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Furnace reliability


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Hello everyone, this is my first post on the forum. I am researching furnaces. I own an Escape and the Atwood furnace rarely works. I doubt that Oliver chooses the low bidder when it comes to choosing a furnace for their campers so I thought I would ask about your furnace. Now my Atwood furnace is very quiet and has low power consumption when compared to others. Both of these things are great attributes but who cares about power and noise when what you need is heat. I have an old Suburban furnace on the bench from a 2000 Casita that I took apart and flushed out the mud daubers from the heat exchanger and it fires up every time I twist the t-stat wires together. It’s noisy and uses more power than the Atwood. So... what furnace is used in an Oliver and does it reliably make heat. I understand the issues of battery voltage.

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Nan, I'm curious. If I  remember correctly,  the preloved Oliver you bought had a furnace replacement? Or am I wrong?

Was the thermostat also replaced? Which furnace and thermostat do you have?

Sherry

 

 

2008 Ram 1500 4 × 4

2008 Oliver Elite, Hull #12

Florida and Western North Carolina, or wherever the truck goes....

400 watts solar. DC compressor fridge. No inverter. 2 x 105 ah agm batteries .  Life is good.


        
 

 

 

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Hey Sherry.  Yes, you are right in that the furnace and AC were replaced and the ladies said it was an authorized dealer that did it.  I do not know if the thermostat was replaced or not.  The thermostat is a Dometic, as is the AC and the furnace is an Atwood.  I know for a fact that the furnace was never checked out because after calling Cindy at Oliver she told me about a switch.  In order to get to the switch you have to take the faceplate off of the heater (outside) and reach behind many wires and turn it on.  You cannot see the switch, but only feel it.  The switch was off. Now there are 4 screws to be removed on the heater faceplate, however one of the exhaust faceplate screws covers the heater faceplate screw, so you have to take that exhaust plate off first to get to the rest.  After moving the switch to the opposite position the heater seemed to be working.  I left the thermostat in the OFF position and plugged in the little space heater I had.  When I came back to the Oliver the next day, the little space heater was off and the Atwood was blowing full force with the temp being 75 degrees in the camper (thermostat was OFF).  No matter where you set the thermostat the heater stayed on.  I finally cut the gas off at the tank and in about 2 minutes the heater shut off.   Now the AC and the heat strip work fine.  Another subject:  I have had 2 windows leaking, but after cleaning out the troughs I think maybe they are fixed and then there is the little problem with a screw in the bathroom door...Then trying to get the guy out to check on the nuts on the Dexter...Guess I am whining because so far it has been a PITA.  But, thanks for asking.

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I'll tell you why I  ask. 

In our home system, two heat pumps, the Honeywell thermostats are the crash points.  

They do display weak batteries,  on the display. If we replace batteries without shutting down the entire system, I'll get heat instead of ac. Sometimes,  if the batteries are weak, we get heat, when the ac is called., after a power outage, so, weak battery in the thermostat.  It's maddening,  but now, we know where to look.

 Omg, not fun in Florida. 90 degrees outside , and running heat when the system is calling for cooling. Yikes.

Our solution, as recommended by one of the several techs, was to cut power to the thermostat,  and the heat pump. For fifteen minutes.  

For you, that would mean cutting dc and ac to the furnace (and everything else in the trailer) , and the thermostat . Or, hoping you can find the appropriate breakers. I'd just cut it all, if you want to try.

 

Ps, before you go that route, what model is your dometic thermostat,  and what are the current settings  displayed?

Sherry 

Edited by SeaDawg

2008 Ram 1500 4 × 4

2008 Oliver Elite, Hull #12

Florida and Western North Carolina, or wherever the truck goes....

400 watts solar. DC compressor fridge. No inverter. 2 x 105 ah agm batteries .  Life is good.


        
 

 

 

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It would not be hard to cut the power.  I could just unplug from the shore power.  The camper is under a carport so the solar is not getting any sun.  The thermostat is a Dometic Capacitive Touch.  I am not at the camper right now so cannot tell you the settings, but I will look tomorrow and let you know. The only information I have on this thermostat is what Jason put on the forum..I actually called the Dometic factory and they said to take the cover off and see if it would work..Thank you and I will get back to you.

