Remote comfort Control Thermostat - Montana Owners Club

sedwheathome · 05-07-2009, 08:08 AM

I see many postings about changing the Monty's original thermostats to digital thermostats. That is my goal! But, we have a 2005 2955 that come with the Dometic Duo-Therm Remote Comfort Control (the remote control unit for heat & AC). We simply do not like this unit. It doesn't seem to control the temp within the unit very well at all, plus we find ourselves looking for the manual all the time.
Anyone ever changed these out to a simple digital thermostat? I have search the MOC & RV.net and no luck. I emailed Dometic last night. They advise me it can be done for a small cost of $200 ($85 for digital thermostat, $112 for Control board Kit).
Anyone know any secrets to accomplishing this without spending $200.

Thank you in advance for responses & information.

racerjoe · 05-07-2009, 08:43 AM

I think you will find here is everyone including myself has had to use the dometic change over parts, some have gotten the parts as a warranty item,others have paid, and still some others have gotten dometic or your dealer to help out. But you will need their control box to make the switch. Hope this helps. That remote was a nightmare to say the least.

CmdrDewey · 05-07-2009, 08:48 AM

We don't use ours as a remote but it works ok as a wall unit. Once we figured out that 75 on the wall is 72 in the coach all was well. Yes we do look at the manual occasionally but I found other things to spend $200 on. YMMD

racerjoe · 05-07-2009, 09:58 AM

We kept ours as a wall mount too. Right under the controller. I wish 3 degrees would have been close. When you wake up in the middle of the night and it is 84 inside and the heat will not shut off untill you pull the fuses, you replace the wireless with the new style. Only of course if you do not want to turn your Monty into a sauna. Choice is yours...

OntMont · 05-07-2009, 02:06 PM

You will have to work with Dometic on this. So far as I know, the only replacement that will work is the Dometic "Comfort Control Center", along with a replacement circuit board. One reason for this is that the control wires that go from the wall unit to the A/C circuit board are telephone type wires that carry some kind of digital signal, not a simple on-off switch. If you could replace those wires, you might be able to do something else, but that would be very difficult.

At one time, Dometic would provide replacements under warranty providing a dealer confirmed that there was a problem. Might be worth a try, but that was a few years ago now.

There is one work around that I tried for a while, but it will only work on the furnace. That is to splice a conventional digital thermostat into the wires (blue I think) that come from the A/C circuit board to the furnace, this is just a conventional two wire circuit.

dieselguy · 05-07-2009, 03:26 PM

Like John said ... the problem with going with a low cost thermostat like you'd get at Wally World or Lowes is the thermostat wiring in the wall that travels across the ceiling to the A/C unit. The wiring is similar to a telelphone wire and hard to adapt to what you are wanting. Several of us got Dometic to replace the remote with the Dometic CCC. I'd give Dometic a call and explain your situation. You might offer that you know dozens of Moc'ers that have had their remote replaced because of wild temp swings, A/C fighting the furnace, and just plain system failure.

sedwheathome · 05-07-2009, 03:45 PM

Thanks to all for the replies and information. I have been in contact with Dometic & they gave me the costs for the parts to accomplish. I will try the suggestion above about temp swings & see what they will do, if anything.

Thank You

**Carl n Susan** · 05-07-2009, 08:00 PM

There was a long thread (30+ pages or so) about the infamous remote control, its shortcomings, and (most important) how to replace it (including pictures) with the CCC model. A search of the archive should find it. I will try and locate it but it won't be tonight.

on edit: try this url
http://www.montanaowners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8145&SearchTerms=comfort,control, center

It will be invaluable when you finally go ahead and make the change.

