DutchmenSport
Senior Member
We are currently camped at the Audubon State Historic Site near St. Francisville, Louisiana. We've been here (this time) since Oct 1 as I am here as a camp host.
Weather predictions for Louisiana are bleak as temperatures drop. The entire area is in a panic. Predicted low ... around 25 degrees! (really) ... at home in Indiana, it it negative 4 with a wind chill of 20 below. Oh well .... These Southern folks just freak out when a colder than freezing event happens.
In preparation for the overnight low, I planned on filling my fresh water tank, disconnecting the garden hose, drain it, and make sure my sewer hose is drained good. Then simply leave the hoses in place.
My day went well. I did house tours all day at the plantation house and planned when the day was over proceeded to take final steps for the camper. Unfortunately, while on my last tour of the day, my wife calls and says we are out of propane and the furnace is out. No problem I said, I have just a few minutes left on the tour and I'll be over and switch tanks.
Well, that was the beginning of stupidity! Bear with me, this story will probably have everyone laughing in stitches.
I got back to the camper and found out we had plenty of propane. I then checked the Dometic Thermostat (front half of the camper one ... AC/heat pump, furnace). It has an E1 error code. I'd never seen this before.
Mind you, it's beginning to get dark, coldER is coming, I need that furnace running to keep the underbelly warm, in approaching slight panic mode.... what to do.
You guessed it ... good old Google. Turns out the E1 code is a "connection" issue. Had lots of instructions on resetting the thermostat. ..... Oh Duh! The water hose.
I rushed outside and connected the water hose to the fresh water tank, turned on the water and would wait for the overflow to let me know the tank was full .... then drain the hose and put it up out of the cold. All under control .... pew! Water concern all OK.
Meanwhile..... the reset on the thermostat does not work ... nothing. I cannot clear the error. Last effort, disconnect power to the thermostat. I pull it from the wall, and unhook the red wire... it goes out as expected. Directions say, let it sit a few seconds before powering up again. Oh ... the water is still turned on. I better check.
I step outside and the wife yells at me ..... WATER IS RUNNING OUT OF THE BATHROOM FLOODING INTO THE BACK BEDROOM!
I rush back in.... water all over the floor ... what the "H***!" She said, it's coming from the toilet! OH MY Gosh! What just happened. Stupid as stupid gets ..... what does Mr. Stupid do? Yep ..... PUSH THE PEDDLE!
Want to know what happened ... it isn't pretty! Has anyone seen Old Faithful at Yellowstone? Well ... that's what happened when I pushed the peddle. Black Tank water shot straight up out of the toilet bowl that was completely full and overflowing. It shot a good 5 feet straight up in the air! REALLY!
It shot all over me, all over the walls, all over the towels hanging on the wall, all over the toilet paper, the toilet brush, the shower wall, dumped in a gigantic splash all over the floor, and running out the door to the bedroom (I guess the trailer is on a slight slope after settling for 2 months.
Yep, it really was that bad! The "wet" was not the bad part, it was the SMELL! OMG!
She yells at me..... when you hooked up the water hose, did you hook it up to the black tank and NOT the fresh water tank!
Soaking wet, I ran outside, shut off the water spigot, and pulled the black tank valve and got it draining and then checked the garden hose .... OH DUH! Stupidity at it's finest! Yep! I attached it to the black tank.
In my anxiety over the furnace problem I just was not think straight when I hooked up the water. In 40 years of RV camping and ownership, and a life time of RV familiarity .... it happened to me!
Lesson learned.... "It CAN happen to anyone!"
So the wife starts grabbing towels, starts mopping the floor up the best she can. The place stinks awful, and little by little we get the floor flood under control. Meanwhile, my thermostat is still not working. NOW we desperately need the furnace working to help dry up the floor!
I went over to the maintenance bay at the park and returned with a string mop and bucket and with a very strong bleach water solution I moped, and moped, and moped. The smell was still awful. I got to the point I absolutely had to get back to the thermostat problem.
Then I came up with an idea. The camper has 2 identical Dometic thermostats, one for each AC. So, I simply disconnected the one for the rear AC (bedroom) and put it in the front. It took a little time and those wires were small and my fingers are big, and now is completely dark outside, and the interior lighting is casing shadows causing it to be very difficult to actually see the fine details where the wires attach and the wires could have been longer... but they weren't. So like a surgeon at the operating table, I was able to finally hook up both thermostats again.
The switch worked. The original bedroom one worked as expected in the kitchen, and the original kitchen was still throwing the E1 error code when hooked up in the bedroom ..... BUT! the one in the kitchen was working perfectly fine! The furnace was running, fan worked, heat pump kicked on.... everything good!
Well in freezing weather, you don't need AC, so the broken one is still broken, but now in the bed room. My wife ordered a new Dometic off Amazon last night when we went to bed. It will be delivered tomorrow! (Tuesday).
Meanwhile.... oh yes, there is a "meanwhile".... the odor still lingers. We then used Oda-Ban on the floor, soaked all the items that were on the floor in the bed room (that's where the smell lingered ... bathroom odors are gone). With the furnace running, the heat under the floor is drying things out real nice, and this morning when we woke up, the odors are greatly reduced. There is still a lingering effect, but we think it's dissipating. I really won't know until I leave the camper a few minutes and then come back in to smell.
