Coleman Soft Start Kit for RV Air Conditioner, 1497-3601

I installed the Soft Start on a 2024 Coleman Model 45004-0792 that is also a heat pump. Overall, the installation was very straight-forward and the instruction manual was very helpful. There is, however, a critical instruction missing. The manual has you disconnecting and discarding the Start Capacitor & PTCR, together with their red and yellow wires. The problem is that there is also a black wire connected to the Start Capacitor. What the heck do you do with that? There is no mention of it in the instructions. The answer can be found on the yellow schematic on the A/C unit, if you are familiar with how to read a schematic diagram. The schematic shows a black wire from the reversing solenoid going to the yellow terminal block of the Run Capacitor. I'm happy to say that when connected this way, the unit operates correctly - much quieter starting while drawing many fewer amps. A great upgrade for my RV!

I liked that this is a specific soft start made specific for the Coleman Mach air conditioners, not a generic that has more complication. Ours is a 482xx Mach Quiet. Only 4 wires to install and comes with the Mach mounting bracket. The install took about 20-25 minutes max. Works great. We can run the AC off the inverter now if needed. After the fan, then compressor started up it read +/- 1250w ac load from the inverter with just the air conditioner running. Don't forget to put the sealing putty around the wires or you will have to pull the cover back off to install it when you thought your were done! Pro tip: Take some wasp spray up with you. When I pulled the cover, I found 4 wasp nests inside (3 old - 1 new) and had one wasp who kept trying to "help me" with the soft start install!

Easy to install and perfectly matched to the Coleman Mach air conditioner on my Thor Tellaro. The small generator installed on the Tellaro could not handle the air conditioner surge and would cut off every time. Now the generator handles without a problem. Can't wait for boondocking and tailgating this summer!

Works well, have a Coleman Mach on an old Avion truck camper. The air conditioner says 17.5 amps is optimal. My old Honda EU 2000 is only rated at 13.3 amps. AC starts up and runs fine on Low Cool setting, which cools the truck camper pretty quickly. It doesn't trip the generator, it does run faster than idle but its not running real hard. Hook up was pretty straight forward. Only 4 wires to hook up. Might be a little trickier on a heat pump.

I've wanted a soft-start on my RV air conditioner for years, but was held back by the high cost. It was a great relief to see that Coleman released their own version at a 33% discount, and fully supported by the original AC manufacturer. Rather than being "universal" to any AC, they build it with the mounting bracket, wiring, and screws to fit their AC's specifically. I'm sure it could work on others, but you might have to adapt it to fit. All that being said, I found that my 25 year-old 8535 air conditioner was apparently older than they expected to include in their instructions, so I did have to research how to connect it to my older components. I don't expect that to be a problem for most folks. In any case, it did mount and connect up just fine. I'm taking a star off since they didn't cover this older series in their installation instructions. As far as soft-starting the AC compressor, it works great! It slowly ramps up from about 400 watts to 1200 over several seconds. Now my inverter doesn't complain about being overloaded!

Love this upgrade for our camper! The install wasn’t that hard

Purchased for a Coleman RV air conditioner I followed the instructions and video online as per the manufacturing information air conditioner with inverter and it started up like normal and worked a total of 3 times for about a week and total running of one hour. Now the soft start is sending too many amps to the Victron multiplus inverter is tripping the inverter. This is useless and piece of junk. I will be try and send back to manufacture.

These devices work great on RV air conditioners. Must be sure you are getting the right model for your air conditioner. Some have 4 wires and some have 5 but this was the model for my RV. Instructions are not as clear as they should be, but there are a number of installation videos on-line. Again, just need to be sure you are getting the right video because Soft Start has several models, but this model has a very good video from the company. Basic electrical skills should allow for pretty easy self-installation.

An easy install and lets me run our ac and other appliances off the house 115v connection. Haven’t tried it with a generator yet but I will this summer.

Works great on my Coleman Ac unit. Ac much quieter on start up

works as it should

This was perfect. We have the Coleman mach air conditioner in our RV so this was a breeze. Watch a YouTube video on installation and presto in under an hour it was in. As easy as could be.

Arrived quick and as described. Install went well.