Forum Discussion

Jim's avatar
Jim
Explorer
Mar 31, 2016

'02 Winnie Journey DL Central Heat problem...

(Cross posted at iRV2 forum)

My floor furnace, a TrueAir Residential Central Heating and Air Conditioning unit has been working fine for nearly two months since I bought this Winnie used.

I'd turn on the electric heat to warm up in the morning, then shut it down for several hours until time to turn on the AC for an hour or two. It always worked fine.

Yesterday, I turned on the electric heat, and although it works, it is no longer outputting air from the ceiling vents. Just the floor registers.

AC still comes out of the ceiling vents like normal, it's just the electric heat that seems to have a problem. The heater also works on propane and in that case, it defaults to the floor registers.

Anyone have any clue what the problem might be?

I'm fairly handy, so any links to DIY repair threads would be welcomed.

Thanks!
Class A
  • SCVJeff's avatar
    SCVJeff
    Explorer
    Apr 01, 2016
    crasster wrote:
    Ed C wrote:
    Also the outside temperature effects which operates. Usually below 40 only the gas will operate, no matter what you set.

    I can't stand this. I like full control. I've been asked to bypass this on people's coaches. Simple as electric on/off switch or gas on/off switch.
    full control of what? It simply doesn't operate when it's too cold out so why not make something that won't work anyway, automatic?
  • DrewE's avatar
    DrewE
    Explorer II
    Apr 01, 2016
    crasster wrote:
    Ed C wrote:
    Also the outside temperature effects which operates. Usually below 40 only the gas will operate, no matter what you set.

    I can't stand this. I like full control. I've been asked to bypass this on people's coaches. Simple as electric on/off switch or gas on/off switch.


    In this particular case, it's because the air to air heat pump doesn't work very well when attempting to extract heat from air that's not much above freezing. I believe it's because the effectiveness at extracting heat from the outside air is proportional to the difference in temperature between the outside coils and the ambient air, but the coils can't be below freezing, particularly if the humidity is not extremely low, lest they frost up.
  • crasster's avatar
    crasster
    Explorer II
    Apr 01, 2016
    Ed C wrote:
    Also the outside temperature effects which operates. Usually below 40 only the gas will operate, no matter what you set.

    I can't stand this. I like full control. I've been asked to bypass this on people's coaches. Simple as electric on/off switch or gas on/off switch.
  • Jim's avatar
    Jim
    Explorer
    Apr 01, 2016
    Thanks for that Doug. That's very handy to have. The operator's manual that comes with the thermostat is less than helpful.
  • Jim's avatar
    Jim
    Explorer
    Mar 31, 2016
    I haven't read that, Rv2go. Now that I've downloaded the users guide, I'll check for that. Could be that it's working fine and I just don't know the quirks?

    I'm just outside of Phoenix and we're not seeing temp extremes (lows in the mid 50's, highs in the mid 70's) here so it's not temp related.

    I did try someone's suggestion that the main switch needs to be operated several times, I tried that and it started to work correctly again. So I'm thinking I need to take that switch apart and hit with a shot of contact cleaner. If the instructions don't show the issue as a 'feature'.

    Thanks all!
  • Ed_C's avatar
    Ed_C
    Explorer
    Mar 31, 2016
    Also the outside temperature effects which operates. Usually below 40 only the gas will operate, no matter what you set.
  • rv2go's avatar
    rv2go
    Explorer II
    Mar 31, 2016
    If the thermostat is set 5 degrees above room temp, the gas furnace will come on until the set temp is reached.
    If you only want the heat pump to come on, just set the thermostat at 4 degrees above room temp.

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