Last week we were camped in some cold weather 30-40's. The motor home next to us every night I could hear his Dometic heat pumps coming on and running 10-15 minutes then the other one would come on. My Atwood heat pump only runs for a couple of minutes at a time.....Never satisfying the thermostat.....I got so ripped off by my purchase of the Atwood Heat pump....Plus Atwood could care less that their product is defective....

Does the thermostat have an "anticipation" setting? If it does, changing the setting may get you a longer run time.

westend wrote:Does the thermostat have an "anticipation" setting? If it does, changing the setting may get you a longer run time.It is a totally electronic thermostat....only a pad about 1/4" thick......Atwood told me it was designed to run that way.....which is not good if you are cold....I have asked them if I could adjust the anticipator and they said absolutely not.....so I am stuck with what I have....

Bob Vaughn wrote:westend wrote:Does the thermostat have an "anticipation" setting? If it does, changing the setting may get you a longer run time.It is a totally electronic thermostat....only a pad about 1/4" thick......Atwood told me it was designed to run that way.....which is not good if you are cold....I have asked them if I could adjust the anticipator and they said absolutely not.....so I am stuck with what I have....Sorry to hear that. There are more than a few posts about RV heat pumps not doing the job. If you're always hooked up to 120V, kickboard heaters may be a good alternative. They don't take up much space and are positioned low so are efficient in what they do.

Put a different Tstat on it as mine will run as long as it takes to reach the set temperature. Take a picture of the wiring and what function the wires go to...do not rely on the color of the wires.

By the nature of the beast heat pumps in many cases are not the best choice for heating an RV. They are of limited capacity initially and this goes down as the temperature decreases and RVs are generally not as well insulated as homes. A heat pump rated at 15000 BTU cooling will only produce about 12000 BTU heating at 45 degrees and less at lower temperatures. Most also have an electric heating element to help compensate but they are also of a limited capacity.

Dometic Heat Pump | Good Sam Community

westend
Explorer
Jan 11, 2018
Bob Vaughn wrote:
westend wrote:
Does the thermostat have an "anticipation" setting? If it does, changing the setting may get you a longer run time.

It is a totally electronic thermostat....only a pad about 1/4" thick......Atwood told me it was designed to run that way.....which is not good if you are cold....I have asked them if I could adjust the anticipator and they said absolutely not.....so I am stuck with what I have....

Sorry to hear that. There are more than a few posts about RV heat pumps not doing the job.

If you're always hooked up to 120V, kickboard heaters may be a good alternative. They don't take up much space and are positioned low so are efficient in what they do.
Bob_Vaughn
Explorer
Jan 11, 2018
westend wrote:
Does the thermostat have an "anticipation" setting? If it does, changing the setting may get you a longer run time.

It is a totally electronic thermostat....only a pad about 1/4" thick......Atwood told me it was designed to run that way.....which is not good if you are cold....I have asked them if I could adjust the anticipator and they said absolutely not.....so I am stuck with what I have....
westend
Explorer
Jan 11, 2018
Does the thermostat have an "anticipation" setting? If it does, changing the setting may get you a longer run time.

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