Wayfarer Wet Bay Heat

[sbradley02]

Getting ready to take our first trip in our new Wayfarer, and the temperatures here have turned colder. I am concerned about the wet bay. Tiffin said turn on the coach heat, and the tank heaters, and it should be fine, but I tried that last night and the bay barely stayed above ambient with the coach at 65 degrees. We are supposed to get down below freezing tonight. I have limited options on getting something to keep the bay warm. Would a 75W trouble light do the trick? We are expected to get down to 22.
Thanks

[Pigman1]

Tiffin's technique is to divert some hot air from the coach heaters to the basement (wet bay) area in their class A's. I'd think it was the same in the Wayfarer. I'd suggest you get a thermometer with a remote bulb and watch your temps in the tank area when it gets cold. Just be advised, you won't see 70 degrees in the basement area, but as long as it stays above about 27-28 degrees things will be fine. Remember, finding 75 watt incandescent light bulbs is about impossible. Thank the Greens for that...They think light bulbs are only good for light. Multipurpose-ing isn't in their lexicon.

[sbradley02]

Originally Posted by Pigman1

Tiffin's technique is to divert some hot air from the coach heaters to the basement (wet bay) area in their class A's. I'd think it was the same in the Wayfarer. I'd suggest you get a thermometer with a remote bulb and watch your temps in the tank area when it gets cold. Just be advised, you won't see 70 degrees in the basement area, but as long as it stays above about 27-28 degrees things will be fine. Remember, finding 75 watt incandescent light bulbs is about impossible. Thank the Greens for that...They think light bulbs are only good for light. Multipurpose-ing isn't in their lexicon.

Thanks for the reply. I tracked it last night. With a low of 32, the bay went down to 34. With only 2 degrees above ambient, seems risky at 22. No idea why we aren't getting more heat in the bay.
Our local hardware store stocks incandescent bulbs.

[B52Rnav]

I bought a thermostatically controlled switch which activated at 35 deg and plugged trouble light into that. IIRC switch was about $20 on Amazon - Farm Innovators TC3

[sbradley02]

Originally Posted by B52Rnav

I bought a thermostatically controlled switch which activated at 35 deg and plugged trouble light into that. IIRC switch was about $20 on Amazon - Farm Innovators TC3

Thanks. For tonight I am limited to what I can get locally. Long term I will need to do something more elegant, but it does sound like the light should be enough heat.

[camper8251]

Get A Flood Light Bulb... Higher watts... If you have power in the bay then just get a small ceramic heater if really concerned...

[sbradley02]

No power in the bay but easy to run the cord through the hose port. Installed the trouble light, wish me luck.

[rogerfromco]

I have a QW and bought a thermostat plug and run an extension cord to the wet bay and put the thermostat plug in the bay with a work light plugged into it.

[sbradley02]

I had the light in there overnight, but I don't think it made much difference. What did make a difference is my discovery, due some reading and experimentation, of a newbie mistake I had made. I had the thermostat set to electric gas, which means the heat pump had priority, and the first night it never transitioned to the furnace, and the furnace running is the only way to get heat to the wet bay apparently. It didn't get quite as cold as forecasted, but with a low of 25, the wet bay never dropped below 48. A few degrees of that was probably due to the light, but what really made the difference was running the furnace.
Thanks again for everyone's help.

[rogerfromco]

Originally Posted by sbradley02

I had the light in there overnight, but I don't think it made much difference. What did make a difference is my discovery, due some reading and experimentation, of a newbie mistake I had made. I had the thermostat set to electric gas, which means the heat pump had priority, and the first night it never transitioned to the furnace, and the furnace running is the only way to get heat to the wet bay apparently. It didn't get quite as cold as forecasted, but with a low of 25, the wet bay never dropped below 48. A few degrees of that was probably due to the light, but what really made the difference was running the furnace.
Thanks again for everyone's help.

I thought the only area warmed by the gas furnace was the fresh water tank. Are you sure there is ducting to the wet bay and bay with the dump valves? I’ll go look at mine after the snow melts but I thought stuffing only did that in the Class A’s.

[sbradley02]

Originally Posted by rogerfromco

I thought the only area warmed by the gas furnace was the fresh water tank. Are you sure there is ducting to the wet bay and bay with the dump valves? I’ll go look at mine after the snow melts but I thought stuffing only did that in the Class A’s.

I checked the temperature overnight (about an inch above the compartment floor), and it was way over ambient (23 degrees) and the light didn't do all that much, so I am assuming so. Trent Tiffin had also told me the same thing, that the compartment was heated.

[rogerfromco]

Cool. I’ll take my light out and turn on the furnace this week for a test while I have it winterized. Would really like to know for sure before we do some winter trips.

[rogerfromco]

Originally Posted by sbradley02

I checked the temperature overnight (about an inch above the compartment floor), and it was way over ambient (23 degrees) and the light didn't do all that much, so I am assuming so. Trent Tiffin had also told me the same thing, that the compartment was heated.

In the 2020 QW, the wet bay and dump bay are not heated/warmed by the furnace, just the fresh water tank area under the bed. I left the furnace on overnight last week and the fresh water tanks stayed in the 50’s but the wet bay and sewer bay were down in the high 20’s by morning.

[John C Irish]

I am also concerned about wet bay temps....although there IS a small ceramic heater in there, there is no on/off switch and with temps hovering at 35 rite now, the unit is not making any heat. for tonight I grabbed a small 1500w "barn heater" that was just too big to fit inside the wetbay, so I set it up on a wood block on top of a milk crate, outside of the open bay, with the hatch resting on top of the heater, and on full heat with fan....then i blocked several 8" planks around the sides of the hatch to stop as much wind as possible.... My question is...Does anybody know if or where the switch for the original wetbay heater is? AND, is the original heater 12volt or 120ac volts?

Oh...thought I was on Monaco site...sorry for interrupting

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