Suburban thermostat

[glennco]

Evening all,


After we picked up our '07 scamp we took it to backus and had them install a furnace. I can't seem to make heads or tails of the thermostat they put in. It's a suburban unit, but the temp adjustment isn't by degree, but by comfort level.

It always seems to shut off at 70f no matter what I have it set at. The manual shows it has a 'sway' adjustment, but not much else.

Anyone else have this thermostat? Any luck with it, or is it just a junker?

Thanks,

Paul

[glennco]

I figured I'd include a photo of the furnace installed, so folks can see how they added it on to a SD that was sold without one.

[multi-task]

I replaced my Suburban thermostat last year when it wouldn't shut off one night. When I replaced it the guys at Trillium told me they do tend to fail. I replaced it with the same model and it's worked fine, however I intend to replaced it with a digital thermostat sometime this year. A few people have done that with a lot of success.

[Ron in BC]

It doesn't seem like you have the same thermostat that I have. Mine looks like a conventional house thermostat. Lever on top moves sideways to whatever setting you want. Put it up really high and it will keep on heating.

The lower area of the unit has a thermometer that shows ambiant temperature.

Does that sound like what you have or is yours different?

[Byron Kinnaman]

I have the same furnace and a Suburban thermostat. Mine does have temperature markings on the case. It seems to work just fine. I did have to replace it and I believe the new one didn't have temperature markings so I just used the old cover.

There lots of room for questions for "seems to shut off at 70F". What shuts off, the flame, the fan? Where's the thermostat located? What's the outside temperature?

Explanation of questions
The fan doesn't shut off until sometime after the flame is shut off. This is to cool the fire box a bit with air moving over it. The thermostat should NOT be located in the air flow from or going to the furnace. It takes a while for the trailer to cool down once it's warmed up inside(insulation doing it's job). If the outside temperature is too warm it will be difficult to test the thermostat setting.

If you're getting cool nights set the thermostat near the minimum, just barely off the lowest setting. Check it in the morning, the temperature should be around 50F.

[mcbrew]

My Scamp doesn't have a furnace, but my old motorhome did. We noticed that the thermostat didn't work very well with the cover on, because it didn't get enough air flow to the sensor. We would pull the cover off while using the furnace, and it worked much better.

[glennco]

The thermostat is over on the rear dinette below the stove, it certainly doesn't have temperature markings.

I believe that 70 is when the fan is shutting off.

We're back-yard camping in the scamp this weekend, so I'm going to have to spend some time playing with it to see if I can figure it out.

I'm fairly sure that suburban is just Jedi mind-tricking me by having a temp adjustment without referencing a temperature directly.

Here's a pic of my installed thermostat.

[CalCop]

I replaced the factory thermostat with a digital one from lowes.

Works great

[Carol H]

Paul, here is a link to the instructions for the Suburban 161154 it incase you dont have it already. Looks like you can adjust it but it gives no indication as what the top marks mean in regards to what temp would be but would have to think that there is a bit of coalition between the location of the bottom temp markings and the top symbols.

[steve dunham]

The thermostat is probably a bimetallic versus a mercury style thermostat such as a Honeywell T87F , The T87F has a temperature variation of +- 1 1/2 deg (3 Deg total) where the bimettallic has a variation of up to +- 5 Deg (10 Deg total) The T87F must be mounted in a level position to operate properly where the bimettallic does not . The inaccuracy of bimetalic thermostats makes it difficult to have a set point that is displayed in degrees thus the ambiguous comfort zone. , Also check behind the thermostat to make sure there is not a large hole in the wall where the cable enters the thermostat . Air moving through the hole fools the thermostat , Secondly check to make sure that the thermostats' anticipator setting is correct and matches your furnace