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Nan, I  looked online for a manual for your thermostat. I found one for a newer "bluetooth" model.

What I also found were many threads on other brand forums about the thermostat faceplate causing problems with the thermostat changing settings and causing erratic operation.

Before I did anything else, if it were me, I  would call Dometic technical support again. Do you have the model and serial number of the thermostat? They will need that to determine which version of the thermostat you have. 

With certain models, Dometic has apparently shipped replacement face plates to resolve the problem. The comment that you made about the dometic tech asking you to remove the faceplate, and the thermostat switching to celcius on its own, lead me down this line of thinking.

From what I've read, on some of the models, the foam on the back of the faceplate springs back and changes settings on its own,  sometimes hours after the user adjusted settings. 🥴

Again, I'd call Dometic. Especially since I  don't have your model thermostat and furnace.  I don't have any firsthand knowledge,  just research. I  wish I did.

Sherry

2008 Ram 1500 4 × 4

2008 Oliver Elite, Hull #12

Florida and Western North Carolina, or wherever the truck goes....

400 watts solar. DC compressor fridge. No inverter. 2 x 105 ah agm batteries .  Life is good.


        
 

 

 

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Sherry, just got off the phone with Dometic service dept. and was told that it was probably a relay problem and there was nothing they could do about it.  Told me to contact an RV service company to check it out.  I asked him if I could just buy a Dometic thermostat and he said they did not sell them that I would need to find someone who did  and go through them.  I am getting the total run around.

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Sherry, just got off the phone for 2nd time with Dometic and had a different tech.  She said to pull the cover and take out the foam pieces and turn them over and put them back in.  Put cover back on thermostat.  She said people were pushing the buttons and they were not to be pushed but to be touched.  Then go into a reset and she gave me the directions on that.  I am heading to the camper....

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Kudos on your persistence. And good luck.

Sherry

 

Edited by SeaDawg

2008 Ram 1500 4 × 4

2008 Oliver Elite, Hull #12

Florida and Western North Carolina, or wherever the truck goes....

400 watts solar. DC compressor fridge. No inverter. 2 x 105 ah agm batteries .  Life is good.


        
 

 

 

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And none of the instructions worked...so called Dometic back.  They are sending me a new faceplate (though it is going to be in black) at no charge.  They did say they have had trouble with the foam on the faceplate.   Hopefully this will take care of the problem.  Thanks so much Sherry.

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No worries.  I just hope it works for you. Fingers crossed.🤞

Sherry 

2008 Ram 1500 4 × 4

2008 Oliver Elite, Hull #12

Florida and Western North Carolina, or wherever the truck goes....

400 watts solar. DC compressor fridge. No inverter. 2 x 105 ah agm batteries .  Life is good.


        
 

 

 

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Let’s test the faulty faceplate theory. Take your faceplate off and try just touching the 3 tabs that are circled in the following picture. Those 3 tabs correspond to the 3 “buttons” on the faceplate. Don’t push them, just lightly touch them and nothing else. I just did it to mine and I can operate all modes of the heating and cooling system with the faceplate removed. 
 

3CB4966D-D546-40AA-B125-A947F63E0A3E.jpeg

5E5C3B27-B1B5-4DD5-8544-BD0029E2DE12.jpeg

Edited by Townesw
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Bill and Martha

2018 LEII Hull 313

2019 Chevrolet 2500HD Duramax

 

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Townesw, that's a "solution" I've seen on several of the 40 plus threads I've read on this thermostat's problems.  It looks like a good trouble shooting idea, but not long term solution. Everyone who left the cover off, in the threads I read, had problems  later,  within a few weeks? Corrosion? Moisture? Would be my guess. 

Definitely,  a worthwhile exercise to troubleshoot,  Just not a long term solution. 

I've never seen so many bad reviews on a thermostat.  I  was stunned. I  hope Dometic has resolved the issues,  as I  haven't found a replacement/ other brand stat yet in my research.

Then again, others reported corroded connections, loose connections,  on the ac and at the furnace, as other issues causing  similar problems. 

