[CDButsch]

The control for the floor heat of my 1998 Newell is no longer available on the market. Any suggestions on how to solve issue.                Paktronics. Part # P14A0318440. 7135037.

[HoosierDaddy]

What is wrong with it?. I believe there are people who can repair the board..

[Guy]

If you need your Paktronic unit tested or repaired

 1-336-969-0110.

[Latitude 28]

Hello,
Where is your Paktronic unit located on your coach?  Do you have a picture?  Reason I ask is my floor heat trips the AC breaker.  From what I understand I may have a short in the heating element somewhere.  It would be nice if it was just the unit with the issue.

Thanks,
Steve

[Latitude 28]

All,
Back to troubleshooting our electric floor heat.  Found the Paktronic unit.....its the actual Nuheat thermostat unit.  So my problem is this, the floor heat breaker will trip when I turn either thermostat up to command floor heat.  The breaker will stay set as long as I don't ask for any heat on either unit.  Several questions come to mind here;

• Is the master bath floor heat loop connected to the kitchen floor heat loop in some way?
  
• Is there a place to disconnect and ohm out the floor heat loops?
  
• In the master bath, is the engine trap door heated with the floor heat system?
  
• If so, where would the connection be?
  
• Is there a way to test the Paktronic unit?
  
• Is it possible that both Paktronic units are in need or rebuilding?
  

Thank you all in advance for the help.

Steve

[Richard]

I know the answer to one of your questions. The engine access hatch does NOT have connections to the heating loops.

What happens if you ohm the loop at the controller?

[Latitude 28]

Thanks for the info on the engine hatch as i had suspected there might be a problem there from the last time it was removed. I will check out the loop later today and once the controller is disconnected i will ohm it out as well.

[Latitude 28]

Richard,
Ohmed out the loops with the following results;

• Front checked out @ 34.5 ohms
  
• Back checked out @ 18.5 +-
  

Without knowing what the spec is supposed be I downloaded the attached mat specification sheet which gave the readings for the different sized mats.  Without knowing the size of the mat you pretty much have no idea what it is supposed to be.

While disconnecting the controller I came across an ohm reading notation written on the inside of the double gang electrical box (pics attached).

• Front supposed to be 35.5 ohms...the tolerance is +- 10% so that at least checks ok
  
• Back supposed to be 66.5 so a reading of 18.5 ohms is out of tolerance.
  

Then off to checking for a short to grounds

• Front had a high resistance "fluctuating" ohm reading
  
• The back pretty much a solid short to ground.
  

Doing some research the newer NuHeat T-stats have a built in GFIC.   Could not verify if the Paktronic unit we use has a built in GFIC circuit or not....but most likely it does.  That being the case, older GFIC are prone to failure and could explain the possibility of both Paktronic units being bad given the same age. Just for grins, I swapped the back Paktroic to the front to see if I could get at least the front working with no help.  From a previous house wiring problem I had I know GFIC will trip with a High resistance ground under load.  but will seem to work fine with small loads.

Calling all the dogs back on the porch with this....looks like I have a shorted mat in the back and possibly a mat problem in the front.  Along with suspect Paktronic units/GFIC.  Looks like we will be enjoying cold floors till we remodel:-)

Steve

[francherie]

Hi there,

Could I ask what the proper pin out test should be for testing the thermostat? I'm also experiencing no heat form either of our units, but when I test for voltage across the white and black I get 120v and the same for across the 2 blacks on the other side. That would make me believe the mat is getting juice, but may have an open in it somewhere. For resistance checks for the mat, is that just across the two black wires after I disconnect them from the thermostat?

[Richard]

Just sort of dogpiling on this thread. Neither my front or back work. The front is an open circuit somewhere. The back is a shorted circuit that gets one tile hot enough to burn you. I killed the circuits on both and the breaker box.
The reason for the post is to comment on why I think all the floor heat units in these era coaches fail. When doing some remodeling I had the occasion to take up a few pieces of tile. The construction is about 1/2 inch of grout, a layer of fiberglass mesh, and another 1/2 or so of grout. Nice 1 inch slab of reinforced concrete to keep the marble from cracking.

Having installed heated floors under tile in a house with the Schluter system, it makes sense that with the heat cable imbedded in solid grout that there is no way the heat tape is allowed to flex very much during the heat cycle, plus if the floor flexes the flex is transmitted to the heat cable. The point is, that if you remodel and want heated floors, make sure that you use some type of substrate system designed to allow a bit of flex.