Furnace Problem

[ksboy]

Hi: I am posting this for a friend of mine, who has asked me for any ideas, concerning this problem. He has a "hand held" thermostat controller on one end of the Montana and the thermostat on the other end of the trailer. The furnace works good when I run the temp up to 76=78=80, so I know the furnace is working good. Could it be in the thermostat or hand held controller? Weak batteries, or what? Dometic says take it to a technician to have it checked out. The furnace comes on and shuts off, but it does get rather chilly and then I may have to raise the temp to start the furnace again. Is there a timer, that is controlling the hand held changer. Hope I have explained it enough, Can someone help me?????????? Please. Bob B.

[camper4]

We had a 2005 Montana with a Dometic remote control It was a disaster! I took it back to the dealer several times. Each time the furnace cycled on and off, so it was okay, by them. Each time I was camping in the cold, it failed to control to temperature set.
Unfortunately, it never worked as we thought it should. The AC control, on same remote, worked better but not what I call perfect.

[dustinc02]

KS Boy,
There have been many problems/posts on the hand held controller. There have been variations up to 10-12 degrees before the furnace finally turns on. This is a poorly designed system. I have the same and contacted Keystone about it. Is this trailer new to them or is this a new problem that they are having? Keystone did give me a reseet procedure for the furnace. I had to do it to shut down the system as it would just continually run, even when past the desired temp and could not override manually. Since doing that I have not had that problem (Knock on wood). I still have the variations in temp. Some other suggestions that I have heard of, but not tried:
1) Set the remote on the "I feel" setting. This will have the remote "feel" the temp and send a message to the console. Instead of the console determining the temperature. (this may or may not help)
2)Replace the remote with the Dometic "Comfort control center". It will replace the old console with a non-remote option. This is the best route to take, as I have heard of others who have done it and are very happy. Keeps the temp at the set temp.With this option you have to get the "CCC" and then replace the circuit board inside the A/C itself. Total was about $200.00.

This is what I have learned from others on the forum. I hope it helps. If they want to try the reset procedure, it is as follows.

1) Shut off remote furnace
2) Remove batteries from remote
3) Disconnect shore power
4) Disconnect 12 volt battery
5) Let sit for 30 minutes disconnected from all power.
6) reconnect everything after 30 minutes.

If I can be of any other assistance you can PM me.

[racerjoe]

A lot of people with the remote system had issues with it not working properly. If it continues or has been an ongoing problem, contact Dometic and get the replacement system,which includes a wired t-stat and new control unit. it is the only permanent repair to this problem.

[Carl n Susan]

Unfortunately, the Dometic "remote" thermostat is a piece of junk. Beside being weird to operate, it pretty much ignored set points (10 degrees one way of the other was close enough for it). While it may have been trying to reach it's upper limit screwed up set point, there is no good way to tell. Previous victims reported it turning on the AC (to cool things down) while the heater was still increasing the temperature. Go figure!

I would replace the "remote" with the Comfort Control Center (CCC) thermostat. That is what most of us did, albeit with Montana's assistance, early on. There is a long (34+ pages) thread on the thermostat, it's issues, and how to replace it. Here is a link to it.

http://www.montanaowners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8145&SearchTerms=ccc,system

You can also "search" on "CCC system" (be sure to include "Archived Posts") to find lots more discussion on the infamous remote control thermostat. Even if you have to pay for it, around $200 AFAIK, it is worth it. The CCC holds the temperature you ask for +/- 1-2 degrees.

[scductman]

The remotes never worked if they did it was not very good. I changed mine in 06. Do like Carl said and get a CCC and it will work great. Be careful to dispose of that remote properly so it can hurt anyone else. LOL.
Bobby

[sreigle]

We never had the remote but sure heard a lot of horror stories about them, both on this forum and from face to face comments from owners.

Ray, this is probably a longshot for your friends situation, but when we had a problem with the furnace just deciding to shut itself off and maybe later coming on, the dealer told me to pop the thermostat off the wall, unplug the cord attached to the back, wait 30 seconds, plug it back in and reinstall. That seemed to help once but I think it was coincidence. Remember, we don't have the remote setup.

I then called the mfr and they asked me to go outside and remove the cover. They then pointed out a switch on the side of the squirrel cage. They wanted me to shut that switch off, then back on to see if that fixed it. There was a host of wires near that switch. I bumped the wires and the furnace fan started up immediately. I then started moving wires and I could get it to shut down or turn on at will. I found the problem was a bad connection on a terminal, where the wire attached to the terminal. I fixed that and no more problems. That was more than two years ago. It's a longshot but you might have your friend remove the outside cover and check it out.