BAC Forum
General Boards => Technical Support => Topic started by: Tim Bentley Co-Admin on March 04, 2009, 08:11:51 PM
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> If you have an Aquahot with three zones, and the heat is lost in one of the zones you might try this
To reset the 4-button thermostat.
1-Turn the ON/OFF to ON. The display light with data should come on. If the light and data are not there, see section B2 Cable Assembly in your manual.
2-Depress Mode to activate display light.
3-Depress the bottom two buttons (up & down) together.
4-While still holding the two buttons, add the third from the bottom (mode), hold all three for a few seconds.
5- Release the third (mode) button.
6-Release the bottom two (up & down) together.
7-Depress the mode button. The displaylight should be off.. If not, repeat steps 2 thru 6 . The control should return to the default mode.
8- Now see if it will cycle thru & display Furnace.
You may need to reset two or three times to get all three heat stations working.
If it is the 5 button Duo-Therm Comfort control the procedure is to
hold the top (mode) and bottom (zone) buttons and turn it off and
back on. You should see FF in the display. Release the buttons and
it has been reset.
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We're living in our 2005 Beaver Patriot thunder in an unheated shop. We are in the midst of building and installing the radiant heat (hopefully within 2 weeks). We've been maintaining a comfortable temp inside the coach, despite temps in the shop being in the 20's. Tonight our back thermostat turned off. The only lights we have are the zone lights. I tried to reset it, based on what i've read here. holding MODE and ZONE and turning it on and off turns on the furnace for only a few seconds. after that, it turns off and lights also turn off and all i see are the zones, again.
Zone 1 is working fine.
i check circuit breakers, disconnected the phone type connection in the back of the thermostat (and reconnected)....can't think of anything else i can do.
ANY HELP would be greatly appreciated.
thanks so much
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thanks for this info. i have a 5 button thermostat. i did the reset and got the FF code followed by an EE code...any thoughts?????
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If you get the EE code, it is telling you there is an error somewhere in the system. The t-stat gets its information from the front air conditioner via the 4-wire thermostat phone cable that is daisy chained between the rear air conditioner and the front air conditioner. Is your aqua hot or hydro hot system working properly? Are you plugged into shore power? Is your 12volt system above 12.8 volts? Fred
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Was it colder than it has been when you noticed this? I assume you are using the A/C heat pump-our heat pump only works down to 45F or so, then it won't come on. As for resetting the t-stats, I think you start from t-stat off, then press the two buttons, then power up the t-stat while holding the buttons down.
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the zone is not working at all, but the front zone is working fine. we're not using heat pumps (it's too cold for that)....
i did reset it several times. it started and then shut off within a few minutes.
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yes, my aqua hot is running with no lights other than the normal ones. my front thermostat is working and i get heat from that one.
i did reset the 5 button t-stat several times last night...sometimes i got the FF code and a few times the display came on and so did the heat. but, it didn't last very long (less than 3-4 minutes). I reset again, got FF then EE. let it sit. pulled the telephone looking connection, retried the reset a few more times until it worked.
this morning it seems ok, but i'm hesitant that it won't happen again....
just one more piece of info-----i've only been using zone 1 & 2...we're in montana (temps in the teens and/or 20's). we're living in the coach inside an unheated, partially insulated garage while we work on completing the build. winter came on very early and very furious....we're about 1 to 2 weeks away from getting all the heat done inside the building and hoping we can stay here to do that. i don't use zone3 because it intermittently works (we think it's a sticky valve???) but haven't wanted to mess with it for fear of something going wrong and then we'd have no heat... montana is fairly remote and getting service now is impossible. .i say all this to explain how we got in this situation (not normal for us) and to see if the third zone may have anything to do with our issue....
thanks for listening and for any help!
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Dominic
You say you are inside a building I assume you are not running the diesel burner inside because of carbon monoxide concerns.
If this is the case the Aquahot is only being heated by the electric heating element and may not be able to keep up with demand.
Eric
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I can understand your apprehension and not wanting to lose what you have. I would be suspect of the thermostat based on the information you have provided. If you wanted to prove that the rear thermostat is the issue, you could swap the front with the rear and then reset the thermostats. (reseting the thermostats reboots them and tells them what is attached to them. The 5 button thermostats are no longer available but there is someone out there who rebuilds them. Sorry I don't have that info in front of me. If you choose to upgrade to the replacement 10 button thermostat, you will have to upgrade the pc boards inside each air conditioner. Holiday Blessings and I hope it all works out for you! Fred
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I don't think the t-stat is bad as the OP says all is working well today. I echo what Eric says re: CO dangers when running the aqua hot (or any combustion heater) inside a building. There should be a CO detector in the bedroom ceiling, ours is expired and I have yet to replace it.
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I can understand your apprehension and not wanting to lose what you have. I would be suspect of the thermostat based on the information you have provided. If you wanted to prove that the rear thermostat is the issue, you could swap the front with the rear and then reset the thermostats. (reseting the thermostats reboots them and tells them what is attached to them. The 5 button thermostats are no longer available but there is someone out there who rebuilds them. Sorry I don't have that info in front of me. If you choose to upgrade to the replacement 10 button thermostat, you will have to upgrade the pc boards inside each air conditioner. Holiday Blessings and I hope it all works out for you! Fred
thanks. i did try to swap thermostats, but the front one is one zone and the one that failed is 2 zone. tbh, i forgot what happened when i tried the front t stat in the back, but i didn't think they were compatible so i didn't continue...so far, all is still working today. i'm still not sure what we did to fix it, but i'm hoping maybe there was just dust in the connection? (fingers crossed!). if i do need to have it rebuilt, i'll reach out to the forum as ask if anyone has the name of the person who rebuilds. thanks very much
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Dominic
You say you are inside a building I assume you are not running the diesel burner inside because of carbon monoxide concerns.
