Dometic Heat Pump

[Bob_Vaughn]

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....

[lenr]

Dometic bought Atwood a few years ago. My guess is Dometic is now setting the support policies. I read some very positive threads on Atwood heat pumps a few years ago, so it is disappointing to hear troubles. I personally went through 2 Dometic AC units in just over 2 years, and found Dometic difficult to deal with.

[JaxDad]

Bob Vaughn wrote:
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....

Please note, “coming on” and producing heat are two VERY different things.

Unless Dometic has some magic e-formula nobody else does, below about 42 deg. F. the heat pump is just cycling, but not producing any useable benefit.

Did you talk to them and ask if they were really keeping the t-stat satisfied?

[sgfrye]

we have camped down to the low 30's at night. i bought a small tower ceramic oscillating electric heater placed in living room. it has kept our 33 ft TT in the upper 60's temp (which we prefer) all night. in the morning i fire up the gas furnace for a few minutes to bump up heat to about 70 while we take showers. works for us and saves alot of propane.

[Bob_Vaughn]

jamesroadking wrote:
On our Monaco class A we had two A/C's with heat pumps, a $750 upgrade. They were very poor at heating the coach. The 40K BTU LP gas furnace worked great, but used a lot of LP gas.
We ended up buying two thermostatically controlled electric heaters from Walmart for about $20 apiece that solved the problem.

We shut off the gas furnace and used the fire place plus a tower ceramic heater that oscillated and it kept us toasty warm......

[Ivylog]

Using a 12V test light or a cheap meter you should be able to determine what each wire does...there are not that many functions. Heck, there is probably a Utube video on changing Tstats that would help you do this.
Last week I had to use my heat pumps as it was fairly cold in WPB...will have to run the AC today that put out the same amount of noise reguardless of which function. By running the bedroom unit during the day and vice verser at night...what noise.

[jamesroadking]

On our Monaco class A we had two A/C's with heat pumps, a $750 upgrade. They were very poor at heating the coach. The 40K BTU LP gas furnace worked great, but used a lot of LP gas.
We ended up buying two thermostatically controlled electric heaters from Walmart for about $20 apiece that solved the problem.

[Bob_Vaughn]

Ivylog wrote:
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.

I was thinking of doing that but Atwood will not release a wiring schematic .....they claim one does not exist and when I ask them about what different color wires do they plead ignorance...their dealers and authorized service centers cannot even get them......All in all it is a POS.....

[Ivylog]

If you are paying for the electric you will use the heat pumps as they are 3-4 times more efficient in the 50-60 degree range and 2X at freezing. Yes mine will work that low and they do not have heat strips. Find a different Tstat as what you have is a POS.

[prichardson]

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.

[Ivylog]

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.

[westend]

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]

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]

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