Headlights and bathroom heat

[Dave Cunningham]

Well despite all of the grief I am having lately with my new marquis sapphire, I did have two successful projects today.  I upgraded the headlights using the youtube video (twice as bright now) and I installed a heat vent into the toilet room.  Using the existing Auquahot system under the fridge, this was very easy to do.  I just dismantled  the heater box under the fridge, use a 3.12 " hole saw to cut a hole in the left side of it, adapted a 3" dryer type fitting to the side, and ran a flexible aluminum vent through the bathroom wall and into the bottom drawer area.  Then I removed the drawer front from the drawer itself, drilled it out for a 3" heat duct that I bought at Beaver Coach, clamped it all together and used two small angle brackets to mount the drawer front to the cabinet.  It doesn't get huge flow, because the fan is blowing straight out from the bottom of the fridge, but it is such a small room that it works perfectly.
Why they would put a porcelain toilet in there, with a seat that might as well be refrigerated, and not plumb heat into the room is beyond me.  ( my 2000 Marquis and 2004 Monterey were the same) I almost can't wait to try it out tomorrow after my Baileys and coffee.

[Steve Huber Co-Admin]

Dave,
Your heating the toilet room reminds me that a number of years ago I had to quickly re-plumb a bunkhouse in NM just prior to a large gathering. In my haste, I inadvertently ran hot water to the toilet fill. No one complained or asked me to re-plumb till spring, but i noticed almost all the users quickly acquired a habit of flushing both before and after use....
Steve

[Bill Sprague]

Dave,
Your heating the toilet room reminds me that a number of years ago I had to quickly re-plumb a bunkhouse in NM just prior to a large gathering. In my haste, I inadvertently ran hot water to the toilet fill. No one complained or asked me to re-plumb till spring, but i noticed almost all the users quickly acquired a habit of flushing both before and after use....
Steve

Sometimes that's done on purpose.  If the water is cold and the bathroom humid from showers, water condenses on the toilet and then drips on the floor.  If the water coming into the toilet is warm, there is no condensation or dripping.

[Bill Sprague]

... I upgraded the headlights using the youtube video ( twice as bright now) and I installed a heat vent into the toilet room ......

Part one has now been viewed over 800 times.  Part 2 is up to 430!  I'm glad you got some use from it.

I keep a small electric heater under the sink!

[Dick Simonis]

I like you idea of the heat to the toliet room.  Any chance you could post a pic or two.  Also, what would you think of installing a small muffin fan in the line wired to ??

[Dave Cunningham]

Hi Dick, I will try to post a couple of pictures, later today, the fan idea would be great, but as I mentioned , the room is so tiny that it seems to work really well , as is. I like the hot water idea as well.

[Joel Ashley]

I guess I must be lucky;  our throne room has a ceiling port at least, so the heat pump works to warm it.  Enough flow comes under the door from the heat exchanger across the aisle near the shower, that the hydronic heat isn't too bad either.  Leaving the door open when no one is in there during cold weather helps, and we don't park our rears long anyway, so noticing cold in there hasn't been much of an issue to us.

Joel

[Jerry Carr]

On the '06 Thunder bathroom, we have an under cabinet electric floor heater with fan.  We also have the same unit in the kitchen base unit.  They are not part of the Aqua hot system, and both have individual thermostat's.

They are really nice to keep your feet warm.  I had one break last year, and pulled it out for a repair, and found a broken wire on the thermostat.  I was able to repair with a little solder.

[John Hennessey]

Jerry, what brand and where did you buy them?

[Edward Buker]

We had one similar to this in the bedroom of our older Contessa. This is a 120v 500W 2ft baseboard unit in the 1st link below. The unit has a thermostat option also in the second link below. I like that they are silent and safe and the thermostat feature in the small toilet area is ideal. You can run a 120V feed up from the storage bay area by tapping into the 10GA inverter 120V feed line using a small breaker box and a 15 amp breaker for 14ga wiring or 20 amp breaker if you use 12 ga Romex. Just another option and a project I have not gotten to yet. I prefer this type over the fan type for noise.....serenity now! Also surface mount and no depth issues to deal with as with a fan driven unit. Toasty buns for under $50 plus wiring.....

http://www.baseboardheaterstore.com/-Dimplex-LC200511-Linear-Convector-Residential-Electric-Baseboard-Heater--120-volt-500-Watt-20-Length-Almond--10-Year-Warranty_p_399.html

http://www.baseboardheaterstore.com/DTKSP-Single-Pole-Thermostat--For-LC-Series-Baseboard-Heaters_p_224.html

I remember on our first trip after picking up the RV in Bend. It was May and we headed to the Oregon coat. It was raining, windy, and blowing with temps in the 40s. I started looking all over for some form of bathroom heat in the small closed off commode area..... I remember my litany of swears as I sat on that cold seat for the first time....hard to imagine a cold toilet seat in a Marquis....what were they thinking.

Later Ed

[Jerry Carr]

Our units came in the coach from Monaco, they don't have a name plate on the front but they look like common 120V units I found a link for you but I am sure you can get these at Home Depot


 http://www.amazon.com/Broan-112-Kickspace-Built-In-Thermostat/dp/B0014ZQ05E/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1361978719&sr=8-2&keywords=broan+kickspace+heater

[Dave Cunningham]

Here are a couple of photos of my bathroom heat install, not the best because I could not get the flash to go on the iPad, but you get the idea.

[David T. Richelderfer]

So you ran the 3" vent tubing through the wall (placing a hole in the wall between the fridge and bathroom) and it ends under the bathroom sink?   Or did you also cut a hole into the drawer's back panel and front panel, and continued to run the tubing through the drawer all the way to the hole in the front panel?  Running the tubing through the drawer would effectively render the drawer inoperative, I suppose.  I would think there are enough holes around the drawers and the under-sink doors to let heat easily migrate/leak into the bathroom from under the sink area.

[Dave Cunningham]

David,

I used a hole saw to cut a hole into the bathroom from under the fridge 3-1/2"" is need to get the 3" flexible ducting through to the bathroom, I removed the drawer front from the rest of the drawer, drilled it out with a 1-1/8" hole saw to accommodate the vent that I bought at Beaver coach, and after hooking everything up, remounted the drawerfrontwith two small angle brackets. Yes you do lose that drawer, if that's an issue you would have to find somewhere else to duct it.