If this is the case the Aquahot is only being heated by the electric heating element and may not be able to keep up with demand.
Eric
no, unfortunately, we are not running the diesel due to exhaust issues you mentioned. we expected to have the heat in the building up and running by this time, but unfortunately due to supply issues and an early (and unexpected) cold spell, we are in this predicament....the electric side is keeping up (with the help of an infrared heater) and baseboard heaters we ordered when we bought the coach.
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I don't think the t-stat is bad as the OP says all is working well today. I echo what Eric says re: CO dangers when running the aqua hot (or any combustion heater) inside a building. There should be a CO detector in the bedroom ceiling, ours is expired and I have yet to replace it.
no deisel running while inside the building. we did look into an exhaust hose, external fan and addition CO detector, but it seemed like an overkill considering we expected heat to be up and running by now. hopefully, we're less than 2 weeks away from warmth!!!
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If you get the EE code, it is telling you there is an error somewhere in the system. The t-stat gets its information from the front air conditioner via the 4-wire thermostat phone cable that is daisy chained between the rear air conditioner and the front air conditioner. Is your aqua hot or hydro hot system working properly? Are you plugged into shore power? Is your 12volt system above 12.8 volts? Fred
yes, we're plugged into to 50amp shore power. batteries are less than 1 year old and running well (over 12.8v). AH is running well-front zone is heating as requested.
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The reason I asked if you were plugged into 50amp service was in the event your rear thermostat becomes inoperable, you can plug in a 1500 watt space heater in the bathroom-bedroom area to keep the coach warm. The aqua hot on electric only will not work very well as you have already figured out. Glad to hear you are taking the precautions concerning your safety. Fred
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fred, years ago we installed a "cheater plug" in the motor home. it's an external plug that enables us to use 110v electric directly from the pedestal. it has allowed us to use electric without going through the inverter and we have been using an infrared heater on that source.
all the plugs in the motor home use leg 2, as does the electric aquahot heater, microwave and battery charger. we've thought of sharing some of those loads on to leg 1, but have been hesitant to do so.
just curious, why do you say to plug a heater into the bathroom? is that running through leg 1?
on the positive side, we got our propane tank filled, ran line from tank to the shop....next week the boiler will be installed and we'll be almost ready for heat in the shop! that will be a HUGE game changer for us and most of these motor home issues will be minimalized.
i do appreciate all the input. beaver owners are the best!
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Thanks for the rest of the story. I did not know of your independent source or 120 volts. When I suggested you heat the back portion of the coach, it was based on the ability of the bedroom thermostat to meet your needs. Had you gone that route, I assume you know not to plug an electric heater into an inverter branch circuit. Here is how the original 50 amp service was engineered: 2 incoming legs of 120 volts @50 amps each, They are opposite in phase from each other. You have a total of 100 amps available. When you use a 50 to 30 amp adapter, you give up 70 amps as it only has 1 leg of incoming 120 volts @30 amps which is now split to provide power to both of your existing 2 legs inside your coach. This is where some folks have difficulty sorting out energy management. They quickly learn what they can turn on at the same time as they now have a limited resource.
I am glad to hear that you are close to getting heat in your shop. Sometimes it is difficult for us who are trying to help you understand all of the circumstances you are going thru. Blessings & Joy, Fred
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Thanks for the rest of the story. I did not know of your independent source or 120 volts. When I suggested you heat the back portion of the coach, it was based on the ability of the bedroom thermostat to meet your needs. Had you gone that route, I assume you know not to plug an electric heater into an inverter branch circuit. Here is how the original 50 amp service was engineered: 2 incoming legs of 120 volts @50 amps each, They are opposite in phase from each other. You have a total of 100 amps available. When you use a 50 to 30 amp adapter, you give up 70 amps as it only has 1 leg of incoming 120 volts @30 amps which is now split to provide power to both of your existing 2 legs inside your coach. This is where some folks have difficulty sorting out energy management. They quickly learn what they can turn on at the same time as they now have a limited resource.
I am glad to hear that you are close to getting heat in your shop. Sometimes it is difficult for us who are trying to help you understand all of the circumstances you are going thru. Blessings & Joy, Fred
this may be a bit off topic, but i wanted to share my electric experience. (i'm dominic's wife and have learned ALOT since we started motor homing in 2003), thus we monitor our electric constantly. my first MH trip was to an FMCA rally - i had only dry camped a few times and was so excited to finally have electric for the first time. it was hot and i got to use my air conditioners. it was near dinner so i turned on my microwave. probably had tv and every light on, too! i felt like a queen. my friend was parked next to us and knocked on my door. he said-"you have electric?". i said yeah, it was great. he was surprised since he had no electric. he ran and got a meter, plugged it in my outlet and immediately told me to shut everything down! i had no idea we were only on 30amp service! i think of that story often as i monitor my aladdin and sparingly use my electric!!!!!!