EagleRunner · 05-10-2009, 06:55 PM

I talked with Charles Wade, while at the RV show here in Spokane, about my problems with the Dometic Remote Thermostat. He took my name and address and within three weeks I had a box shipped to me containing the new Comfort Control Center thermostat, instructions, and control box. The job of switching over to the newer Comfort Control Center is not too difficult and can be completed by yourself if you are mechanically inclined and have the ability to work on electrical circuits. I too have an 2005 2955rl. The one thing that may be working against you now is the age of your trailer. When I approached Charles Wade my trailer was only a couple of years old. You might try contacting Team Montana and see if they will help you.

Tom

sedwheathome · 05-27-2009, 05:44 AM

I would like to thank everyone for their suggestions. I spoke with Al McGuire from Dometic last week. He worked out a deal for me to receive the replacment thermostat (CCC) and control board kit free of charge. But I have to take the Monty to the dealer for installation of the items this Friday (May 29th) & pay the installation costs. I agreed to this because the installation should not take more than 30 minutes according to Al and the dealership. I would like to send a special thanks to Carl & Susan for the link to the archives of 30+ pages of posts about this issue. This definately assisted me getting this accomplished.
I will follow up to let everyone know how the installation goes & how the system works afterward.

Thanks to all involved for the MOC

EagleRunner · 05-27-2009, 04:34 PM

sedwheathome,

Glad to hear Dometic came through and worked with you to help you get the replacement CCC. You will be much happier with that new digital thermostat than with the remote one.

One thing you might want to do after the Comfort Control Center (CCC)is installed is to put some insulation between the wall it is mounted to and the thermostat itself. When I replaced the wireless receiver with the CCC I found a large hole (approximately 1-1/2" diameter) behind the receiver and therefore the new CCC. I found that hole really had an impact on the new CCC thermostat. After I switched out my Remote Dometic Thermostat with the CCC, I found the furnace ran longer and more frequently. By adding a sheet of thin packing foam behind the CCC with just a small slit to allow the wire to pass through it to the CCC, the run time of my furnace dropped considerably, about half the time, and the frequency it came on was cut in about half. Now the thermostat will kick on for about 60 seconds and then shut off and remain off for about 20 to 30 minutes. Prior to this the furnace run for 20 minutes, shutdown and then start back up 2 minutes later. The temps in the Monty now are maintained at a more even level.

That foam insulation I am referring to are thin foam sheets sometimes can be found in packing envelopes for small items or can be found wrapped around fragile items in a larger box. I used a small foam shipping envelope and cut it to size. Once you do that you will notice a big difference in how long and frequent your furnace runs and your savings on propane.

Enjoy your new CCC.

Tom

sedwheathome · 05-31-2009, 04:43 PM

Thanks to everyone for the assistance. New CCC unit installed on Friday morning. Working great when I left the dealership. When I arrived back home I plugged the unit up for a while to test further. Seems to be working great. We will test further in about two weeks when we go down to Myrtle Beach for a few days.

EagleRunner, thanks for the suggestion on foam/insulation behind the CCC. Keystone must have had only one size drill bit or hole saw the day they installed these.

Thanks everyone for their suggestions, support & assistance. Another issue resolved by help from fellow MOCers. Best resource I ever had with camping the last 13 years!

Walter & Suzanne Edmonds

RRman · 06-02-2009, 08:13 AM

I bought my 2005 Montana used in late 2007 with the remote and didn't really use it until living in it for months at a time in 2008. I joined the MOC in 2006 so I missed the horror story/fix thread...
The first time I used the AC in humid LA 90 degree heat the AC froze up as I had the remote on the low fan setting. Once I figured that out (only use high fan) it worked okay, but often in the late evenings when the climate cooled off, it would "short cycle" in the AC mode - run for a few minutes, off long enough for compressor to bleed off, then run again for a few minutes. I found that adjusting the Thermostat Temp Setting up or down a degree or two would alleviate that problem. Never notice any furnace issues, but I relied on an electric heater and only used the furnace to warm the RV up after I awoke as the furnace noise was annoying. Since I was working during the days I would not leave the furnace on. So far its performance for me has been "satisfactory", but a simple CCC would definitely be preferred!

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