Community Forums

ptrombetta · 01-02-2015, 11:18 AM

Happy New Year to everyone.

Well I made my first winter trip and hit snow in New Mexico and by the time I got to Amarillo Texas, I gave up. Headed south. The temps were in the teens.. as low as 11 degrees.

The heating system in my coach is totally inadequate. I am so disappointed. The Aqua hot running on diesel burner around the clock could barely heat the rear of the coach and the front of the coach was so cold we could not use it at all.

Tried to run generator and turn on the AC Heat... nothing but cold air (I guess it was just too cold for the AC heat). Also turned on the floor heat full blast and the floor was just slightly warm... not super warm as it usually is in typical cool weather.

To make matters worse, the water pipes froze. Yes, the heat for the bays was turned on (as far as I know... difficult to test when you are freezing, but I know it was on before and I never messed with the settings).

Finally, the windshield froze up as I was driving from melted snow thrown up by cars on the road which froze when it hit my windshield. The engine heat/defroster could not keep up with it. I quickly got into a very dangerous situation with iced windshield.... no visibility and no place to pull over... at night nevertheless.

Question.. has anyone else experienced similar problems of inadequate coach heat? When the temps were just at or above freezing, problem still evident.. although slightly better.

Paul

Not only was the coach

johnboy99 · 01-02-2015, 12:12 PM

Usually you will cook in side with all the heat on.....I think you need to get something serviced.............

SteveIC · 01-02-2015, 01:41 PM

I agree with John, you definitely need to get it checked out, it should be cooking you.

My Grandparents suggested to me that I use electric heaters (they are old RV experts). They even got my wife and I one for our anniversary.

Ever since, that is all we have used. One in the back bedroom, and one in front, and we cook inside. Only downside is you will need to run the generator while driving for the 120VAC. What we typically do is heat the RV up, then shut it down for a bit, and heat it back up when it starts getting cold again while driving. While camping we are always hooked up so it doesn't really matter.

To me it is worth it, saves us the propane for cooking and running the fridge/water heater.

Hope you get your heat on =)

ptrombetta · 01-02-2015, 02:18 PM

I think the Aqua Hot may not be working correctly. The warm are just trickles out of the vents.... especially up front by the passenger seat. There is no way that the volume of hot air is sufficient to heat the coach when it's cold outside.

Considering that my pipes froze also, probably have issues with the Aqua Hot itself.

The inadequate windshield defroster is just a poor design I think.

Ill be taking it in for warranty work soon and I hope that they can fix it. You get a very helpless feeling when it's so cold you feel sick. Could not get inside temp above 45 degrees at one point.

I like the idea of the small space heaters. I have a ceramic heater that I used long ago in a trailer. It's a small cube. I'll bring that along next time. With these fancy Aqua-hots.. I would expect that they would work better, though.

Paul

SteveIC · 01-02-2015, 04:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ptrombetta

I think the Aqua Hot may not be working correctly. The warm are just trickles out of the vents.... especially up front by the passenger seat. There is no way that the volume of hot air is sufficient to heat the coach when it's cold outside.

Considering that my pipes froze also, probably have issues with the Aqua Hot itself.

The inadequate windshield defroster is just a poor design I think.

Ill be taking it in for warranty work soon and I hope that they can fix it. You get a very helpless feeling when it's so cold you feel sick. Could not get inside temp above 45 degrees at one point.

I like the idea of the small space heaters. I have a ceramic heater that I used long ago in a trailer. It's a small cube. I'll bring that along next time. With these fancy Aqua-hots.. I would expect that they would work better, though.

Paul

I love those small ceramic heaters. Just noticed you are USN ret, I'm USN active.

IRVDoU · 01-11-2015, 03:26 PM

We just went thru 3-4 days of 6-11 degree weather here in north Alabama. The front of the coach (45UP) was a little chilly. Bedroom was fine....all the hot water we needed with the AquaHot. Heated floor was set to 73 degrees and it pretty much maintained it. Front of coach around driver seat was about 10 degrees cooler.

I cut off the front Heatpump and put a small heater by the drivers seat and it did much better at keeping the front warm...

However when driving it the front stayed cold...the dash heater couldn't keep up...

Selah · 01-11-2015, 04:22 PM

Something is definitely not right. You mentioned that you had your floors way up. Did you have the generator running? They will not run off the inverter. Plus I'm not sure they would help much with the slides in as they will cover most of the heated surface.Your AquaHot should easily keep the coach warm with out any supplemental heat, especially with the slides in and dash heater running. Sounds like you have a valve stuck or something.