Furnace question - RV-Dreams Community Forum

Melstar · RV-Dreams Family Member

Furnace question

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

"furnace" uses propane. If you want electric heat you have to use space heaters, add heat strips to your air conditioners (only some models), or buy higher priced air conditioners that are also heat pumps (what we have).

Edit: It sounds like you have a similar thermostat to ours, which is a 5-button Dometic but we have two zones and one button switches between zones.

-- Edited by bjoyce on Sunday 12th of February 2012 06:57:09 AM

-- Edited by bjoyce on Sunday 12th of February 2012 06:59:56 AM

Colorado_Kid · RV-Dreams Family Member

I have two thermostats in my RV. One thermostat is for the Suburban furnace that heats using propane but I do need 9 volts of DC to run it. The other thermostat is for my two Duo Therms which run the air conditioner and heater and needs electricity.

janni · RV-Dreams Family Member

You may be able to go to the Dometic website and print the book, Melanie. I have the book and still can't figure out the heat pump. I did figure out how to use ac in one zone and/or the other(by trial and error)

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

If you don't have "heat pump" as a choice and know you have a heat pump than a dipswitch or jumper is set wrong on the heat pump itself. You will have to get that fixed. If you have a heat pump setting then set it to heat pump just like the furnace. If you have more than one heat pump then set all zones to heat pump but make sure you are on 50AMP. Zone 1 is normally the controlling zone, what is says overrides the other zones except when "off" or "fan". You can set the temperature differently for each zone. A heat pump is an air conditioner running in reverse, blowing the cold air outside and the hot air inside. Some heat pumps only work down to about 38 to 40 degrees outside temperature and below that the Dometic thermostat can turn on the furnace instead (it will display "aux heat" when it does this). Some heat pumps, like the ones we have, have a special defrost mode that runs between 30 and 38 degrees that periodically closes up and defrosts the coils. It makes a wierd sound when it goes into defrost that scares some people the first time they hear it since they think it is broken or iced up. Below 30 degrees the furnace is needed since there is not enough heat in the air to convert to heat inside. Our Dometic thermostat switches to furnace when the outside is below 30 degrees when zone 1 is on "heat pump". A heat pump, especially above 38 degrees is more efficient than a space heater so it uses less electricity. We have two 15,000 BTU Dometic heat pumps that will keep our 40ft motorhome at 70 degrees when it is in the 30s outside. On 30AMP we can only run one and we have to switch to using our propane furnace when the outside gets close to 40 degrees since one heat pump can't keep up.

Jack Mayer · RV-Dreams Family Member

A comment on heat pumps....

We have almost always had heat pumps of some sort in our RVs. Over time we found we rarely used them. Why? Noise. They are far noisier than a nice ceramic heater. But what Bill said is true - they are more efficient. With our newer two-stage furnaces (our rig has two of them) the furnace is so quiet that I can barely hear it on stage one. Even stage 2 is quieter than a "conventional" furnace....or maybe that should be an "older" furnace. As a consequence, we deleted them from the new rig we are building. But a lot of people swear by them.

Just my thoughts.....

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

We have fully ducted air conditioning so it not very loud, it is just as loud as running on air conditioning. Of course that is too much noise for some but not for us.
But a 5th wheel has a big advantage over a motorhome in my opinion when it comes to propane, it uses bottles instead of a permanently installed tank. We have to make an effort to take the RV where the propane is dispensed instead of taking a bottle in our car to get it filled. There are a few campgrounds where they will deliver the propane, but most places we stay that is not an option. Therefore we make a strong effort to use electricity for heat and avoid using propane as much as possible. It is a real hassle to get propane and we only fill about twice a year. If something happens to our fixed propane tank I will get a rack installed and use three or four 40lbs bottles.
Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Jack Mayer · RV-Dreams Family Member

Bill, I also have ducted air. But it is still loud.

Something like Winebago does with the furnace/air down along the frame would be nice - assuming they work well. Which opinion on that varies....

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

Winnebago has gone back to roof air for their diesels because they need the space for the urea tank required for the newer engines. I think they might have done the same for gas motorhomes just to be consistent and use the same units. Basement air is under the bed and that makes it noisy while sleeping when you camp somewhere that is hot at night.
Those new diesel engines is one reason I am not looking for a new motorhome. Another reason is I can't afford a new one.

