thermostat change

[N5LUI]

Hi all,Has anyone replaced the manual thermostat to a digital in your RV? can one from home depot or lowe's work and would there be a problem to change out. looking for some good advice. Thanks

[D_E_Bishop]

The only thing I would add is to buy a PTL(push to light up) battery powered unit. I would spend the extra $10.00 to get a Honeywell with PTL feature. An inexpensive Honeywell or almost any digital unit from any store will work. I guess the Hunter unit is popular because if it's price, I have always installed name brand units in houses and thats what I like.

Jayco254 asked if they will work on non-ducted units. Yes all you need to remember is to buy a battery powered unit.

We don't go to the desert during the summer so we operate our roof top AC manually. Not an issue for us.

[time2roll]

Jayco254 wrote:
Does this work on nonducted units?

afaik you need to have an existing wall thermostat to replace.
If the controls are in the air conditioner... probably out of luck.

[Bucky_Badger]

I guess it's "cool" to do this mod, but our OEM seems to do very well

[Jayco254]

Does this work on nonducted units?

[mooky_stinks]

I changed mine out to the Hunter from Walmart. I just hooked up the high speed wire as was stated above. The OE t-stat used 6 wires but I only needed 4 for the Hunter. That's because it has batteries for power and I left the low speed fan wire off. It's much more accurate ans doesn't have the 5 degree swing. It is literally a 15 minute installation. Just keep an extra set of batteries in a drawer because when they die you lose your heat and AC. It does have a low battery icon so there would be plenty of warning.

[steelpony5555]

Changing the t-stat to a digital one is usually the first mod I do to any RV I got. The manual t-stats have a 2-4 degree swing high and low. A digital has 1-2 degree swing. It is very easy to change out. I have usually used the Walmart Hunter t-stat and never had a problem. You can get the tiny switch from Radio Shack to make the fan high and low also, but some folks just let it on high. Here's a couple of sites to cut and paste that give you instructions on how to do it.

http://www.klenger.net/RVing/HVAC_Hunter_Tstat/hunter-digital-tstat-instructions.pdf

http://www.modmyrv.com/2008/07/14/rv-digital-thermostat

http://home.roadrunner.com/~morodat/hunter_install.html

[time2roll]

I liked the idea of staying oem

Dometic digital thermostat

[rhinowino]

This one worked in my trailer : RV Comfort Coleman

[Old-Biscuit]

See your other post for info

[JJBIRISH]

They will work and a lot of people have done it… the wiring may be a little different and you may need to add a switch to have hi and lo fan speeds…

I installer the hunter programmable one, but found it to be unreliable… after replacing it several times I went back to the overpriced Coleman manual one several years ago… I had to replace it again a few weeks ago, but was glad it was the overpriced t-stat this time… if it wasn’t the T-stat the only other thing would have been the very overpriced and non-repairable relay module in the AC…

[APRSRVer]

Home thermostats run on the low voltage ac that the furnace control uses. An RV doesn't have that power available. If you can find a battery powered one, it would work.