It could be worth a try, Nan, if you have the time. It can rule out the messed up face plate.  But, it won't rule out a faulty thermostat. 

Edited to add: townesw, that's  a great troubleshooting technique for the faulty faceplate. . Not discounting it, at all .

Sherry 

Edited by SeaDawg
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2008 Ram 1500 4 × 4

2008 Oliver Elite, Hull #12

Florida and Western North Carolina, or wherever the truck goes....

400 watts solar. DC compressor fridge. No inverter. 2 x 105 ah agm batteries .  Life is good.


        
 

 

 

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Right Sherry..when I took off the faceplate and lightly touched the the buttons there was no change.  It seems to me if the service department stocks the faceplate they would also stock the whole thermostat..but the first tech said I would have to buy it at Camping World or someone else that stocked it.  And when I called Oliver the other day Cindy told me to just leave the thermostat alone for awhile and see if it might reset itself.. and that did not happen.  Maybe I do need to go to Camping World and see what they have in the way of thermostats installed in their campers.

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Nan, I have a spare thermostat I can send you if you want. Mine is hull 164, and it had an older model thermostat than the photo @Townesw posted.

IMG_3852.thumb.JPG.778f949f5fc1128911b88bf159277dc0.JPG

As I posted in this thread, I replaced my thermostat with a Bluetooth model that allows us to turn on the heat or adjust the thermostat from our warm bed, using our phones. We really like it. One thing I noticed after the replacement, is that the buttons on the regular thermostat were not always responsive, and that the iPhone app worked much better. 

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David Stillman, Salt Lake City, Utah

2016 Oliver Elite II  Hull 164    |    2017 Audi Q7 tow vehicle. 

Travel and Photography Blog: http://davidstravels.net

 

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David, thank you so much for the offer.  But maybe I should just try to replace my thermostat with a bluetooth model.  Since I do not know what I am doing, can you please tell me:

1) Will a bluetooth work with my 2017 Oliver?

2) Other than killing the ac power, is there anything I need to know about changing it?

3) If I need to kill the dc power, how do I do that?

4) Where did you purchase you bluetooth thermostat and do you know the model?

Thank you so much.   Nan Wallace

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1) Yes, Bluetooth should work with the 2017 Oliver. Mine is a 2016.

2) AC power should probably be off. 

3) If you don't want to turn off all of the DC power, you will need to pull the fuse that controls the thermostat. On my Ollie the fusebox is under the dinette. Or you could disconnect the batteries to shut off all DC power. 

4) I contacted Dometic customer service (customersupportcenter@dometic.com) to ask which model to get. I told them that I had a Dometic Thermostat model 3313194, and they asked for the brand and model of the AC unit. I told them a Dometic Penguin, model number 936000724. They replied that I had model number 641935C751C0 (I think this is the capacitor part number), and that the part I needed for a Bluetooth CT replacement thermostat is 3316255.000 for white and 3316255.011 for black. Based on their response, it sounds like there are a number of models. My email correspondence with them is attached below.

Dometic emails.pdf

I purchased my Bluetooth thermostat from Panther RV for $77 with tax and shipping.

And a piece of history for those who are interested. Bluetooth wireless technology was named for Harald Bluetooth, a Danish king who ruled more than a thousand years ago. The naming was based on the analogy that Bluetooth technology would unite devices the way Harald Bluetooth united the tribes of Denmark into a single kingdom, and the Bluetooth logo consists of runes for his initials, H (ᚼ) and B (ᛒ). I am a big fan of Wikipedia! 

  • Thanks 1
  • Like 1

David Stillman, Salt Lake City, Utah

2016 Oliver Elite II  Hull 164    |    2017 Audi Q7 tow vehicle. 

Travel and Photography Blog: http://davidstravels.net

 

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I've always wondered why I felt the need to eat a danish while I communicated via Bluetooth.  Now I know. 

Thanks David.

Bill:classic_biggrin:

Edited by topgun2
  • Haha 1

2023 Ford F150 Lariat 3.5EB FX4 Max Towing, Max Payload, 2016 Oliver Elite II - Hull #117 "Twist"

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