Bay Heater Not Working

[MONTIE]

I have a Monaco Knight DFT. I have been trying to get my bay heater to work. The fan runs but the heat will not come on. I was told that I needed either a snap switch or thermostat to make it run. I understand that the heater needs to be removed to put in a new thermostat. In the water bay there is a chrome thing hanging down from behind the panel. It has wires running to and from one end. It looks like a handle but does not release anything because the electrical wires, it just hangs loose. I wish someone could tell me what this thing is. I have shown it to several people and they did not know.

Thanks

Montie

[hermanmullins]

Montie, I assume that you have a Aqua-Hot in your coach. I just had my unit serviced. It would run the fan but there was no heat, the burner would not fire off. I found that the coolant for the unit was low. There is a safety that prevents your unit form firing off. Find your over flow tank and check the coolant leval. There is a clod line and a hot line. If there is no coolant in the tank then you will need to add some. There is a type of antifreeze for boilers that does not have Etholine Glycol (spelling ?) and is mixed half and half with water. Hope this helps.

[mike@fleming.cc]

Montie- I believe you have one of the 12 volt basement heaters, actuated by snap switches. The heater won't work for a number of reasons. The snap switch can go bad. If you know where the snap switch is located, you can put an ice cube on it to see if the heater kicks. Sounds like this isn't the problem as your fan runs but no heat.

Next level of complication is inside the heater itself. IIRC there is another temp regulating device in there (maybe even another snap switch). Cheap thermo-switches are exactly that, cheap. Fortunately they are also easy to replace. Again, ice cube to check if it gets continuity on the contacts. Next is the heating element- if its fried, you will be better off w/a new heater, but before chucking the old one- strip off the spare parts you may need later like the snap switch.

You will find more basement heater info if you go to iRV2 dot com and go to their Monaco Owner's forum and do a "search" on "basement heater." There are several threads delving into the 12V heater issues.

Hope this helps, Mike

[djrich67]

Montie- I believe you have one of the 12 volt basement heaters, actuated by snap switches. The heater won't work for a number of reasons. The snap switch can go bad. If you know where the snap switch is located, you can put an ice cube on it to see if the heater kicks. Sounds like this isn't the problem as your fan runs but no heat.

Next level of complication is inside the heater itself. IIRC there is another temp regulating device in there (maybe even another snap switch). Cheap thermo-switches are exactly that, cheap. Fortunately they are also easy to replace. Again, ice cube to check if it gets continuity on the contacts. Next is the heating element- if its fried, you will be better off w/a new heater, but before chucking the old one- strip off the spare parts you may need later like the snap switch.

You will find more basement heater info if you go to iRV2 dot com and go to their Monaco Owner's forum and do a "search" on "basement heater." There are several threads delving into the 12V heater issues.

Hope this helps, Mike

[djrich67]

Same problem with my 09 Knight. Bought 2 trouble lights at Walmart for $10 each. Put one on in the water pump compartment and one in the water filter compartment, drove south until I didn't need heat.

[-Gramps-]

Mine went out as well...fan will run but no heat. Snap fuse works fine. I put a 120 volt heater in the bay. I may convert the 12 volts to 120 and still use the snap fuse eleminate the need for an extension cord. The coach is supposed to be be connected to shore power whern using the bay heater because it drains the battery so quickly.

[DRicketts]

My bay heater also failed at the beginning of this winter. After determining that the problem was with the internal elctronics and not the thermostat or heater element, I removed the internal circuit board and straight wired the heater so that it operates whenever the manual "system heat" switch is on, with the thermostat determining when it is actually in operation. Now that I've survived the winter with this setup, I may replace the heater or refine the operation where the fan will run anytime the manual switch is on.