2016 Cyclone 4250 Triple AC units

hankmillerusa · Mar 10, 2016

I am in need to understand how the 3 ac unit system works. One in bedroom, one in den/kitchen area, one in garage. I have a white switch that looks like a light switch, but it has 3 positions. I know this does something towards directing the 3 ACs, but cant figure out and have yet been able to find instructions just for this. Does anyone know how this system is set up. The three thermostats are dometic, bed and den are same, the one in garage has a heat strip on it.
Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Hank Miller

danemayer · Mar 10, 2016

Hi Hank,

The switch allows you to run 2 of the 3 air conditioners at the same time. Heartland has wired the switch in different ways over time and it appears that there's no agreement among owners over how it all should be set up. Depends on how you use the trailer.

If you run some experiments where you flip the switch to a position and then try to turn on all 3 air conditioners, you'll find which ones operate in each switch position.

In your main circuit breaker panel there are 2 breakers supplying power to the 3 air conditioners. One breaker powers the air conditioner that can be turned on in either switch position. The other breaker's power is switched to one unit or the other.

If you don't like the current setup, it's possible to have your dealer rearrange the wiring to suit your needs.

It's also possible to add a breaker and power all three units independently, allowing all three to run at the same time. However, doing so may require rearrangement of other breakers in the panel to balance power usage across the two power legs. And when running on generator power, you probably won't be able to run all three units - which is why Heartland uses the switch.

hankmillerusa · Mar 10, 2016

Dan, thank you so much. Makes perfect sense, except to think that a large company like Heartland allows the installers to set switch whichever way they want. Crazy. I will check out your guidance now. Thank you again.

danemayer said:
Hi Hank,

The switch allows you to run 2 of the 3 air conditioners at the same time. Heartland has wired the switch in different ways over time and it appears that there's no agreement among owners over how it all should be set up. Depends on how you use the trailer.

If you run some experiments where you flip the switch to a position and then try to turn on all 3 air conditioners, you'll find which ones operate in each switch position.

In your main circuit breaker panel there are 2 breakers supplying power to the 3 air conditioners. One breaker powers the air conditioner that can be turned on in either switch position. The other breaker's power is switched to one unit or the other.

If you don't like the current setup, it's possible to have your dealer rearrange the wiring to suit your needs.

It's also possible to add a breaker and power all three units independently, allowing all three to run at the same time. However, doing so may require rearrangement of other breakers in the panel to balance power usage across the two power legs. And when running on generator power, you probably won't be able to run all three units - which is why Heartland uses the switch.

danemayer · Mar 10, 2016

hankmillerusa said:
Dan, thank you so much. Makes perfect sense, except to think that a large company like Heartland allows the installers to set switch whichever way they want. Crazy. I will check out your guidance now. Thank you again.

Hank,

I'm afraid I didn't express it clearly. The installers do what they're told.

Heartland tried it one way and got some complaints. Then they tried it the other way to respond to those complaints, and the people who liked it the first way complained.

The Cyclone is a very flexible coach that supports many different types of usage and there doesn't seem to be a single answer that makes everyone happy.

hankmillerusa · Mar 10, 2016

Dan,
I made the comment sort of surprised, but Cyclone is still my favorite toy. Thanks for clarifying.
Hank

danemayer said:
Hank,

I'm afraid I didn't express it clearly. The installers do what they're told.

Heartland tried it one way and got some complaints. Then they tried it the other way to respond to those complaints, and the people who liked it the first way complained.

The Cyclone is a very flexible coach that supports many different types of usage and there doesn't seem to be a single answer that makes everyone happy.

beasleyrl · Mar 12, 2016

Dan has it right. The switch controls the front and main AC on my 2016 4250. The rear is on regardless of the switch. We tend to use it to flip the opposite of where we are so we don't have to listen to the AC. In other words, at night, we run the AC in the center. During the day, we run the front and back.

ram_1955 · Mar 13, 2016

beasleyrl said:
Dan has it right. The switch controls the front and main AC on my 2016 4250. The rear is on regardless of the switch. We tend to use it to flip the opposite of where we are so we don't have to listen to the AC. In other words, at night, we run the AC in the center. During the day, we run the front and back.

