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Old 12-19-2021, 06:21 AM   #1
TrailTrackers
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M.O.C. #20852
Auto Close Vent Freeze Up/Condensation Problems

Hello... I woke up this morning to a 3 tone clicking sound in the trailer. Tracked it down to the vent in the back bathroom. In short, we are in Utah and there is snow and ice on the top of the trailer from a big storm then freeze. There was a build up of condensation and it was triggering the auto close. But with it already closed it was just heating up to the point of smelling like wanting to catch on fire.
First thought was... Why the hell don't they have an On/Off button for the auto close feature on the keypad with the other buttons?!? I guess that would have been too easy, and too much common sense would have been required to think of that during design. That's the problem with engineers designing stuff that they have/will never use.
In any case, is there an easy way to disable that feature for the immediate future? I looked for a breaker but there isn't one labeled for that vent, nor for the "bunkhouse" bathroom. Or perhaps there is another "quick" solution to this problem that somebody has thought of? Without being able to "shut it down", I got my wife's hair dryer and dried the area which worked in the very short term; dried it off enough to stop it from attempting to close repeatedly. But to be honest, I would like to just disable the darn feature for an extended period.
My long term goal with this issue is going to be to track down the power wire to the auto close sensor and extend it to an On/Off button on the bathroom wall.
 
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Old 12-19-2021, 06:53 AM   #2
Montana Man
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Having a manual override for the auto close would be nice. Sometimes I want it open and it wants to close. That's when I manually crank the lid open.

To disable it I would pull the control panel off the wall and unplug it. You'll probably find a power wire in there to install a switch like you want.
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Old 12-19-2021, 07:05 AM   #3
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Originally Posted by Montana Man View Post
...

To disable it I would pull the control panel off the wall and unplug it. You'll probably find a power wire in there to install a switch like you want.
Thanks for the reply.
That was a good idea and the first thing I tried. It's plugged in via a "phone" style rj11 connector. I unplugged that but it didn't stop the "click.click.click trying to close" problem. Which was understandable to me because the auto close sensor would need to be hard wired to power at the unit so it would "function" no matter the condition of the other buttons in the system.
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Old 12-19-2021, 07:15 AM   #4
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And now, to top off this great morning I'm having, that fan just kicked on at the highest speed. Of course the "Fan Off" button doesn't do anything at this point either. What "genius" engineer designed a fan that is even able to turn on when the attached vent isn't open?!? I really need to just disable that entire thing for the immediate future. If anybody knows of a secondary breaker box (sub panel) that has a breaker for that fan it would be greatly appreciated.

...

Another note... The only reason I can think of for that fan kicking on by itself is the wires in the unit have gotten hot enough to melt through and the fan now has a short in it. Perhaps I should just let this thing burn to the ground? LOL...
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Old 12-19-2021, 10:30 AM   #5
R.S.O'Donnell
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The Maxx Fan in our class C did the same thing. The control board is shorted out. Gotta cut the power at the fan until you get a replacement fan or board. Pretty easy to do.

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Old 12-29-2021, 01:22 PM   #6
bcrvman
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TrailTrackers View Post
Hello... I woke up this morning to a 3 tone clicking sound in the trailer. Tracked it down to the vent in the back bathroom. In short, we are in Utah and there is snow and ice on the top of the trailer from a big storm then freeze. There was a build up of condensation and it was triggering the auto close. But with it already closed it was just heating up to the point of smelling like wanting to catch on fire.
First thought was... Why the hell don't they have an On/Off button for the auto close feature on the keypad with the other buttons?!? I guess that would have been too easy, and too much common sense would have been required to think of that during design. That's the problem with engineers designing stuff that they have/will never use.
In any case, is there an easy way to disable that feature for the immediate future? I looked for a breaker but there isn't one labeled for that vent, nor for the "bunkhouse" bathroom. Or perhaps there is another "quick" solution to this problem that somebody has thought of? Without being able to "shut it down", I got my wife's hair dryer and dried the area which worked in the very short term; dried it off enough to stop it from attempting to close repeatedly. But to be honest, I would like to just disable the darn feature for an extended period.
My long term goal with this issue is going to be to track down the power wire to the auto close sensor and extend it to an On/Off button on the bathroom wall.
Couple of thoughts.
If you just want to kill 12V power to the unit, drop the beauty ring (4 screws) then locate the 2 wires running to the fan, either cut both or using a knife scrape back insulation on one and use VOM to see if it is +12V or ground. I would first look at the control panel on the fan, there are buttons on there that may differ by model but on mine one is ON/OFF.
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