First Trip Two small issues

[jspence1]

We had our new to us TT out this weekend for the first time and I found two things I need to address.

The first one is the check valve at the city water connection, when I filled the tank and turned on the pump water would spray out of the city water connection. I tried pushing it in and releasing it a few times and it eventually stopped leaking. Is this an easy repair or should I take it somewhere to have it fixed.

Our second problem is the thermostat it has a large temperature swing If I had to guess I would put it at 25F difference between when the furnace comes on and turns off. It would go from way too cold to sweating before it turned off. Are they adjustable? Any suggestions on good replacement if not?

Thanks for your time
John

[myredracer]

Assuming that the water inlet is not missing the washer, it is easy to replace. They are not crimped onto PEX. They have a threaded fitting on the end and the braided hose which is typically used has a "swivel adapter" on the end of which simply screws onto the city water inlet. You'll need a tube of clear RV caulk and a caulking gun, or take the TT to an RV repair shop and they shouldn't charge much for just running a bead of caulk around the inlet. Scrape off the old caulk (carefully).

On the thermostat, as said above, I would try adjusting the heat anticipator inside first. If replacing it, if it's a Suburban labelled one, it's manufactured by White Rodgers for Suburban and is available at electrical wholesalers and online and you may find it cheaper that way. Heat only version shown in photos and nos. are 1C20 heat only & 1C26 heat/cool and are mercury-free. There's lots of low voltage 'stats out there that will work as a substitute.

[opnspaces]

Does your thermostat control heat and A/C or just heat? Either way I picked up a $20 electronic at Walmart and swapped mine out. Mine controls heat only and I think it took 10 minutes to install. Nine of those minutes were being careful in drilling into the wall for the two screws to hold it up. The other minute was hooking the two wires to the back of the t-stat. Something like this. link

[jspence1]

I finally got around to properly fixing my city water connection. I overpaid for the fitting at my local RV dealer $38 but it's done and that's the most important part. It was an easy job I was surprised at how loosely the fitting was connected and had to be careful when I replaced it ti avoid the temptation to really tighten it up.

[mbopp]

On the back of the thermostat is an "anticipator" adjustment. On the 3 trailers we've had all of them had the anticipator set all the way to one end of adjustment. Setting it to mid-range smoothed out the temperature swings.

Who knows, the city water check valve may be OK now. Installing a valve or plastic plug may be the easiest fix. To replace it probably requires cutting and re-crimping PEX tubing.

Yeah, a small (1500W) electric heater goes a long way to take the chill out if you have hookups.

[kgarrett9999]

I use a small electric heater when we have hookups. Works great for our current small trailer, but I just bought a larger one that I figure will need more than the electric heat.

[jspence1]

naturist wrote:
The thermostat is easily replaced by any of the cheapest house t'stats you can buy. They don't typically swing 25 degrees, but 5 is pretty common, and that is plenty. Whatever you use is going to have a wide swing, however. The furnace is going to continue blowing hot air for a couple degrees after the 'stat quits calling for heat.

Good to know it's an easy swap. we has some serious temperature swings. The temperature was in the low 40's overnight and I found that if I "set" the thermostat to 50 I wouldn't wake up sweating overnight but my youngest daughter kept waking up because she was cold before the heat would turn back on. It made for some interesting sleeping. If I can get something to hold the temperature somewhere between 65 and 75 I think everyone could sleep easily.

[RoyB]

The quick fix for the citywater port is to pick up a water cap to screw on when not connected to the citywater. Something like this might be work pretty good as you could just leave it connected and flip the on-off valve until you get the one way valve fixed....



The valves are cheap and usually not too hard to replace...

Roy Ken

[naturist]

The thermostat is easily replaced by any of the cheapest house t'stats you can buy. They don't typically swing 25 degrees, but 5 is pretty common, and that is plenty. Whatever you use is going to have a wide swing, however. The furnace is going to continue blowing hot air for a couple degrees after the 'stat quits calling for heat.