Jiver51 wrote:
Just got my claim covered by Dometic. My refer stopped working 4 weeks ago, and we found the weld had opened up and allowed a coolant release. Happened while unit was on AC, so no fire occured. Dometic accepted the diagnosis by my RV dealer and a new cooling unit and recall kit has been shipped. Should arrive next week.
Question: Should I replace the AC heat element with one with lower wattage? Is this an easy install?
You should get the new lower wattage heating element with your new cooling unit. Basically if the RV repair does everything they are suposed to do, you have nothing else to do.Claude B wrote:
I do buisness with the same service center as ParkerBarker here in south shore of Montreal. They did recieve a few kits today and i'm on the list. Now, I also did order a new heating element (325 W) wich they had to order from Dometic. It was $65 cdn. So when I arrived at home today, first thing I did was to check the resistance. The Fluke (pro multimeter) reading is 40.2 ohms ! So the element is a 355 watts !!!
Even if it's stamp 325 W. Are they trying to get rid of their old stuff or what ? Bunch of ... So be carefull. I will go back monday morning.
BTW the part # on the enveloppe is 3850644422
I had to get out a calculator on that one. At 115 volts, the element will use 2.86 amps, and the total wattage will be about 329 watts. At 120 volts it will be near 350 watts. So I guess you don't want to plug into 120 watt pedistals! :R
With the older 37.5 ohm elements, the wattage is 3.06 amps at 115 volts, 352 watts and 3.2 amps and 384 watts at 120 volts. I guess the safe thing is plug in at older RV parks with only 107 volts, and don't attempt to run the air conditioner. The total wattage on 37.5 ohm elements is 305 watts at 107 volts, and 284 watts with the repalcement 40.2 ohm heater.
With 300 watts, you get about 1,020 Btu's of heat. The gas burner is usually rated at about 2,200 Btu's - even though only 80% will go to heating the boiler - the remainder will go up the flue.
Anayway I am happy to have a RV built in 1996.
Fred.
