Cedar Creek Cottage - owners check-in thread

[Mdaniels4]

Thanjs, Gary. Going there tomorrow afternoon. When it's lowered I always strap it down.

As far as the fridge goes, we'll see if anything is different. I just bought a thermometer to see where it's at, vs my home fridge. I'll check the side vents, inside and outside, but I may just have a defective refrigerator. Like I said, freezer works fine, so hard to believe it's not transferring cold to the box.

[Big-Foot]

I was hoping to find a good model/year specific owners manual for our 40CFE, but I am told it does not exist. Did everyone get the "generic camper" owners manuals?

[Mdaniels4]

Originally Posted by Big-Foot

I was hoping to find a good model/year specific owners manual for our 40CFE, but I am told it does not exist. Did everyone get the "generic camper" owners manuals?

Yep. Lots of the how to install stuff. Not much of how to operate. Really moronic when you think about it. Stupid manual. Warnings on towing mainly. My trailer will never move from the so until I trade it. I could write a better manual. For 50 k I certainly could. tell me how to operate what I bought!!!! What do you want to know? The cottages are all the same. Just a different layout is all. I've had now 4. 3 fivers and now the cottage. They're all pretty similar.

[cck camper]

Last week I installed some peel and stick backsplash in the bathroom. It adds some much needed color and looks like the real stuff.

[Mdaniels4]

That looks great, cck. That peel and stick is just awesome. Put it in my last one around the stove. Really looked nice too.

[etcmss]

back splash looks nice.
Has anyone replaced the carpet flooring with a laminate or other?

(bedroom or kitchen/table area).
Ours has one section trim unraveling by the frig and is unsightly, so we have considered replacement-likely this next season. Carpet poor quality and am certain its life is very limited.
Gary

[cck camper]

We have not replaced any of our flooring. We prefer the carpet, 3rd season and all is good so far. Although it's not top quality it's much better than what was in our previous Wildwood. We do have an annoying kitchen floor creak when standing in front of our counter by the appliance compartment. Must be a flooring joint there. Does anyone know a simple cure for that?

[Mdaniels4]

Refrigerator is now fixed. Whirlpool did a great job. Called them on Friday. They set up a tech here in the twin cities. They came down this afternoon, replaced the fan in the freezer. It sounds like a refrigerator should sound - like running! It was not taking the air from the freezer into the lower compartment. Since the freezer seemed fine, I figured it was either the lower compartment sensors or the fan, as I didn't hear that run at all. Unless it was so quiet.

[richard6335]

I have been draining the hot water heater which sits right on the trailer tongue prior to towing. Takes another 200#s off. Dealer installed an inverter which allows the fridge to keep cooling during transit. The refrigerator did tip and open first move but that got our attention and resolved quick. I have noticed some trim pieces starting to separate after towing on my 2017 Cottage but no other issues so far. Parked at KARS park on Merritt Island along the Banana River for over three months and it was an awesome spot.

[Big-Foot]

I agree that the backsplash looks quite nice. I'd never heard of peel and stick before!
MD - Good news on that fridge!
Carpet replacement --
I think I mentioned earlier that I have plans on replacing my carpeting in the livingroom area at least with a laminated flooring.
I've used Allure Ultra vinyl laminate with great success and plan on using it again with the trailer. The carpeting in our 2014 is not in very good shape and don't think it was of very good quality to begin with..

Richard - welcome to the group!!! Good tips!

[Cottage_Owner]

Originally Posted by Mdaniels4

Refrigerator is now fixed. Whirlpool did a great job. Called them on Friday. They set up a tech here in the twin cities. They came down this afternoon, replaced the fan in the freezer. It sounds like a refrigerator should sound - like running! It was not taking the air from the freezer into the lower compartment. Since the freezer seemed fine, I figured it was either the lower compartment sensors or the fan, as I didn't hear that run at all. Unless it was so quiet.

We have a Whirlpool Refrigerator inside our building at our permanent site. It, too, lost the fan. This might be a common thing. However, it was 5 years old when it happened. I, too, thought it might be the thermostat, but found the freezer cold and the fan wasn't turning. Disassembled the covers to get to the fan (fairly straight forward), turned off the power, removed the wires and metered the motor. Yep, open. Ordered replacement, installed it, replaced covers and all is well. Not expensive (under $25 thru Amazon). Hardest part of all was finding the part number (Google solved).

[Big-Foot]

Welcome to the group CO!

[Mdaniels4]

Welcome to the group, cottage! The tech said that they'd had previous reports on these fans. Which is why I assume he had the right fan for that model in his truck. Gee. What a surprise!! I'll Rembert your pistol if it goes out of warranty and fails again.

