Remote thermostat

[Kev C]

Did you do it your self Or have a professional do it?

[Carl n Susan]

Originally Posted by Kev C

Did you do it your self Or have a professional do it?

If you are referring to me, I had the dealer do it as a warranty item. But that was 16 years ago and a different Montana from what I have now.

[Jimbo1201]

So I finally tackled the changeover from that ridiculous remote thermostat to the 5 button CCC. The couple that I bought my 2006 3295RK in from early 2021 had replaced the A/C in 2019 and were still having problems in 2020 so they contacted Dometic and were told that he would have to change out the control unit and thermostat. They recommended the 5 button CCC. The part numbers are 3109226.005 for the control unit and then 3109228.001 for the thermostat/wall unit. The prior owner had ordered the parts but did not install them. Luckily he did not return the parts and I bought them off of him.

I keep my rig parked in an RV resort here in Lutz, FL and use it as a weekend/getaway place and needless to say, mid June is quite warm so I obviously must be crazy to tempt this now. Let me say I am not an RV tech but I am confident in minor home repair. With that said, anyone thinking about doing this project needs to go to Mazeef's description of his installation. It is located on page 4 post #64. I followed that step by step. I did miss the one part about the dip switches but I'll explain later. Unfortunately the pictures from that post are no longer visible but his description was enough for me to see what he was doing.

The entire install took me about an 1 hour and 30 minutes. As of right now the A/C is working. Now for the explaination.

I missed the step to check that dip switch #5 was to be on. After I had made all of the connections and buttoned up the filter, I replaced the 12 volt fuse and threw the 120 volt circuit breaker. Just as Mazeef said the CCC read EE and I followed his instruction and rebooted the thermostat. I went through the modes and it showed Cool, Fan and Off. There was no display for Furnace. It was then that I recalled the step about the dip switches. I again killed the 12 volt and 120 volt power, removed the cover and found the switches. It looked like all 8 were in the same position and assuming they were off, I flipped #5. Reactivate the 12 and 120 volt, no furnace. Deactivate 12 and 120. After I looked at the control unit manual and oriented myself, I realized that the switches were all on and I had turned off #5. I then turn them all off except for #5. Reactivate the 12 and 120 volt and now the thermostat shows EE but the A/C isn't working. I try to reboot but when I release the Mode and Zone buttons the EE reappears. Deactivate again and put the swirches all back into the on position, reactivate and the A/c comes on. The thermostat is in EE again but the reboot works. I go through the modes and still no furnace. Remember I said that I am in Lutz, Florida? Well the outside temperature at 11:30 A.M. is at 88. It was 82 outside when I started at 10:00 A.M. and the inside temp was at 75. At 11:30 the inside temp was climbing to 85. Luckily the A/C is still working but the CCC wont show the furnace. I let it run for about an hour and at 12:20 the inside temp is at 79. Still a little warm but hey we're in the sub tropics, right. So I called Dometic and after waiting 5 and a half minutes, finally got through to that danged automated customer service crap. When I got to the part that I believed was where I needed to be the message was that they were closed for their hour lunch from 12:30-1:30 EDT. So I will call again later but in the mean time I may make sure that the furnace wires are attached to the blue wires before I speak with Dometic. I hope to have good news and be able to post it.

Don't fear this project as long as you have a basic understanding of home wiring and mechanical abilities.

[Jimbo1201]

Just an update to my last post.

I will try to make this brief. I called again at 2:00 P.M. and was on hold for one hour and 15 minutes before getting connected to a live customer service rep. After explaining the entire situation to her she informed me that they are not technicians and really are not able to answer technical/installation questions but would do as much as possible. I explained that the A/C appeared to be working but the 5 button CCC was not recognizing the furnace. After being on the phone with her another 30-45 minutes, the final outcome was that she could not find any answers to solve my problem. She asked me if I had verified that the furnace was working prior to swapping out the control box and thermostat to which I had explained with 90 plus degree, I did not try the furnace however it did work fine in March when we needed it while still using that remote system.

She then suggested that maybe my furnace wires were possibly faulty and that I should reinstall the old system and try the furnace. Needless to say, I was not pleased to hear that and quite disappointed that I was not referred to a technical department person to bounce this off of, not mention that I just spent almost 2 hours on the phone with DOMETIC only to be told to reinstall the old system to verify that the furnace worked.

So I thanked her for her time and hung up. I did do a temporary installation of the old system. I was able to get the unit to cool and then I shut down the air conditioning and turned the "desired" temp high enough to start the furnace and bada-bing, the furnace kicked on. So much for faulty furnace wires.

I already wasted half a day so I was not about to call again and be told that they had no solution. I reinstalled the new system since at this time in Florida, heat is the last thing I need. I went onto the Dometic website and found a contact us email address for technical service: TECHNICAL SERVICE - Phone: 800-Dometic E-Mail: techservice@dometic.com I sent them a very detailed description of the problem on the following day (June 17, 2021).

Well here we are, July 25, 2021 and still no response from them. I re-sent the email to that web address and I hope to hear something from them soon. I really believe that the control box is faulty since it does not seem to recognize the furnace. The dip switches are all on because that's the only way I can get the A/C to work. If I turn all of the dip switches off except #5, the one dedicated for the furnace, the entire system won't even boot up.

Anyone have any ideas?

[NicL2479]

Soo im going to attempt the upgrade on my 2005 Keystone Big Sky Montana 3295RK, the Existing remote control one is very frustrating. Sooo I contacted Dometic and they had me order Control Box 3312020.000 and 10 button wall thermostat 3314082.000. They don't make the thermostat suggested in the above posts anymore. I couldn't find it anywhere, says it was discontinued. Soo anyways. Is there a manual for this new conversion with these items and detailed instructions? I'm kinda lost here and don't know where to start. I also have a new RV rj-11 cord to do this. Do I need to somehow pull the cord through the roof and wall to connect the new thermostat to the new control box, how in the heck do I get this done??? Any help would be extremely appreciated!! Soo lost right now.

[Joint Venture II]

Originally Posted by NicL2479

Soo im going to attempt the upgrade on my 2005 Keystone Big Sky Montana 3295RK, the Existing remote control one is very frustrating. Sooo I contacted Dometic and they had me order Control Box 3312020.000 and 10 button wall thermostat 3314082.000. They don't make the thermostat suggested in the above posts anymore. I couldn't find it anywhere, says it was discontinued.

I found both units at Camper World @ $432 https://www.campingworld.com/cart
Will wait till I talk to Dometic.