Coleman is a well-known brand within the camping industry, manufacturing high quality camping and outdoor equipment. In fact, their range of tents often win multiple awards each year. Coleman operates across many territories and continents and offers a wide range of products for use in the outdoors or within your motorhome or RV.
In addition to their wide range of tents, they offer sleeping bags, airbeds, electric lighting, camping furniture, stoves and coolers. They also offer the Coleman Mach thermostat, designed for use within a motorhome or RV that has a heating system installed.
The Coleman Mach thermostat allows you to control the temperature of your vehicle, allowing you to keep things at a comfortable temperature even when travelling to places with a much colder climate.
Of course, you will only remain comfortable if your thermostat continues to work as it should. And, while this brand is popular for good reasons, they do still suffer issues from time to time.
Within this article we will try to break down some of the common problems you may encounter and let you know what you might be able to do to fix your problem right away, so that you can get back to enjoying your trip.
Coleman Mach Thermostat Issues
1. Thermostat unresponsive
The most reported issue is the thermostat just stopping working altogether and being unresponsive. This can indicate that the unit is not receiving power in the way it needs in order to operate.
First things first, if it is a battery-operated unit, then you should check the batteries are working. It may simply be that they need replacing and fresh batteries will bring your unit back to life.
If on the other hand it is a mains wired unit, then you need to check to ensure none of the wires or connections look to be damaged, scratched, corroded or disconnected.
If there is simply a loose wire, then it may be the user can repair this themselves. Any sign of damaged or corroded wires, however, will either need to be repaired by an expert or the unit may need to be replaced if it is past the point of repair.
For a mains operated unit, if you have one you can use a voltmeter to check the current from the outlet, this should be providing a regular slow of electricity at the expected output level.
If the level is wrong or the flow of electricity is fluctuating, this would indicate a fault with the outlet and this will need looking into further. If you suspect a fault with the outlet, you should utilise a different outlet for the duration of your trip, or until the issue can be inspected by a professional.
If you don’t have a voltmeter to hand, then another option for checking your outlets is to use a small lamp which you can plug into the outlet – then observe whether the light comes on or not. Keep watch for a little while to check if there is any fluctuation in the current.
This will be indicated by the lamp light flickering. It is worth checking other outlets within your vehicle also. If there is a similar fault on more than one outlet, there is a chance that the issue instead lies with your batteries or generator -whichever you are using to power your vehicle.
If you are plugged into a power source within the RV park and you notice a fault with more than one socket, you should ask the park owner to investigate and move to a different spot if the issue is not rectified.
2. Thermostat not working
Sometimes you may notice your thermostat doesn’t seem to be working and the room is not reaching a pleasant temperature. Firstly, you will need to check you have set the thermostat to a suitable temperature for the environment. It could be that the setting is the same as the current temperature and you will need to adjust it to make the thermostat kick in.
If you have difficulty with knowing an appropriate setting to use, or you struggle to remember to make appropriate changes when you are in a different location, there should be an auto setting which will automatically choose an appropriate temperature for the conditions.
It is worth noting that your thermostat location will have an impact also. If it is placed in the coldest spot of the room, it will always pick up a lower result than the actual ambient temperature.
Similarly, if it is placed in a spot that is hit by the sun through windows, it may read the temperature to be significantly higher than it actually feels in the rest of the vehicle. Choose a spot which doesn’t get either too hot or too cold and reflects the actual temperature.
3. Reset may be required
Sometimes when your device is playing up, it is due to an underlying issue with the configuration files stored within the device. If you suspect this might be the trouble, then it is quite simple to do a reset.
Switch the thermostat off, then take the fuse out to ensure there is no power through the unit. Leave the device for at least five minutes. Once this is done, replace the fuse and switch it back on. Hopefully this will have resolved your problem. If this fails to work, it is worth changing the fuse for a new one as this may be at fault.
4. Blank screen
If your screen is blank, it can be difficult to diagnose the issue. However, you should follow the steps for unresponsive thermostat in part one – but if changing the power supply doesn’t work, it is also worth trying to change the fuse and performing a reset as in the step above.
We have a Coleman-mach thermostats. We are full timers and left for a week setting the temp at 68. Came home to 45 we shut it off and tried gas but there was a very strong propane smell the electric side says room diff and will not turn on
See the same thing happened to me but I only left for the workday, and now the thermometer won’t do anything at all
My thermostat is set to 90 degrees but I am not getting any heat from the unit… it’s just blowing cold air… also it only blows for a few minutes then shuts off… does it need to be on propane to get going then switch it to electric? Thanks
I’m having the same issue. How did you resolve the problem?
Doug
I had that problem. had to pull the unit and check the “sail switch”. they can become clogged with dirt and hair which will cause the furnace not to pump heat. once i cleaned out the debris it worked fine.
Installed a new thermostat as heat was going for a couple of days and then quitting.
but it is still doing the same thing.
Heat will run for 30 seconds or so then shuts down. If I recycle the switch from off to heat it will run another 30 seconds. Burner and fan are running and it functions but after less than a minute it shuts down. THERMOSTAT is functional
When I turn up the thermostat in my rv the blower fan on my furnace will not run thus my furnace will not ignite.