Heated bays?

[Ed Dubois]

According to our manual our 2001 Patriot 37' has heated storage bays. There's also reference to a heat exchanger and a thermostat. I'm assuming these would be the same as we have in the living area in the coach. But I can't find them! Can anyone suggest where they might be?

Thanks,

Ed

[Neal E Weinmann]

Heated storage bays or just a heated water bay? Our coach has an AquaHot system and in the water bay there is a furnace vent and a thermocouple to trigger that circuit. The storage bay adjacent to the water bay likely benefits, but it also contains the inverter which generally keeps that bay warmer just by operating.

[Keith Moffett]

Ed
On our 98 Pat the manual said heated bays because there was a thermocouple and a register and fan behind the manifold pannel in the plumbing bay.  You can hear the fan running if it is cold enough outside but the temp adjustment is also behind the panel.  This and the insulated bay floor, ceiling and doors heats the bays.

[Fred Brooks]

           Hi Ed,
  If you remove the carpeted access panel on the passenger side (compartment forward of drive axle) you will find the holding tanks and the heat exchanger. You will also find the capillary tube from the thermostat that senses the temperature in that bay. If you want to check its operation here is how I test them. First turn on your Aqua-hot or Hurricane. Second turn on your heat thermostat calling for heat and turn it up. (if it is too warm outside, get a can of keyboard cleaner and turn it upside down and spray it on the capillary tube to trick it into thinking its cold in the compartment) The heat exchanger should come on and blow warm air in the tank compartment and the compartment forward of it. The issue I had on my 2000 Marquis was the compartment heater was "short-cycling" and not heating the bays. It turned out that when they built the coach, the installer put the capillary tube directly in front of the exchanger heat outlet causing it to shut off prematurely. I relocated the tube back out of the way on top of the tanks and secured it. System now works as engineered when freezing outside.
    Hope this helps, Regards Fred

[Ed Dubois]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. Will investigate further and let you know what I find.

Ed