Thermostat replacement Pt 2 - Montana Owners Club

Gypsy · 11-22-2004, 05:20 AM

Another thread discusses replacing the Duo Therm thermostat with a Hunter. Has anyone replaced the Dometic remote control unit found on the 2005 Montanas? Will the Hunter work, and simply eliminate the remote? Is there any trick to getting the wiring connected correctly?

I'm finding this 'improvement' to be very unreliable, as I have to set the temp 5-7 degrees higher than desired to get the furnace to turn on, then turn it down when the temp actually starts to reach the higher level. Also, it seems more logical to have the temp sensor on the wall where it can tell the temp in the middle of the coach rather than a remote control that can end up near a cold window, a warm register, or who knows where...

stiles watson · 11-22-2004, 01:46 PM

If I were wanting to know about the new thermostat, I would open it up to see what I could see. If I could see how many wires are attached to the buss, then I would look to see if they were labeled clearly. Then you could go to Fulltimedreamer's web page and see if it looked like a match.

Remember, the airconditioner/furnace doesn't care about the thermostat. It just wants to know when to come on and when to turn off. The thermostat is your interpreter.

OntMont · 11-22-2004, 04:32 PM

Sharon,

We noticed a similar situation with our remote thermostat. I called Dometic and they agreed to send me a new remote unit. I'm not really convinced that this will solve the problem, but we shall see.

I tend to agree with you that this remote thing is a "solution to a non-problem". It has been too warm here recently to use the furnace, and the A/C does seem to work OK. I imagine a household type digital thermostat could be made to work, but it might take a bit of effort to sort out the wires, (unless they were kind enough to mark them, which I doubt). When it gets a bit cooler here, I'll try the new remote and let you know if it makes any difference.

The remote does have the slight advantage that it will automaticly switch from heat to AC, and if you have a heat strip installed in your AC, it will control that as well.

One strange problem we have with it is that our dog is terrified of the beep sounds it makes when you change settings - another reason I have not played with it too much.

John & Donna, presently in Gulf Shores, AL.

rames14 · 11-24-2004, 12:10 PM

We also have a new remote coming - our unit is off about 10 deg. So if I set it at 80, we are pretty comfortable. No one - dealer, Dometic, Keystone - seem to know anything much about this new system. I asked at the rally and didn't get an answer. Terrie asked the Dometic guy and he was "useless". I thought maybe we were the only one having this issue.

OntMont · 11-24-2004, 01:46 PM

I have not heard of anyone who has been able to get these remotes to work as expected. Maybe there is a common program glitch. I have even wondered it is supposed to be that way. You set the temp for the A/C temp you want to maintain, and it automatically assumes that you will want the heat to come on at a lower temperature. Not too likely perhaps, - just grasping at straws. Ours does seem to work fine on A/C, and that seems to be its prime function, the furace operation just seems to be added convenience feature.

rames14 · 11-27-2004, 06:22 PM

Sounds like one of us needs to call Keystone to get to the bottom of this issue. We can't all be that lucky to be having the same problem. I know that most Montana owners are pretty good at figuring out technology. So, I will try to make that call this week.

mazeeff · 11-28-2004, 02:52 AM

I have done a fair amount of investigation into the remote temp problem. I have the same problem with the temp needing to be set 10 degrees higher than wanted. A new remote will NOT fix the problem. I tried three remotes at the dealership, all with the same problem. I spoke with both Keystone, as well as RCP (I think that was the name). RCP manufacturers the remote and wall unit. When using the system, you can have either the remote (I feel, function) or the wall unit sense the temperature. The problem appears to be associated with the wall unit. I had mine replaced, and the problem seems to have been fixed. When I spoke to RCP, they indicated that the wall unit could be replaced with a normal thermostat. The wiring is the same, and the A/C amd furnace are the same as the 2004 models. Should be a straight forward replacement.

rames14 · 11-29-2004, 01:49 PM

I had my wall unit replaced also and it did not fix the problem. So I wrote Keystone and here is the response:

Dear Mr. Ames,

We have just reviewed your email sent Monday, November 29, 2004. We regret to hear about the issue you have had. If you remove all power from the unit it might reset it. Take the batteries out of the remote, unhook your battery in your Montana, unhook it from 110 volt power, and make sure to shut the breaker/fuse off and than return power to the unit and see if that works. You are the eyes and ears in the field so to speak. Your comments, both positive and negative are welcome as they will help Keystone build more practical, reliable, and user friendly products.

If someone could try this and give feedback, I will reply back to Keystone. Our unit is in storage for the winter. Hope this works.

Jeff Heiser · 11-30-2004, 04:42 AM

I did not have a remote for our AC/Heater but I did do the thermostat replacement with a Hunter Digital Thermostat. I just spent over a week in the unit and we used both the heat and AC. I can tell you we are very pleased with the digital thermostat. We had no problems and it appeared to turn on and off at the correct temps.

Jeff Heiser
Merritt Island Florida

sreigle · 11-30-2004, 02:10 PM

Jeff, we agree with you. We went to the Hunter almost two years ago and have not regretted it. The double-a (triple-a?) batteries lasted about a year and a half. And the nice thing is the thermostat only costs $20 at Walmart and takes maybe 15 minutes to install once the wiring instructions from this forum are in hand. We set the temp span on ours to 1 degree. Nice even temperatures now.