RVRon · RV-Dreams Family Member

When we were motorhome shopping we really liked the idea of the basement A/C that Winnebago offered. Unfortunately we couldn't find a unit we liked so we "settled" for a rig with 2 rooftop units. Now I'm glad I did. Winnie has discontinued them and consequently I'm reading that parts are getting scarce.

On the subject of noise from the rooftop A/C units, we found that regardless of which unit is on a fair amount of air comes out of all of the duct openings. So, depending on where we are inside the RV we set the distant one a little lower than the close one. That means during the daytime when we're most likely in the front of the coach the bedroom unit is set a degree lower than the front one. Vice versa for nighttime when we're in the bedroom more. The distant unit will produce less noise where we happen to be at the time but the closer one will come on if it needs help.

Melstar · RV-Dreams Family Member

We did figure all of this out...no heat pump....just furnace....which kept us warm and cycled on and off like the a/c.
THANKS EVERYONE!

victorianlady51 · RV-Dreams Family Member

I have a question about the propane furnace and moisture build up. I can understand cracking a couple of windows open, but with a couple of showers and maybe a couple of loads of laundry--- will there be danger of mildew? (Oops -- forgot to mention a lotta hot air too. LOL)

(We're thinking of Michigan, Indiana, Minnesota for summers, and Texas or Florida for winters.)

-- Edited by victorianlady51 on Tuesday 17th of September 2013 06:11:11 PM

NorCal Dan · RV-Dreams Family Member

Your not missing out on much Melanie. Our rig has heat pumps on the air conditioners and I bet we haven't used them more than twice in 6+ years. It always seems to be too cold outside to use them.

BJoyce, I had an extend-a-stay hose made for me in Long Beach and purchased a 10 gallon propane tank to use when we are setup for a long stay. Lasted 7 or 8 days during the Washington winter at Andersen's. No more moving the rig to fill up the propane tank.

Victorianlady51, we use a dehumidifier in our rig in the winter to help with moisture. Cooking and showers are the big problem makers. Open the roof vent and run the fan to exhaust the moisture during these 2 things is required. If we end up spending another winter in our rig I plan to add another dehumidifier. The one we use is similar to this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Eva-Dry-Edv-2200-Mid-Size-Dehumidifier/dp/B001QTW6KQ/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1379304264&sr=8-5&keywords=dehumidifier

victorianlady51 · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thank you, NorCal --- good advice!

DBEANZ · RV-Dreams Family Member

RVRon, I'm interested in your comment that Winnebago discontinued basement A/C as we bought a 2010 Itasca Meridian and it has a basement A/C and heater. One of the selling points the salesman gave us was that Winnebago has ALL of their parts and never discontinues a part from older models. Where did you read this? Thanks.

Lucky Mike · RV-Dreams Family Member

I cant picture any part of that unit being in a position of not being able to find or retrofit parts......you can still by tubes for tv's......still buy parts for model T's........and I still serviced compressors on cooling units that used sulpher based gasses (old frigidaire dome tops , crosleys, and GE) up till 2 years ago!!!!

the box might not have Winnebago's logo on it with a price to match but the parts will be available

RVRon · RV-Dreams Family Member

DBEANZ, after a year and a half since I made that post I sure can't remember where I read it... heck I can't remember what I had for breakfast this morning! Oh, and if you believe everything the salesman told you I have a bridge I'd like to sell you!

Think about it... Winnie couldn't possibly carry parts in inventory for every unit they ever made back to the 50's. Not only would it not only be impossible because some component manufacturers went out of business long ago but it would be very expensive to inventory every nut and bolt part for so many units over so many years. The basement air units are still being made by Airxcel RV Products Division but for special custom applications only http://www.rvcomfort.com/rvp/products/special/index.php. As long as the manufacturer continues to make the units you should still be able to get parts but if Airxcel doesn't sell many of them it would be their option to stop providing repair parts and Winnebago (or anyone else for that matter) would not be able to get parts that don't exist.