As long as we’re talking RV’s lets share this one with you.  Garry N replaced the thermal switch on the water bay heater of his motorhome with a more robust one made by, you guessed it- Senasys.  Here’s what he told us about it:

“We used your firm’s thermal switch to replace the one installed by the factory on our 2006 motorhome.  After a good deal of research, we determined the folowing:

1. The thermal switches installed by [the motorhome manufacturer] are rated for residential/commercial purposes, not for motorhomes.  This often results in early failure.  Many motorhome couples report that they need to replace their switches every year, when using their motorhomes year-round.

2. The thermal switch in our motorhome was rated to turn on our water bay heater at 25 degrees fahrenheit.  Since this is below freezing, it did not protect our water bay.  The replacement switch we purchased from your firm is rated to turn on at 35 degrees.  After reading the motorhome manufacturer’s manual, we belive the old switch was a manufacturer’s mistake–their manual indicated our old switch should have activated somewhere between 32 and 40 degrees (36 ± 4 degrees).

3. We selected your firm’s product because the specifications at your website indicated your switch is built more durably.

So far, we have been very pleased with the performance of your company’s switch.”

Perusing some RVing blogs, it turns out there are plenty of uses for bi-metal snap disc thermostats in a motorhome.  We look forward to hearing more about it!  Safe Travels!

Thermal switch specs: #2511L003-2132 (Close 35°F min, Open 45°F max)

This application note covers the use of a 2570 thermostat repackaged for heaver duty applications. A large US based military vehicle company contacted us about a version of our thermostat that they could use in a harsh environment, high temperature application.

They needed the device to be very rugged and robust but based on common commercial products with a long experience of performance in the field and quick availability.

The application was to improve the cold start ability of their approx 500hp diesel engine. They needed the thermostat to trigger a cold start process when the engine oil temperature was near or below freezing. They key requirement was to have the snap thermostat mount in a 1/2 NPT thread hole that they already had on their equipment.

We didn’t have any bimetal thermostats that met their description on our shelf, but were able to quickly adapt a unit for this application. The unit below was machined and tested in a few weeks to get them test samples. This included using their specified high temperature cables. (200ºC 16AWG)

These devices were calibrated to insure the temperature performance in the new housing was consistent. The large contact surface with the engine allowed the limit style snap switch to match the temperatures very closely. These ‘limit’ style switches turned the system on at or below 32 degrees and turned the cold start system off once the temperature increased to 42 degrees F.