything else I need…WHEW!…it should be interesting! I’ll probably start with installing a Fantastic fan in the shell roof to start with. I’m excited though! The A/C you bought is doing a good job! Once you get away from some of our Texas humidity it should work even better! I’m interested in seeing how much water was in the bucket after a night’s use with the A/C! Thanks for sharing and stay safe! ~Jim~

[kcgunesq]

The issue with all portable air conditioning units is that to work well, the unit must be in the space to be conditioned with a way to exhaust to the outdoors. While they can work, portable units will always be less efficient and noisier than window/wall units which are less efficient than split systems and traditional forced air systems. So while the zero breeze is putting cool air into the bed, it isn't removing any heat. While the bed is empty, that may not matter a lot, but put one or two people in there for 8 hours and see how it does.

[joen]

I hope it works for you. I bought a similar unit about 10 years ago to try to cool my bedroom in my RV when my main AC unit started to fail. I plumbed the exhaust out through a window but still had about a foot of the exhaust inside the trailer. That exhaust got extremely hot and lessened the cooling of the unit. I wrapped as much insulation as I could around the exhaust but it still added heat to the room. Yours is a different design and I think will work better than mine. However, I would monitor the temperature inside the cab to see how hot your exhaust duct is getting.