Yeti question

[Emees]

I apologize in advance is this is the wrong area to post this, but I am a newbie, so please redirect me if needed. We have the yeti package on our new BH 3970RD that we have had for one week officially now! We are learning leaps and bounds about this capable rig each day, usually through the trials and tribulations. Today it's the yeti system. We tried to use it for the first time as we are currently in NC and it's been freezing since last night and currently snowing, expected to get even colder over night. When my husband flipped the switches for the yeti system, the red lights came on for a couple seconds then went off and he feels like he heard a "click." He thinks a fuse got blown, but when he checked the box, all was well and we definitely still have power to everything as far as we can tell. Are we doing something wrong? Shouldn't the lights stay on if it is in fact working? Help please!


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[danemayer]

Hi Emees,

There are normally two switches. One turns on the thermostatically controlled heat tape on the fresh water feed line. The other turns on the tank heating pads.

The heating pads are energized continuously when turned on and the switch probably stays illuminated.

The fresh water line heat tape may go on and off as the heat tape demands power. So it's possible the light goes on and off. That said, I was under the impression it stays on the whole time the switch is in the ON position.

You may be hearing a relay click. On some models I think Heartland uses a 12V switch and a relay to energize the 120V AC tank heating pads. But it should stay on.

You should check the fuses and circuit breakers in the main panels in the coach to make sure nothing has blown or tripped.

 

[Emees]

Thanks for the info! I will have him check again. If it is blowing the fuse or flipping the breaker, why would it do that? We had hardly anything "on" at the time we tried it.


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[Emees]

No flipped breaker or blown fuse


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[danemayer]

Blown fuses or tripped circuit breakers are usually caused by short circuits. The good news is that you don't have that.

Next step would be to pull the switches away from the panel and check the wires on the back of the switches to make sure nothing's loose. There may be a relay on the other end of the wires. If you can get to it to check for loose wires that would be something to check as well. And if you can get to the relay, try operating the switch while listening to the relay operation.

 

[Emees]

So interestingly enough, once it became dark, requiring us to turn on a light in the bathroom, we found that it wouldn't come on. So of course my husband checked the breaker and fuse and found that the fuse for the bathroom was blown. Thankfully we have learned in the past week to keep extras on hand, so he replaced it and of course the light worked. However, he also found that the yeti system lights illuminated as well! He said he read in these forums somewhere that the yeti system uses a GFCI outlet, guess we found out which one! Once we thought about it, I had my hair straightener plugged in and on at that time, so I'm not sure if that was the problem. But all is well now after a replaced fuse for the bathroom and not the yeti, as we had originally looked at. Maybe this will save someone else a headache!


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[Emees]

Well, after replacing the fuse, we tried to turn on the system once more before going to bed. The fuse for the bathroom blew again. After we changed it again, we found that it could handle the load of the line warmer, but not the heating pads. Hubs thinks we need a bigger fuse in that slot, one that can accommodate more. However, we know nothing about electrical so we will be doing some research. Any thoughts/suggestions??


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[danemayer]

Well, after replacing the fuse, we tried to turn on the system once more before going to bed. The fuse for the bathroom blew again. After we changed it again, we found that it could handle the load of the line warmer, but not the heating pads. Hubs thinks we need a bigger fuse in that slot, one that can accommodate more. However, we know nothing about electrical so we will be doing some research. Any thoughts/suggestions??


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Hi Emees,

You don't want to go to a larger fuse. Unless the factory or dealer installed an undersized fuse, putting in a larger one would be a safety issue.

Let's make sure we're on the same page to start:

The fuses are for 12V DC.
The circuit breakers in the main panel inside are for 120V AC.
The GFCI in the bathroom is for 120V AC, and protects the bathroom outlet, exterior outlets, and other outlets that may be exposed to water. It's very unlikely that the Tank Heating Pads are on this circuit.

The power for the Tank Heating Pads historically has been 120V AC, on a separate circuit breaker.
The power for the Fresh Water Line Heat Tape has historically in 12V DC.

Historically, the switch for the Tank Heating Pads has had 120V AC wired right to the switch, just like a residential light switch.

Historically, the switch for the Fresh Water Heat Tape has had 12V DC wired to it.

The lights in your bathroom are almost certainly 12V DC. You can test this by checking the lights with shore power disconnected or switched off.

On newer coaches, both YETI switches may be wired for 12V DC. In this configuration, the Tank Heating Pads are probably still 120V AC. To bridge this, there's likely a relay behind the control panel. The switch for the Tank Heating Pads is wired for 12V DC which operates the relay. When the relay closes, it acts like a remote-control switch that's wired for 120V AC and sends the 120V AC to the heating pads.