[Gibbsey]

Not sure where to post this but were getting a surfer smell from our hot water heater. We only use it on the weekends. Anyone else have this issue? Any suggestions?
Thanks
Gibbsey

[Big-Foot]

Welcome to the group Gibbsey!

I'm pretty sure you meant Sulpher smell and have heard of that before and it's not good.
Check out this thread and the information it provides ---
https://www.waterlogic.com/en-us/res...e-rotten-eggs/

I use a whole house filtration system on mine.

[cck camper]

We also experienced a sulphuric smell in our hot water when we were weekenders. This happens when hard well water sits idle in a water heater. To cure this, I would disconnect my water supply hose, carefully place a bottle cap amount of straight bleach into the hose and reconnect. I then turn on the bathroom hot water faucet for about 30 seconds so the bleach solution is fed into to the hot water heater. Turn off the water and let it set for about 30 min. Then I run the hot water for about 5 min to dilute and then use as normal. For us, the rotten egg smell was gone and at most, there may be a temporary hint of bleach smell, like with city water.

[theczar]

Originally Posted by Cottage_Owner

We have a Whirlpool Refrigerator inside our building at our permanent site. It, too, lost the fan. This might be a common thing. However, it was 5 years old when it happened. I, too, thought it might be the thermostat, but found the freezer cold and the fan wasn't turning. Disassembled the covers to get to the fan (fairly straight forward), turned off the power, removed the wires and metered the motor. Yep, open. Ordered replacement, installed it, replaced covers and all is well. Not expensive (under $25 thru Amazon). Hardest part of all was finding the part number (Google solved).

Cottage owner, I think I have the same issue as you, I assume you had to access from the rear?? When you say "metered the motor. Yep, open." I assume you are using an Continuity (Ohm Meter) tester, are you say the fan motor leads should indicate a closed circuit? Any additional info would be appreciated.

[Cottage_Owner]

Originally Posted by theczar

Cottage owner, I think I have the same issue as you, I assume you had to access from the rear?? When you say "metered the motor. Yep, open." I assume you are using an Continuity (Ohm Meter) tester, are you say the fan motor leads should indicate a closed circuit? Any additional info would be appreciated.

All access was inside the freezer compartment. A couple of screws to remove the cover plate, directional flow cover to the lower box compartment that has pins, which were removed by compressing each side by hand and lifting up. Removed the wires from the fan, they just pull off with needle nosed pliers. Used ohm meter and measured the two terminals, showed open. This should show some resistance in order for motor to work. Removed two screws that were holding motor to bracket. Replaced motor, re-attached wires, replaced covers, turned on. Fan ran as expected. A few hours to cool down (24 recommended by Whirlpool) and all was good.

Now, that being said, I'm not sure about the one in the Cottage, ours is not here yet, still on assembly line (we think? --- salesman has not confirmed). As I said in my original post, this is the Whirlpool in the building on our lot.

Hope this helps.

[theczar]

Originally Posted by Cottage_Owner

All access was inside the freezer compartment. A couple of screws to remove the cover plate, directional flow cover to the lower box compartment that has pins, which were removed by compressing each side by hand and lifting up. Removed the wires from the fan, they just pull off with needle nosed pliers. Used ohm meter and measured the two terminals, showed open. This should show some resistance in order for motor to work. Removed two screws that were holding motor to bracket. Replaced motor, re-attached wires, replaced covers, turned on. Fan ran as expected. A few hours to cool down (24 recommended by Whirlpool) and all was good.

Now, that being said, I'm not sure about the one in the Cottage, ours is not here yet, still on assembly line (we think? --- salesman has not confirmed). As I said in my original post, this is the Whirlpool in the building on our lot.

Hope this helps.

It helped a lot but it was not my problem. Not sure why, but I never thought it was serviceable from inside the Freezer. So I looked and sure enough could see how the rear panel needed to be removed. I did not think the problem was in the fan since I could hear something whirring but since the freezer would be at 5 and the Fridge at 50 knew it had to be in the exchange of the cooling between them. Ironically, as soon as I removed the cover the fan kicked it so it for sure was not that. I soon saw the problem. There is a formed Styrofoam insert that sandwiches with the removed panel. It forms a couple channels to distribute the cooling between the Freezer and fridge and has some aluminum duct tape as well. This also includes the baffle that regulates the flow between them.

Well, right after the baffle on that piece, the foam was damaged (from the factory) and the tape around it was also damaged so much of the cooling was simply going back towards the cooling fins behind it. I had some aluminum tape and re-formed and sealed the channel so that the air would not escape back but go to the fridge as designed

Waiting for things to cool down but am confident this is the problem. CO Thank you very much for your help. With your and MDaniels help from another thread, this big problem was easily fixed.

[Cottage_Owner]

Happy that you found your problem.