Atwood Thermostat

[beartoothclimb]

I have the thermostat pictured. Has anyone ever tried to tweak the coil to make it looser and change the temperature range? Right now mine feels like it has a ranged of 40°-Hot. I'd like to lower that so it would only comes on at say 0° or 15°. Are there any alternatives that anybody has used?

 

[Bosque Bill]

My thermostat is slightly different, but the internals may be the same. There is an adjustment inside which controls the hysteresis, offhand I don't recall what term they use. Did you get a little brochure manual as it is in there? I had to adjust mine quite a bit to get it more reasonable.

 

[DesertDave]

I posted an alternative installation here http://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/topic/9895-another-thermostat-thread/

 

[billharr]

I have the thermostat pictured. Has anyone ever tried to tweak the coil to make it looser and change the temperature range? Right now mine feels like it has a ranged of 40°-Hot. I'd like to lower that so it would only comes on at say 0° or 15°. Are there any alternatives that anybody has used?

0° or 15° Here in CA we have a word for that No-com-pren-de. At 15 degrees I would think all your water would be frozen. I would go with a digital, I like to program mine to come on just before I want to get out of bed.

 

[beartoothclimb]

Hmm. Still not seeing any for the temp range I want. Im going to start messing with mine.

Those cold temps are the norm up here in MT. Most of the water doesn't freeze

 

[Yukon]

You may have a problem with this need. I looked at a LOT of thermostats for my 4-Wheel Eagle for the same reason. I camp in the Winter. I got a "Hunter" brand digital thermostat and it has worked well for a number of years. BUT, it only goes down to 45 degrees. I have seen other posts on these blogs of others who have experimented with different thermostats. I was never able to find one that goes as low are you are suggesting. Here's another issue. If you get one that is digital, like mine, with batteries inside, the batteries can generate a "low battery" on the display when they get cold. So, when camping at 13 degrees (which I have done), I had to warm up the thermostat battery to get it to work correctly. And to reply to the other fellow's statement; yes, things do freeze inside the camper even though we have an artic pack liner.

Chris

 

[beartoothclimb]

You may have a problem with this need. I looked at a LOT of thermostats for my 4-Wheel Eagle for the same reason. I camp in the Winter. I got a "Hunter" brand digital thermostat and it has worked well for a number of years. BUT, it only goes down to 45 degrees. I have seen other posts on these blogs of others who have experimented with different thermostats. I was never able to find one that goes as low are you are suggesting. Here's another issue. If you get one that is digital, like mine, with batteries inside, the batteries can generate a "low battery" on the display when they get cold. So, when camping at 13 degrees (which I have done), I had to warm up the thermostat battery to get it to work correctly. And to reply to the other fellow's statement; yes, things do freeze inside the camper even though we have an artic pack liner.

Chris

Bummer.

I was almost thinking of rigging a timer and just have the heater come on at set intervals. After a few times Im sure I could figure out a decent idea of how comfortable a setting is based on outside temps and timing interval.

 

[Bad Habit]

I posted an alternative installation here http://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/topic/9895-another-thermostat-thread/

I followed your lead on this thermostat and it fits my needs. Thanks for finding and sharing the info. It's nice that it has the digital display that shows current temp too (at least I thought it was until in Palm Desert a few weeks again, it doesn't read above 99, at night, going to bed, it was still stuck at 99. Not a comfortable sleep)

 

[beartoothclimb]

I actually took some needle nose pliers to where the small coil connects to the arm you adjust the thermostat with and turned the whole thing. Works like a charm now. My range is probably 0-50° F now.