Heat Pump or not?

[CowboyDan]

Reviewing all options for upcoming factory order for 38RL. Will be full time but still working in northern AZ so will be in colder weather at times. Curious on usage experiences with Heat Pump option on the A/C units. Work at all below 40 degrees? Worth the investment for two? Noise level? Potential maintenance issues? Heat pump is just the reverse thermodynamics of the A/C cycle but you might loose efficiency.
Thanks

Dan and Julie - goodbye house, hello Redwood

[Tomkidder]

Originally Posted by CowboyDan

Reviewing all options for upcoming factory order for 38RL. Will be full time but still working in northern AZ so will be in colder weather at times. Curious on usage experiences with Heat Pump option on the A/C units. Work at all below 40 degrees? Worth the investment for two? Noise level? Potential maintenance issues? Heat pump is just the reverse thermodynamics of the A/C cycle but you might loose efficiency.
Thanks

Dan and Julie - goodbye house, hello Redwood

If I had the option I would get both front and rear. Worth every penny.

[Shane Wood]

I have both units with one and I never use the furnace mine work down to 32 before blowing cool air. No noisier than the air on. We have fulltime over a year and no issues yet

[atom ant]

The cost is nominal and you would probably be sorry without them. Both the furnace and the AC/heat pumps are incredibly quiet on our Redwood, but to preserve LP I use the heat pumps when I can. The furnace is a quick way to heat the floor, but then back to heat pumps. Granted, they won't do you much good in your lower temps, but spring and fall they are awesome.

[rob_fla]

Since we bought of the lot instead of ordering, our unit only has one unit that is a Heat Pump.
We spend our winters in the Southeast and the one unit keeps us warm and toasty most of the time.
On rare cases it does get below 30 and we have to switch on the propane heat, need to keep the basement warm anyway and the heat pump will not do that.
We also have a couple of small space heaters we supplement the heat with on the cold days.

[Rosey]

We're camping now in Virginia & this is the first time since we took delivery in May to use the heat pump(s). In early morning,when the temps. have been near freezing, I use the gas furnace & elec. fireplace to warm things up then switch over (if necessary) when temps. outside are in the 40's, especially on those rainy chilly days when you need to just take the "chill out of the air" inside. Really glad that we got this option.

[bergeman]

I can confirm that the Heat Pump is a good idea. I spent 4 weeks in Wyoming between October and November. I only had to buy gas for 1-30 lb tank. I wish I had two heat pumps. Mine worked into the low 30's. I pretty much only turned on the gas furnace to keep the basement warm on nights it got to the 20's. I kept the temperature set to 72-74.

[Enroute]

I have heat pumps on both my A/C's and would not order another coach without them. They are worth every penny and as others have said, they are good to approx. 38 degrees before the furnace kicks on and takes over. Between the two heat pumps and the fireplace heater, the coach stays at a comfy 74 degrees in cooler temps.

[RWJSIM2003]

We use the heat pumps down low 30's all the time one of the best things we have on the RW.

[RCAircraft]

Originally Posted by CowboyDan

Reviewing all options for upcoming factory order for 38RL. Will be full time but still working in northern AZ so will be in colder weather at times. Curious on usage experiences with Heat Pump option on the A/C units. Work at all below 40 degrees? Worth the investment for two? Noise level? Potential maintenance issues? Heat pump is just the reverse thermodynamics of the A/C cycle but you might loose efficiency.
Thanks

Dan and Julie - goodbye house, hello Redwood

Heat pumps are a great for saving propane down to about 40 F. The furnace is necessary when temps approach freezing to protect the tanks which are heated via the furnace. We have two heat pumps and they are great.

[johnboytoo]

+32 on heat pumps

And, IIRC, if you set the heat pumps to a temp and
they can't keep at that temp, your furnace will automatically start...

Have 3 heat pumps on Monaco now and use them almost exclusively...

[thomas861]

We bought our Redwood on the lot and it only came with one heat pump. We picked it up the Monday before Thanksgiving and are still traveling in it. I can say with out a doubt the heat pump has been a pleasant surprise. It's worked very well into the 30s.

We've had lows at night down in the lower 20s while in northern Kentucky and when been pleased with how well the RW has handled those temps overall.

[almcc]

Our RL wasn't factory ordered so it didn't have a heat pump. I just had a heat strip installed on one A/C unit, and I'm very pleased with it. On our way south we used it almost every night and I estimate that it saved us between 2 and 3 30 lb. cylinders of propane, the parks that we stay at include electricity as part of the daily rate.

It won't take long to pay off the cost of the installation, and it would have been even cheaper to have it installed as an option.

[mhs4771]

Did have the Heat Pumps on our 36RL, but ordered them with this 39MB and glad we have them. Although we don't use them alot, glad we have them when we need them.

[CowboyDan]

thanks all for great responses. Jury is is - - Heat Pumps are not optional for FT.

Dan & Jules