Bay Heating

[bigdomino]

Have a cargo heater in my 2008 Monaco. Does not work. Has never worked. Talked to DeMartini, who I bought my MH from, and they indicated I need to find the thermostat switch and replace it. Will try to find it. Have the heater out and it looks new.

If I can't fix it, I may go another route. My question to all of you is what do you use to heat your water bay? I think some use a shop light. I mentioned a electric heater. My tech at DeMartini did not recommend the electric heater. What do you guys use? Have you had issues with your Cargo Heat heater?

Thanks.

Steve__

[DipHop]

Steve:

Our system heater is unreliable (don't trust it) so I use a "Big Heat" 120v heater. This heater was designed to be a pump-house heater for farms so it is very rugged and reliable. It has both 1200Watt and 1500Watt settings. I use it in conjunction with a remote sensor in the water bay so I can monitor the temperature. Last year we experienced several cold nights with temps in the 20s and the Big Heat on a low setting kept the water bay in the 50s. I hope this helps.

[BudtheDiplomat]

I read pretty often that people have concerns or problems with the basement heater. I wonder if a 100 watt bulb could be used with the switch in the main cabin. Since the area is pretty contained, and certainly the compartment door would be closed, I would think it would keep the compartment above freezing.

[Luv2go]

Steve:

Many people successfully use 100W utility lights, but I've been using relatively cheap electric box heaters for years with no ill effects. On our present coach I use them in the "Low" setting which is about 600W. The t-stats on these are unreliable so I wired a Honeywell "Cadet" wall mount electric baseboard heater t-stat controlling an outlet to plug the heater into and leave the t-stat on the box heater all the way up. Note the "Cadet" has settings as low as 40 degrees and is marked with temperatures which is why I chose it. I believe Home Depot carries them.

Probably the tech was worried about space issues and the heater spot overheating something as 600W is a lot of power in a relatively small space. I carefully mounted the heater so the coach movement wouldn't disturb it, located the "Cadet" t-stat so it regulated the temperature properly, and checked to insure it did not overheat anything. Using the residential-grade t-stat controls the temperature much better than the heaters built in t-stat, also.

Hope this helps,
Stewart

[Dutch Star Don]

bigdomino......Light bulbs and 110 heaters are probably a good way to go, but your current basement heater is 12 volt. If you stay somewhere without hookups, you'll lose your ability to heat the bay.

The 12 volt heaters have a "snap disc" thermostat. They are replaceable.

Not to be argumenative, but how do you know yours is not working. If I recall, they don't come on until 28 degrees (+ or - 5 degrees) and turn off at 43 degrees (+ or - 5 degrees). We're in Ca. and I've only seen mine come on once at Yosemite. Mine has a switch on the wall panel that lights up when the switch is in the on position and then there is an adjacent light that comes on when the heater actually comes on.

[rtrek]

Steve

The heater also has an inline fuse/over temp device in it, you can verify with an ohm meter after removing the heater. The fuse/over temp device (don't remember what it is called) but they are not hard to find. I replaced mine last winter on a Safari Trek, tried working with the manufacture of the heater but goy nowhere. Not very hard to fix, need a good electrical crimp tool to do it.

Richard
05 Trek

[MonacoMama]

Diplomat Don stated my exact thoughts...SacsTC and I honestly thought that ours did not work either...until we heard it kick on. I am not sure you can tell it is not working until you get into lowtmps...and then you must remember that just because it is 32 outside does not mean it is the same in the basement of your rig.

There will be at least one thread on this that I will find for you also..

[MonacoMama]

bigdomino...You can find one thread here which discusses the wet bay heater. (Please read the thread all the way through - there is LOTS of different info there). You will also find some info at this thread.

Good Luck...just remember..there may be nothing wrong.just as we found out.

[Dutch Star Don]

Wow......my memory is really going......I posted the exact on and off temps several months ago and sure was wrong with them tonight.

[bigdomino]

Thanks to all of you for the info. I thought the heat went on at 40 degrees. This may explain why I haven't seen it go on. It is 39 right now and I have a remote in there and it is 50 degrees in the bay. Maybe I am wrong about it not working. I did expereince cold last year and I had ice on the bottom of the bay. I guess that doen't mean that it is 28 at the snap disc. Where is this thing located? Dealer said they seem to vary as to location. Can be a pain to find. Where are yours?

Steve__

[Happycarz]

On some coaches, mine included, the snap disk is powered by its own fuse. So, you have one fuse for the cube heater and another fuse for the snap disk, which sends the on/off signal to the heater.

But before getting too involved, use an ice cube on the snap disk to trigger an "on" command to the cube heater to see if it is working.

[rex]

The snap disk on my coach is in the highest part of the compartment way in the back. It is about dime size and not obvious at all.

[Flagelpater]

FWIW, If you put a remote temp sensor in the bay and a temperature readout in the bathroom you will not feel so stupid when you make the frequent trips to the bathroom at night. Also, if you can not find the snap disk, I never have found it, when the outside temp is low enough to close the switch Open the bay door to cool it off. Hopefully you can check it this way without waiting for freezing conditions. My snap disk closes when my sensor reads 28 degrees and opens when it reads 58 degrees. I have never had ice in the bay compartment. I also keep a 110 volt unit at the ready because the unit has failed a few times on me.

[danes-on-tour]

We have now had 2 bay heaters that has failed. Next time we need the bay heated we will go with the 100W watt bulb. We are not going to buy a third heater.

This won't be next winter because we plan to go to Florida . Can't wait........... Fell like a kid looking through the candy store window. Come February the store will open for us