Gremlins

[DaveD]

Greetings,

This is about my 6th time out in my A122 and I love it. I do have a couple issues that I would like to see if any of you folks may be experiencing.

The first is; the little blue power indicator on the AC power receptacle has stopped working. It is not really necessary, but it was nice to have. If you had this issue, were you able to fix it?

The second issue deals with the heat pump. This was the first time I used the heat pump for heat. The issue is (more of an annoyance) when the fan starts, it stutters then runs normally. I did not notice this with in cooling mode. Is this normal?

Thanks

[64c10]

as for the first issue i dont have that feature on the power cord. On the Heat pump i have also found that same annoying issue, not sure what is going on but the system does seem to be working.

[rkuffler]

My heat pump does the same thing. Comes on, shuts off, comes ons and then it is good. I have had it do that 3 times in a row in the middle of the night. Quite annoying. The next nights I said screw it and used the furnace.

[Witch Doctor]

Originally Posted by DaveD

Greetings,

This is about my 6th time out in my A122 and I love it. I do have a couple issues that I would like to see if any of you folks may be experiencing.

The first is; the little blue power indicator on the AC power receptacle has stopped working. It is not really necessary, but it was nice to have. If you had this issue, were you able to fix it?

The second issue deals with the heat pump. This was the first time I used the heat pump for heat. The issue is (more of an annoyance) when the fan starts, it stutters then runs normally. I did not notice this with in cooling mode. Is this normal?

Thanks

I think what you might be feeling or hearing is the reversing valve. A lot of units the reversing valve is at rest in cooling, when you switch to heat it has to pull the valve over to reverse the flow of freon. Some times it might chatter a bit, but that is it. If this should continue you need to take it in and have it checked. I'm not sure if yours is at rest in cooling or energized. That is not normal. I do not think it's the fan at all but could be, but the only change that is made from heat to cool is the valve itself. I have worked on heat pumps for over 20 years. I'm glad I don't anymore....Hope this helps a little, but it's hard to say with out me hearing it or having a meter on it. Tell you what come to Southern Virginia and I will be happy to check it out for you. It will be a great road trip great camping around here.........

[Pooneil]

I've heard the stutter a weak ago when inadvertently turning the heat pump on( it is still approaching 100 here.) It is good to know that it is common and apparently normal occurrence.

My power cord input cover does glow blue so unfortunately I haven't looked beyond that. All I can think of is to check for a broken conductor where the wires go through the hinge or at what ever connectors are used, if they are accessible. If you find the fault, please let us know.

[rkuffler]

Originally Posted by gljurczyk

I think what you might be feeling or hearing is the reversing valve. A lot of units the reversing valve is at rest in cooling, when you switch to heat it has to pull the valve over to reverse the flow of freon. Some times it might chatter a bit, but that is it. If this should continue you need to take it in and have it checked. I'm not sure if yours is at rest in cooling or energized. That is not normal. I do not think it's the fan at all but could be, but the only change that is made from heat to cool is the valve itself. I have worked on heat pumps for over 20 years. I'm glad I don't anymore....Hope this helps a little, but it's hard to say with out me hearing it or having a meter on it. Tell you what come to Southern Virginia and I will be happy to check it out for you. It will be a great road trip great camping around here.........

It seems to do this even after it has been in heat mode. Through out the night (Obviously heat on) when it kicks in it starts (the fan) for a second or two, then it will shutoff and then the fan will kick in again and usually stay on. But I have had it do this 3 or 4 times in a row when it goes to start up.

Could it be due to being too cold outside (was probably around 0 degrees celcius) and it having issues? Seems to be more evident when it is colder out at night.

[jmfpanzerman]

Same here...our heat pump does the same. Like starting an old prop plane but, it works and we have had no issues.

[Wilky]

Had mine do same thing. First time I took it back I was told I was running it when it was too cold out. The second time I took it back and expanded it was 55 out the run some check and found a circuit board was bad. I now works like a charm. Apparently the heat pump and ac use different circuits some one could work and the other one misbehaves

[Witch Doctor]

Originally Posted by rkuffler

It seems to do this even after it has been in heat mode. Through out the night (Obviously heat on) when it kicks in it starts (the fan) for a second or two, then it will shutoff and then the fan will kick in again and usually stay on. But I have had it do this 3 or 4 times in a row when it goes to start up.

Could it be due to being too cold outside (was probably around 0 degrees celcius) and it having issues? Seems to be more evident when it is colder out at night.

That is pretty cold to use a heat pump, if the temp drops below 32 degrees it will cause a problem besides no hot air at all. You shouldn't really run it past 40 degrees. The fan you are talking about is it the blower motor or the condenser fan motor? If you have any ice built up on your condenser coil you are getting air trapped and it can't suck through the coil until it starts to melt enough. That will cause the unit to vibrate a lot. The indoor fan should stay on. Is your indoor fan 1 speed or 2 ? This will also cause it to try and find the speed it should be on. You do not see that much, If you read your specs you can see if it is. If not and it's single speed then you have a problem if it dropping out and restarting. Could be a bad board, You also have sensor on your coil or your board has a timer built in to put in the defrost mode, which is just reversing the valve again but then it will shut down your condenser fan motor. Still your indoor blower should stay on during that cycle, But it will blow cold air unless you have heat strips installed. That's really the basic's of a heat pump. hope this helps a little.

[DaveD]

Thanks for all the replies. It looks like the heat pump issue is more common than I thought. I did some checking and found that for one, there is a low ambient temp lock out that will not allow the pump to run if the outside temp is below 30 degrees F. For two, I called Dometic and found out the fan should not cycle. This could be a problem with a control board. I then called my RV servicing shop and they said "bring it on in and we'll check it out'. They also suggested to try running it at home and see if it is still happening. That sounded like a good suggestion, so I gave it a try and guess what, no more stutter. This leads me to believe that there may have been a power issue at my dad's house. I guess I'll find out the next time I take the 122 out.

As far as my issue with the blue LED power indicator, I took the cover apart. I found that the two leads going to the led had gotten pinched when they screwed the cover together. The wires are too fine and short for me to repair, so I guess I'll just have to do without. 😞

Cheers

[D-mo]

never run the heat/cooler without a thirty amp hookup ... this is the soul problem ..
d-mo