Montana_2205 · 12-01-2004, 04:42 PM

We too have the remote unit and have not been pleased with how it functions. We thought we would change the wall unit with the Hunter thermostat that others have mentioned. We went to Walmart tonight and bought one. The wall unit comes off in one section unlike normal thermostats. When Scott took it off the wall, the wiring is very different. There is one wire coming out of the wall that looks just like a telephone cord, it even has the little plug like a telephone cord. Scott can see 3 or 4 wires of different colors in the cord but he's not sure if it will work if he strips the cord to separate the wires.

I'll let y'all know if he gets the courage to cut off the plug and try the Hunter thermostat. If we can get the replacement to work, I'm sure alot of you will be wanting to dump the remote "upgrade".

Cindy

mazeeff · 12-02-2004, 12:43 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by Hank n Mo

We too have the remote unit and have not been pleased with how it functions. We thought we would change the wall unit with the Hunter thermostat that others have mentioned. We went to Walmart tonight and bought one. The wall unit comes off in one section unlike normal thermostats. When Scott took it off the wall, the wiring is very different. There is one wire coming out of the wall that looks just like a telephone cord, it even has the little plug like a telephone cord. Scott can see 3 or 4 wires of different colors in the cord but he's not sure if it will work if he strips the cord to separate the wires.

I'll let y'all know if he gets the courage to cut off the plug and try the Hunter thermostat. If we can get the replacement to work, I'm sure alot of you will be wanting to dump the remote "upgrade".

Cindy

Wow. If that is the case, then we probably need to look at a wiring scehmatic to determine which wire is which function. I don't recall seeing a schematic for mine. This may be a bigger job than I thought!

OntMont · 12-02-2004, 04:23 AM

The one slight advantage to the remote thermostat might have been the ability to automatically switch from heating to A/C. However, even if the unit worked right, it appears that there is only one setting in auto change mode for both heating and A/C. I don't know about anyone else, but we don't usually heat to the same temperature that we cool.

Anyway, it seems this whole remote thermostat idea is just a mistake. No doubt Keystone thought they were providing an enhancement, but it just does not work.

I think it might be worth while trying to get Keystone involved on a collective basis. How many of us have defective units? Does anyone have one that works? Even if it does work, does it have any practical advantage. The remote has to be line of sight to the wall unit, so they won't work from bedroom or bathroom, which might have been a nice touch.

mazeeff · 12-02-2004, 05:35 AM

I have a idea on what may be happening, but need someone to test it. The remote allows the temps to be adjusted by 1 degree up or down. We can't just key in a temp, like 80 degrees. I'm thinking that if the remote currently says 78 degrees, and you up the temp by 2 degress to 80, that for each increase (button push) of 1 degree, the remote signals the wall unit to increase 1 degree. If the wall unit does not receive the signal, then the remote and wall unit are off by 1 degree forever. The test would be this. Go to the bedroom with the remote, and increase the temp to max (90 degress) by pushing the up temp button the required number of times. Now go back to the living room, and point the remote at the wall unit and increase the temp 1 degree (1 button push up). Does the temp increase by 1 degree or does it force the wall unit to 90 degrees. I'm guessing that it will only increase by 1 degree. If so, the remote and wall unit are now out of sync, and will get worse over time. I hope this logic is understandable! Can someone test this?

mazeeff · 12-02-2004, 05:47 AM

Just thinking a bit more. If my previous post is true, then the "I feel" function should work, since the temp sensing function moves to the remote in the that mode.

sreigle · 12-02-2004, 07:07 AM

Here's a link fulltimedreamer posted some time ago showing wiring from the old original wall thermostat to the new Hunter. I do not know if this is the same for the new thermostat with the remote.

http://www.geocities.com/fulltimedre...m_upgrade.html

Montana_2205 · 12-02-2004, 03:59 PM

Well folks, the new thermostat didn't work, at least not yet. Scott cut off the wire several inches back to give himself room to put it back together if it didn't work. After all, we didn't want to be totally without a working unit. Anyway, he said the wire was indeed telephone wire with black, red, green and yellow wires. He tried the "obvious" combinations of matching the wires and then tried other combinations. He never could get it to work.

I think 'mazeef' had it right when he said we might need a schematic to see which wire does which function. If we can get more information, I'm sure we'll try again.

By the way, Scott rewired the old thermostat and it is working again, no better & no worse. At least we have heat. If we try again, I'll let you know.

Cindy

Parrothead · 12-02-2004, 06:59 PM

We are not that unhappy with the thermostat. We know it is off by about 10 degrees and we allow for it. We like the timer settings where you can set it to go off after you go to bed and come on again early in the morning. Of course we are not in really cold weather, it was only 31 here last night. So far we have managed with really hot weather 104 and cold 28.

sreigle · 12-03-2004, 05:39 AM

Cindy, take a look at the link I posted above. Or did you already try that?

Montana_2205 · 12-05-2004, 04:11 PM

Yes Steve, I had. I wish it had been that easy. Scott replaced our stick home thermostat with a programmable one last year and he had no problem at all. He said this one was different than any he had ever seen. We went camping this weekend and had no problem with the furnace working after his experiments. We don't use the remote at all. We just turn it on and off at the wall unit. Only thing, we can't adjust the temperature there.

Scott's done ALOT of electrical work over the years, such as wiring all three of the houses we have built. He's pretty confident that if he can get a little more info, he should be able to wire in the Hunter thermostat. If any of you have any ideas, post them. We will let you all know if we have any luck.

Cindy

You may also like: