The sun damaged Dometic heat pump shroud finally gave up the ghost.  You may remember it breaking even more during the solar installation.  After about 7 or 8 years of sun burns, it got so brittle, it cracked if you stared at it too long!

Cracked when I leaned on it lightly.

I found the best place to get the replacement was directly form Dometic.  My heat pump is just old enough every dealer had to order it anyway.  So might as well go to the source.  Your best option here is to call them with the model number of your a/c unit.  The model is on a sticker under the cover.  It’s kind of a pain to get, but you should make the effort.  They have many different models and there are no refunds on special orders!  The cost was $89 plus $35 for the over-sized shipping.

Here is the old shroud removed.  Notice how deteriorated it really is.  I wonder if one of those winter covers would extend its life.  If you know, leave me a comment.

Sun damaged shroud

You may notice the small black lines around the edges.  That is from repairs that I did a last year using Q-Bond (Amazon Link).  The repairs actually held up great, however the overall plastic was too far gone.  Every time you touched the shroud it would crack again.  Check out my video series on using Q-Bond.  You may have a vintage shroud to repair.  (YouTube Link)

When the new shroud comes, the foam gaskets are not installed.  So be sure to keep the old shroud and  use it as a pattern to install the gasket.  Unfortunately, Dometic didn’t included enough foam material, so I had to reuse some from the old shroud.

Missing a short piece of gasket.

Here it is back on the roof.  Simple job really.  Hopefully I can get it to last a good number of years.  It maybe hard to find a replacement the next time.

Ain’t it purdy?

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