What fan setting do you use most for your cool cat heat pump in the 400?

atlasb

First trip our with the new 400.  Had a cool cat in our 320 and loved it.  when we turned the unit on in the 400 it did the job of cooling down really well.  Here in Oklahoma we are having really weird weather for august.  mid to upper 90's and 75+% humidity.  The cool cat ran solid for several hours, no problem.  Thought, gee, not how the one in our 320 did, it cycled on , off and on.  Got out our trusty notebook with all the product literature and read about the thermostat for the cool cat. Low and behold, I discovered three settings for the cool cat.  High fan, low fan and auto.  Changed it to auto and it acted just like the old 320 did.  So, what setting do most 400 owners use between the three?  I tend to like having the fan going to keep some air flow as the cycling seems to bounce the heat up then come on and cool.

WanderinginWonder

We have ours on auto all of the time. We found out after the first night in our 400 about the 3 separate functions after it froze me to death. (The vent in the bed area was aimed right at my head all night) Now we have angled the vents to make sure the air is circulating, keep it on auto, and we have ours around 74-75 during the day here in NC. We also use the fan to help air flow if needed

skwhee

Love the vented CoolCat in the 400! We like to have our fan speed set to Low. We like the constant air circulation, plus the constant fan noise tones down the noise of the compressor when it comes on. We got in the habit of this with the CoolCat in our 320 and have continued the practice in the 400. And we adjusted the bedroom vent to blow toward the foot of the bed.

atlasb

Thanks WW and SKW.  We did not know that the cool cat in our 320 had the multiple fan speeds.  We found that out in the 400 this week in the shakedown trip.  The low setting sounds like the way we are thinking of using.  The vent definitely is nice to be able to move around and we do like having the fan to cancel the start and stop of the compressor.  Thanks for the info.  Now, got to get the Alde night lite to standby off!  That thermostat can keep the cabin pretty well lit.  Makes it easier to find the bath instead of the closet late or early in the AM.  Love the windows front and rear with the shades down and screens up being able to see through to what is behind you!

skwhee

@atlasb
Yeah, we remember the joy of realizing that the Alde was lit all night. What's the point of going out into the dark woods then having the interior of the T@B lit up all night? But it's easy to fix.

-Hit the Menu Button
-Touch the Key button on the lower right of the screen to unlock the Tool Menu
-Then the Control Panel should have a Wrench icon in the lower right.
-Touch the Wrench icon 

-Select Down Arrow to go to Page 2 of the functions

-Select Screen Brightness in the middle of the top row

-Select Off then OK

Your screen should then turn off when in Standby. The screen will light up again anytime you touch the screen.

There is so much more that you can do in the Tools Menu, such as Set the Clock which allows Automatic Nighttime Mode that will program the system to lower the temperature at night and raise the temperature in the morning.

Another cool feature is Offset Temperature Adjustment. This will allow you to calibrate the temperature on the panel to the room temperature.

An inexpensive extra that you can buy from Elsie that we highly recommend is the Battery Backup which will maintain your settings if you ever need to disconnect your battery.

Happy Trails!
Steve & Karen

atlasb

Thanks again Steve and Karen.  Had been looking at the thermostat guide and will re set the screen brightness.  Did not know about the Battery Backup will check into that.  I have a battery tender on the and did not have a battery shut off on the 320 so that is new to us.  I usually put the battery tender on when I pull back into the shop and leave it on until ready to go again.  Have a plug in battery gauge to monitor the battery level.  Do you usually turn the battery off when not in use? I noticed in the manual if you turn the battery off it resets the clock, so did not bother setting the clock. So many things to learn on the  400!  When we ran the alde I noticed the heat was set at 82 Degrees and we were running the cool cat at 77.  I bet the alde was also trying to keep the cabin temp at 82.  Is that possible?

skwhee

@atlasb
As a clarification, the Alde battery backup to which we referred is a very small box with two AA batteries. In our case it is located inside the kitchen cabinet just behind the Alde control panel. If you are interested in doing it yourself it's pretty simple. Remove the four screws holding in that panel that you see to the left of it and plug the Battery Backup into the back of the Alde control panel.

Regarding the Alde trying to heat while the CoolCat is trying to cool, yes, they are independent systems and you apparently had them competing with one another. Our practice when we are not needing cabin heat is to set the Alde thermostat to 60F. 

We've not used a battery tender. When we have the T@B parked in the driveway we are plugged into shore power. On the occasions when we have stored our T@B while on the road (for several days while doing a city visit) we use the battery disconnect. That protects the battery from being drained by phantom loads.

The plug-in battery monitor is a great idea.

Happy Trails!

atlasb

Thanks again,  will look into the battery back up.  You confirmed my thoughts on the dual competing system.  Will re set the Alde heat to 60f.  When not on the road, ours is in our shop.