So there it is folks. Trust me when I say this! There is NOT any experience anywhere on earth quite like being covered by a fountain of ..... (toilet water) .....
Weather predictions for Louisiana are bleak as temperatures drop. The entire area is in a panic. Predicted low ... around 25 degrees! (really) ... at home in Indiana, it it negative 4 with a wind chill of 20 below. Oh well .... These Southern folks just freak out when a colder than freezing event happens.
In preparation for the overnight low, I planned on filling my fresh water tank, disconnecting the garden hose, drain it, and make sure my sewer hose is drained good. Then simply leave the hoses in place.
My day went well. I did house tours all day at the plantation house and planned when the day was over proceeded to take final steps for the camper. Unfortunately, while on my last tour of the day, my wife calls and says we are out of propane and the furnace is out. No problem I said, I have just a few minutes left on the tour and I'll be over and switch tanks.
Well, that was the beginning of stupidity! Bear with me, this story will probably have everyone laughing in stitches.
I got back to the camper and found out we had plenty of propane. I then checked the Dometic Thermostat (front half of the camper one ... AC/heat pump, furnace). It has an E1 error code. I'd never seen this before.
Mind you, it's beginning to get dark, coldER is coming, I need that furnace running to keep the underbelly warm, in approaching slight panic mode.... what to do.
You guessed it ... good old Google. Turns out the E1 code is a "connection" issue. Had lots of instructions on resetting the thermostat. ..... Oh Duh! The water hose.
I rushed outside and connected the water hose to the fresh water tank, turned on the water and would wait for the overflow to let me know the tank was full .... then drain the hose and put it up out of the cold. All under control .... pew! Water concern all OK.
Meanwhile..... the reset on the thermostat does not work ... nothing. I cannot clear the error. Last effort, disconnect power to the thermostat. I pull it from the wall, and unhook the red wire... it goes out as expected. Directions say, let it sit a few seconds before powering up again. Oh ... the water is still turned on. I better check.
I step outside and the wife yells at me ..... WATER IS RUNNING OUT OF THE BATHROOM FLOODING INTO THE BACK BEDROOM!
I rush back in.... water all over the floor ... what the "H***!" She said, it's coming from the toilet! OH MY Gosh! What just happened. Stupid as stupid gets ..... what does Mr. Stupid do? Yep ..... PUSH THE PEDDLE!
Want to know what happened ... it isn't pretty! Has anyone seen Old Faithful at Yellowstone? Well ... that's what happened when I pushed the peddle. Black Tank water shot straight up out of the toilet bowl that was completely full and overflowing. It shot a good 5 feet straight up in the air! REALLY!
It shot all over me, all over the walls, all over the towels hanging on the wall, all over the toilet paper, the toilet brush, the shower wall, dumped in a gigantic splash all over the floor, and running out the door to the bedroom (I guess the trailer is on a slight slope after settling for 2 months.
Yep, it really was that bad! The "wet" was not the bad part, it was the SMELL! OMG!
She yells at me..... when you hooked up the water hose, did you hook it up to the black tank and NOT the fresh water tank!
Soaking wet, I ran outside, shut off the water spigot, and pulled the black tank valve and got it draining and then checked the garden hose .... OH DUH! Stupidity at it's finest! Yep! I attached it to the black tank.
In my anxiety over the furnace problem I just was not think straight when I hooked up the water. In 40 years of RV camping and ownership, and a life time of RV familiarity .... it happened to me!
Lesson learned.... "It CAN happen to anyone!"
So the wife starts grabbing towels, starts mopping the floor up the best she can. The place stinks awful, and little by little we get the floor flood under control. Meanwhile, my thermostat is still not working. NOW we desperately need the furnace working to help dry up the floor!
I went over to the maintenance bay at the park and returned with a string mop and bucket and with a very strong bleach water solution I moped, and moped, and moped. The smell was still awful. I got to the point I absolutely had to get back to the thermostat problem.
Then I came up with an idea. The camper has 2 identical Dometic thermostats, one for each AC. So, I simply disconnected the one for the rear AC (bedroom) and put it in the front. It took a little time and those wires were small and my fingers are big, and now is completely dark outside, and the interior lighting is casing shadows causing it to be very difficult to actually see the fine details where the wires attach and the wires could have been longer... but they weren't. So like a surgeon at the operating table, I was able to finally hook up both thermostats again.
The switch worked. The original bedroom one worked as expected in the kitchen, and the original kitchen was still throwing the E1 error code when hooked up in the bedroom ..... BUT! the one in the kitchen was working perfectly fine! The furnace was running, fan worked, heat pump kicked on.... everything good!
Well in freezing weather, you don't need AC, so the broken one is still broken, but now in the bed room. My wife ordered a new Dometic off Amazon last night when we went to bed. It will be delivered tomorrow! (Tuesday).
Meanwhile.... oh yes, there is a "meanwhile".... the odor still lingers. We then used Oda-Ban on the floor, soaked all the items that were on the floor in the bed room (that's where the smell lingered ... bathroom odors are gone). With the furnace running, the heat under the floor is drying things out real nice, and this morning when we woke up, the odors are greatly reduced. There is still a lingering effect, but we think it's dissipating. I really won't know until I leave the camper a few minutes and then come back in to smell.
So there it is folks. Trust me when I say this! There is NOT any experience anywhere on earth quite like being covered by a fountain of ..... (toilet water) .....
