Mechanical/Technical Tip Requested: Dometic Digital Thermostat Difficult to Select Options...

[MAX Burner]

QUESTION:  Has anyone out in Ollie-World experienced difficulty selecting various modes (heat/AC) or temperature adjustments with the Dometic digital thermostat?  Ours doesn't seem to respond to button inputs unless it's depressed with an unusual amount of pressure. Granted, it's 6+ years old, but I should think it would last longer, right?  Worn out? Otherwise defective?  

We'd appreciate feed back...  Thanks in advance...

[Steph and Dud B]

Is it the digital touch-button type (instead of physical buttons)?

[MAX Burner]

54 minutes ago, Steph and Dud B said:

Is it the digital touch-button type (instead of physical buttons)?

Its a digital readout with physical buttons that actually depress into the assembly slightly - not "soft touch" type 

[SteveCr]

2021 LE2

Below are pics of the thermostat in my Ollie.

The second pic is with the face plate removed....it just pulls straight out.

You will see that there are three male terminals (encircled with yellow pads)...these are operating like touch contacts rather than buttons. With the face plate attached you are pushing the face plate to make contact with the terminals. You can touch these terminals with your finger to verify they operate the thermostat. If so, it is working fine.

The back of the face place has some material at the thee points that mates with those three male contacts. Check to insure they all appear clean and uniform...no grime build up on one that would interfere with or effect uniform applied force.

When reattaching the face plate insure it is pushed flush to the thermostat body. When I reattached mine, at first it was not flush all the way around so that I had to push harder to reach the terminals. (You might want to verify "flushness" to start with....accidentally hitting the face plate could possibly cause a gap).

Steve

 

 

 

 

[MAX Burner]

Awesome reply @SteveCr!  I'm on it.  Will post up after I've had a chance to look at it.  Thanks, brother!

[Chukarhunter]

When troubleshooting your thermostat, you may want to take time to plug the large hole on the wall behind the thermostat that the three conductor wire comes out of.  You can see part of the hole in the picture above.  I found that in colder weather, cold basement air can exit this hole directly into the thermostat and trick the thermostat into thinking the cabin temperature has fallen causing it to start the furnace when in fact the cabin is still at the preferred temperature.  Once the furnace starts, the airflow reverses as warm air comes into and through the thermostat and into the basement through the hole, causing the furnace to shut off in short order and then the short cycle repeats itself.  Merely covering the hole with a piece of tape is a quick and easy fix.

This hole is not necessarily a design issue with OTT but rather a poorly designed thermostat.  Well designed thermostats have sealed backs with the wire terminals located on the back of the thermostat.  The Dometic has a hole in the back of the thermostat with the wire terminals located on the inside of the thermostat.  Cheap design.

I swapped my Dometic thermostat out for a  "Easy Touch RV" thermostat from Micro Air, primarily to allow me to monitor cabin temperature and adjust the furnace remotely via wi-fi because I store my LE II outside many miles from my house and unwinterized.  The Wi-Fi feature allows me to turn on and/or turn up the thermostat from home when a freeze event is forecast.  I am also alerted if the propane runs out. 

Unlike the Dometic, the Easy Touch has a sealed back with terminals on the outside back of the thermostat.  You may want to consider the Easy Touch as a replacement if in fact your Dometic thermostat continues to be balky and ultimately needs to be replaced.  Micro Air makes a model that is an exact replacement for the Dometic thermostat in the Oliver.

[MAX Burner]

On 5/7/2023 at 9:35 PM, Chukarhunter said:

Easy Touch RV" thermostat from Micro Air

@Chukarhunter: Good call, brother!  Just ordered the 357 model in white from Amazon!

[MAX Burner]

The Dometic unit still wouldn't behave itself...  So, the 357 model arrived in a few days from Hutch Mountain, up in Utah.  Ordered the wrong unit, so they sent the correct model (#351) next day air (my bust).  The Blue Tooth connection works great, the iPhone app allows control of AC only, furnace only, heat strip only, or any combo of all three.  Icon reference:

 

Nice touch-screen on the Micro Air wall unit.  We decided to use velcro attachment points on each corner to avoid drilling into the gelcoat (original holes didn't line up).  

Thanks to @Chukarhunter for the vector over to Micro-Air....

Cheers!

[Chris and Lisa]

thank you ALL for this thread.  We had the same problem of the thermostat not properly responding to touch. With everyone’s input, my husband had it fixed in minutes.