What's the relationship between bathroom lights and YETI? The Fresh Water Heat Tape doesn't use much power. And the relay for the Tank Heating Pads doesn't use much power. So it's possible that the Heat Tape, relay, and bathroom lights all share the same 12V DC fuse. In that case, one of those items may be drawing too much power, or there may be an intermittent short circuit.

There is another possibility that's less likely. The Tank Heating Pads, while historically powered by 120V AC, can also be wired to operate on 12V DC. If by some chance that's what you have, AND the Tank Heating Pads share the same fuse with the Heat Tape and the bathroom lights, that might be too much for the fuse. If that's the case, the solution would be to split the loads across 2 fuses. You may be able to test this thought by disconnecting or shutting off shore power. Then switch on the YETI Tank Heaters to see if a light comes on.

That all said, if you know nothing about electrical, you may have some difficulty running down this problem. You may have to take it to your dealer to get it resolved.

 

[Nuclearcowboy]

On another note, make sure you have fluids in all your tanks before turning on the tank pad heaters.

 

[Emees]

On another note, make sure you have fluids in all your tanks before turning on the tank pad heaters.

We definitely made sure of that!!


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[Nuclearcowboy]

Hope you get the issue taking care of and enjoy your new unit. We have the same model with full body paint and love it!!

 

[Emees]

Thanks! We love it as well, just learning the ropes of rving in this brand new (expensive) unit is a bit intimidating. I agree with danemayer, we will likely need to take it in to be looked at, because the question of the bathroom lights operating off shore power brings up another concern as ours require shore power to operate; we tested that the first night we had it. Unfortunately I live in it full time right now and can't afford to have it out of our possession for any lengthy amount of time, which we hear can be an issue with dealership service. Fortunately, we live in the south, so aside from this exception this weekend up in the mountains, our climates will only be getting warmer. We will either wait until the summer to take it in when I'm not living in it, or perhaps see if we can get a mobile repair guy to come out. Thanks for all of the helpful insights!


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[mixie57]

We had similar issues with our bathroom GFCI. Ended up replacing the outlet twice. Not sure what damaged it but it has worked for a year now with no issues. I would go this route as it's easy to replace yourself and no shop time. If it doesn't resolve your issue, you remove it and take it back.


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[Emees]

We had similar issues with our bathroom GFCI. Ended up replacing the outlet twice. Not sure what damaged it but it has worked for a year now with no issues. I would go this route as it's easy to replace yourself and no shop time. If it doesn't resolve your issue, you remove it and take it back.


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Similar issues as in with the yeti package or your bathroom lights not working in battery power?


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[danemayer]

the bathroom lights operating off shore power brings up another concern as ours require shore power to operate; we tested that the first night we had it.

I'm under the impression that bathroom lights in every trailer work off 12V DC and don't require shore power to operate. If yours require shore power, you may have another problem which could be contributing to the problems with the YETI components.

There's a row of 12V DC mini-circuit breakers located near your battery. They're usually covered by a red rubber boot. One of those breakers is a manual reset and the rest automatically reset when tripped. The manual reset breaker sits in between the Power Converter (which changes 120V AC into 12V DC) and the battery. When you're plugged into shore power, the Power Converter supplies power through this mini-circuit breaker to keep your battery charged. The 12V DC from the Power Converter also flows to the fuse box inside the trailer. When shore power is disconnected, you're relying on battery power which has to flow through that little circuit breaker under the red rubber boot. If it trips for some reason, when you disconnect shore power, none of your interior lights will work. Slideouts and landing gear may work for a while in that condition because their power goes directly from the battery thru the other little circuit breakers.

I've attached a couple of pictures to help you locate the breaker and reset button. The reset button is teeny tiny and may be easier to feel with a finger, than to see. The order and position of breakers in these pictures is probably a little different from yours. Look around near the battery to find the breakers.

It's not a slam dunk that resetting the breaker will also correct the YETI problem, but unless you have a very different bathroom light than what most of us do, it should fix that problem.

 

[mixie57]

Similar issues as in with the yeti package or your bathroom lights not working in battery power?


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Yeti switch, living room outlets, bathroom outlet, bedroom outlets; it was curious what all is affected by a bad GFCI outlet.


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[Emees]

Very interesting! We are going to take a look at the circuit breaker above, as danemayer suggested, this weekend when my husband returns. It's supposed to be in the mid-20s overnight these next few nights, hope my tanks will be okay if the circuit breaker doesn't help with the yeti, we will likely call Heartland before we start digging around in the outlet. Thank you again for the insights!


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