Your setup is the same as my 2016 RW413

pcardoza · Mar 15, 2016

This is also how our '14 4100 King came configured. We didn't like it and had the dealer rewire it. Now our LR AC is always powered and the switch toggles between the garage and bedroom units. The bedroom unit is so loud, that when two units are needed, running the lr/garage units cools the entire RV on even the warmest nights, while the bedroom stays very quiet. During the day, the BR/LR units can keep the entire RV cool while we sit in the garage or LR. we do use our garage as a sort of family room with the deck. No toys for us..... ;-)

beasleyrl said:
Dan has it right. The switch controls the front and main AC on my 2016 4250. The rear is on regardless of the switch. We tend to use it to flip the opposite of where we are so we don't have to listen to the AC. In other words, at night, we run the AC in the center. During the day, we run the front and back.

hankmillerusa · Mar 15, 2016

Thanks for your response. That makes the most sense. I will have the same done. I appreciate you sharing your experience.

pcardoza said:
This is also how our '14 4100 King came configured. We didn't like it and had the dealer rewire it. Now our LR AC is always powered and the switch toggles between the garage and bedroom units. The bedroom unit is so loud, that when two units are needed, running the lr/garage units cools the entire RV on even the warmest nights, while the bedroom stays very quiet. During the day, the BR/LR units can keep the entire RV cool while we sit in the garage or LR. we do use our garage as a sort of family room with the deck. No toys for us..... ;-)

JW4250 · Sep 29, 2016

I saw in another post (now closed) that you can remove the a/c switch and wire the 3 black wires and the 3 white wires together and eliminate the switch all together. With this set up, you can run any 2 of the 3 a/c's that you like. Only question I have is, are you to twist the 2 sets of 3 wires (black and white) and twist those together too? As in all 6 wires twisted together? or keep the 3 white separate from the 3 blacks? Thx.

pcardoza · Sep 30, 2016

I had our 4100 King rewired so that the LR unit was always powered. The switch now controls whether the BR or Garage units get power. To ME, this setup seems to make more sense than the factory setup of having the Garage unit as the always on unit, with the switch choosing between the LR and BR units.

Cane.MBA · Nov 13, 2016

Question for those of you with the selector switch on your 4250. Where is the switch located? We have a 2017 4250, and I think Heartland changed the selector switch to a Power Control System. If you have the selector switch do you also have an LED readout?

danemayer · Nov 13, 2016

Cane.MBA said:
Question for those of you with the selector switch on your 4250. Where is the switch located? We have a 2017 4250, and I think Heartland changed the selector switch to a Power Control System. If you have the selector switch do you also have an LED readout?

View attachment 48521

The point of the Power Control System is to manage power consumption so there's no need for a switch.

Cane.MBA · Nov 13, 2016

That's what I thought, thank you for confirming. So given that I have the power controller my AC units should be independent correct? The reason I ask is that we have three thermostats, one per unit. The master bedroom AC stays on no matter what temperature we set. Honestly, I haven't had any time to look at the thermostat and suspect that's where the issue is. It's our first camper so there is always something to look at, organize, set up, or put away. My other challenge is figuring out how to get my DIRECTV dish hooked up. I found all the docs, my challenge on our last trip was too many trees to get a signal.

jam20ster · Nov 13, 2016

Also, you can have an electrician balance out the load panel and run all 3 ac's at the same time. This can only be done while on shore power though. When using the generator you will still be only able to run any 2 since that's all it can handle.

With all 3 ac's working together the unit stays much cooler and holds temp much better.

LBR · Nov 13, 2016

Cane.MBA said:
Question for those of you with the selector switch on your 4250. Where is the switch located? We have a 2017 4250, and I think Heartland changed the selector switch to a Power Control System. If you have the selector switch do you also have an LED readout?

View attachment 48521

Our 2017 built in September (2017 1/2?) CY is the same....no selector switch and has the Power Command Center

danemayer · Nov 13, 2016

Cane.MBA said:
The master bedroom AC stays on no matter what temperature we set.

Check the FAN setting on that thermostat. If it's on HIGH or LOW, the fan will run continuously when the thermostat is on either HEAT or COOL. You'll generally want the FAN set to AUTO.

- - - Updated - - -

jam20ster said:
Also, you can have an electrician balance out the load panel and run all 3 ac's at the same time. This can only be done while on shore power though. When using the generator you will still be only able to run any 2 since that's all it can handle.

With all 3 ac's working together the unit stays much cooler and holds temp much better.

On units with a Power Control System, all 3 units will run at the same time if you have sufficient power and aren't using it on other appliances.

Balancing the load by changing wires around is more complicated with the Power Control System and you'd likely end up interfering with its ability to manage power consumption.

2016 Cyclone 4250 Triple AC units

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