Oliver No More

[MAX Burner]

7 hours ago, jd1923 said:

Will fix the ducts at some point, so the bathroom and closet aren't 15 degrees colder than the open cabin

Exactly right on, Brother!  @DavePhelps's approach solves this issue very well, IMO.  We've experienced a 15 degree air temp differential between the closet and cabin this winter!  Redirecting the bathroom supply from the furnace like some owners have done should help a lot.  These two adjustments are on the top of our "next to do" list.  Time to warm up that 4" hole saw!

Cheers!

[Steph and Dud B]

I have a question about some of the mods that add return air vents between the cabin and inter-hull spaces. Or those who open cabinet doors to warm the cabinet contents. Isn't the primary cabin insulation supposed to be the dead air space between the hulls? By creating vents that breach the inner hull, or opening overhead cabinets in cold weather, aren't you effectively removing that dead air space and becoming a single-hull unit, at just as far as insulation goes? I know my upper cabinets get cold, but I figure that is part of what's keeping my cabin warm. (The closet, OTOH, does appear to be a sealed space within the inner hull, so I don't see a problem venting that to the main cabin. Same with the bathroom. I can see adding a return vent back into the main cabin, but not between the hulls.)

[jd1923]

2 hours ago, Steph and Dud B said:

By creating vents that breach the inner hull, or opening overhead cabinets in cold weather, aren't you effectively removing that dead air space and becoming a single-hull unit...

I agree and wrote a comment similar to this in one of the furnace duct threads. It appears for those that want to camp, temps in the teens and below have to do something to get heat where the water lines are in the basement between the hulls. We don't go out in that cold, so getting the overnight heat away from our beds and more up front to the bathroom and closet is what we need. I imagine you can go through a 30 LB LP tank in 2 nights when heating between the hulls when it's 10F outside!

[Rivernerd]

5 hours ago, Steph and Dud B said:

By creating vents that breach the inner hull, or opening overhead cabinets in cold weather, aren't you effectively removing that dead air space and becoming a single-hull unit, at just as far as insulation goes?

Some of it, yes.  But, directing more warmed air between the hulls is intended to keep the plumbing from freezing.  I choose to protect the plumbing, at the cost of burning more propane to keep the cabin warm.

[Coastal Aggie]

My experience with my 23 LE1 over this winter in Colorado is that it's good unwinterized until single digit Temps. Having trouble with the truma varioheat maintaining stable temperatures when it's that cold and I strongly believe that has to do with the location of the temp sensor being too close to the exterior wall. Once it dropped below 10 degrees I'd get just the hot water side of the bathroom faucet freezing up and then just a few degrees lower the cold side would freeze as well but only the bathroom sink, I never had the kitchen sink freeze and while i never bothered to winterizethe outdoor shower it never ruptured and there's no leaks now so i dont think it ever froze. Now Once the tank got down to about 20% I did lose suction I do not know if that finally froze or if the TLI was just off and it was actually empty, thankfully that was only the day before I left for home so I just made do with my emergency case of bottled water j keep in the truck. Unfortunately I didn't think about investigating that further until I was already back in San antonio and hooked up to my house services. I did have I think 2 days where those bathroom lines froze while it was around 15 but that was during storms with pretty severe wind and they were thawed by the next day.

[GAP]

7 hours ago, Coastal Aggie said:

My experience with my 23 LE1 over this winter in Colorado is that it's good unwinterized until single digit Temps. Having trouble with the truma varioheat maintaining stable temperatures when it's that cold and I strongly believe that has to do with the location of the temp sensor being too close to the exterior wall. Once it dropped below 10 degrees I'd get just the hot water side of the bathroom faucet freezing up and then just a few degrees lower the cold side would freeze as well but only the bathroom sink, I never had the kitchen sink freeze and while i never bothered to winterizethe outdoor shower it never ruptured and there's no leaks now so i dont think it ever froze. Now Once the tank got down to about 20% I did lose suction I do not know if that finally froze or if the TLI was just off and it was actually empty, thankfully that was only the day before I left for home so I just made do with my emergency case of bottled water j keep in the truck. Unfortunately I didn't think about investigating that further until I was already back in San antonio and hooked up to my house services. I did have I think 2 days where those bathroom lines froze while it was around 15 but that was during storms with pretty severe wind and they were thawed by the next day.

Someone posted a mod sometime in the past where they remounted the temp sensor on an insulated riser to address that issue.  Our '21 E2 would freeze up lines to bathroom by the mid teens.  Have changed since but we noticed that water lines ran right along the reflectix on the hull, under the galley.  That insulation does a poor job with conductive heat loss. We had planned on sliding on some pipe insulation to isolate the pex from the reflectix.  Would have been easy enough.  Different location but may be a similar situation.  On the outdoor shower, we screwed off the shower head, pulled the unit into the hull and re-installed the head.  Removed the temperature knobs and filled the open space behind the little door with open cell foam.  Worked great.

[Coastal Aggie]

On 3/9/2024 at 8:49 PM, GAP said:

Someone posted a mod sometime in the past where they remounted the temp sensor on an insulated riser to address that issue

Any chance someone remembers who did this or what discussion it was under? Been digging around the forum and I'm not finding anything. Since night time Temps here have cooled back down again I decided to experiment a little. Emptying out that forward cabinet and leaving the door and little access hatch to the area above the sensor open so that the temp can equalize with the inside air. I've now been able to set the thermostat to exactly the temperature I want and it's been maintaining it perfectly. This seems to prove my idea that the sensor needs to be moved away from the wall.