Domestic wall thermostat control

[Mac]

I'm having great difficulty getting the wall mounted thermostat to find the "auto" furnace mode. It wants to use the a/c unit instead of the furnace.  Any ideas how to get it to cooperate?  My unit is #264, elite Ii. 

[AndrewK]

If your thermostat is like ours (A Dometic Digital - Hull #468) and you only want the furnace to operate, you need to set the thermostat to heat.  In this setting the furnace will cycle on and off based on the temperature you set.

[Mac]

Andrew, thanks for the reply. We are camping this weekend and are trying to make the cabin a little more comfortable. Our Ollie's are practically family, separated by just 2 hulls (though ours was adopted Nov 1, 2019  from the original owner who just didnt want to take care of it any longer).  The day we took delivery he told me the thermostat is "pretty finicky."  Having never cared for an RV, let alone an Ollie, it's ALL a learning experience at this point.  

When this controller shows "heat" it  always (so far) turns on either the a/c and/or its heat strip.  However, once every blue moon it will  magically display "auto" and "furnace" at the same time and then the furnace works, but only for a single heat cycle...not afterwards.  I'm not sure what I'm doing incorrectly as there are very few options on the thermostat from which to choose. 

[AndrewK]

I am not with our trailer to look for you.  I thought it was "Heat" but perhaps it was "Furnace".  Do you have that option? 

"Heat" maybe the heat strip in the A/C.  If that is the case, that may be the answer to your problem.

Sorry if this did not help,

 

Andrew

 

[AndrewK]

Mac, I went on YouTube and watched a couple of videos.  

We set ours to "Auto" and "Furnace" and that cycles on and off the furnace based on the temperature set.

Andrew

[Mac]

That works!  Thanks!!

[KarenLukens]

When we picked ours up, we were told not to use the auto 

setting because it will cycle between the ac and furnace. So we  set it to either furnace or Heat pump depending on the outside temps. If we need to heat the hull to keep the pipes from freezing, then select the furnace. 

[Mac]

Thanks for sharing your thermostat experiences.  The setting that is now working for me is "auto and furnace" but it literally took 15 minutes to cycle to (find) that setting combination. Anything with "heat" or "heat strip" turns on the ac.  Solar-DC and propane take care of the rest. 

[Overland]

The heat pump model that Reed and Karen have may well work differently than the heat strip model that most owners choose.  With the heat strip model, you must have the fan set to auto if you only want the furnace to run.  Otherwise, as you've experienced, the AC fan will also turn on.