Does the heat EVER work?

[benjibear]

One reason people may be cold in a viewliner roomette is the vents are blowing high velocity air. I am sure the air was tempered, but when you are cold even if the air is 72 or 74 it feels cold.

For the heat and thermostats, many people do not know how to work a thermostat. If your cold, rotate until you feel it click on. If your hot, turn until you feel it click off. I would make a bet that the temperature numbers are not accurate. Also, many people when they are cold, push their thermostat up high thinking the higher the number the quicker it will get warm. When it doesn't instantly get warm, they are under impression the heat won't work.

When I had the door closed overnight, my room got extremely hot. During the day, I kept the door open.

 

[Meat Puppet]

This is all you need for any trip for climate control.

7" clip fan, 7" heater, duct tape.......

Peace of mind for under $20

 

[Devil's Advocate]

That's both hilarious and sad.

No other passenger rail network or airline has ever required me to bring my own portable climate control system. It's the kind of hardware you'd expect to bring to a third world country rocked by civil war; not something you'd need while traveling through the single richest country on earth.

 

[gmushial]

That's both hilarious and sad.

No other passenger rail network or airline has ever required me to bring my own portable climate control system. It's the kind of hardware you'd expect to bring to a third world country rocked by civil war; not something you'd need while traveling through the single richest country on earth.

Yes, but how many other transport systems are overseen by a Mica and the present congress? As a company owner, when money is short, what is the first thing that gets deferred? Maintenance! When was the last time that Amtrak got the money that it requested from congress? Strongly suspect if over time if they got the dollars they said they needed to run the RR, that more of the maintenance would be kept current.

 

[nferr]

The problem is you'll never make the entire car happy. One person's hot is another person's cold. So asking the attendant to make the entire car suit your personal preference is kind of silly IMO. And I've had pretty good success adjusting either the temperature knob or turning the vents open/closed to suit. You're not going to adjust the temperature in one minute, it takes a while to feel the difference in your room. But it usually works.

 

[TraneMan]

The temp dial works for us and what I'm liking is that the fan is not running so it's very quiet in our room and comfy.

-Sent from my iPad using Amtrak Forum App.

 

[D.P. Roberts]

I am always honestly amazed that a country... cannot find a simple reliable way to heat a roomette in the year 2014.

That's part of the problem - they weren't designed to heat a roomette in the year 2014, they were designed to heat a roomette in 1996...

When I've had problems with being too hot / too cold in the roomettes, I've noticed that the temperature in the hallways & the rest of the car is having a large effect on room temperature. In fact, I'm beginning to think that the controls in the rooms can only adjust a certain amount from the "baseline" in the car itself.

Several times, the rooms have been too hot, and even though I had the room as cold as I could get it, I couldn't overcome the hot air coming from the hallway - even with the door closed. The SCAs have told me that they can (usually) make adjustments to the car temperature. When enough people have the same complaint, I've seen them make adjustments, which eventually make the rooms more bearable.

 

[Phil S]

Since we have people in this forum disassembling speakers to disable announcements: has anyone taken apart one of these controls that wasn't working? Anything obviously wrong with it? I assume behind the knob is a wirewound pot?

I've only threatened to do that, never actually had the tools at hand in a sleeper where I couldn't shut them off. But it's an interesting question. I suspect there's nothing wrong with the pots, that the problem is way farther downline, like in the master controls for car heat and ventilation.

Also, View liners and superliners are very different. Viewliners have a vent control by the windows, which almost always works and provides a large amount of (I assume) fresh air. They also have a thermostat knob that almost never works.

In my experience, Superliners have an overhead vent control that provides little air, even when fully open. And they have a thermostat knob that does little. (So, yes, I prefer View- to Superliners.)

The safest thing to do, IMO and as others have implied, is, immediately upon boarding, turn the thermostat down all the way. Then ask the attendant for an extra blanket. They are generally only too happy to open the locker and get you one because they know full well that if they don't you'll just grab the one from the upper bunk or from an unoccupied room. IMO it's infinitely easier to stay warm in a cold room than to get cool in an overheated one.

Superliners also have a master vent control switch above the coffee station, but I've never been desperate enough to try adjusting that myself. In general, the attendants have been very willing to adjust the overall heat/air settings to avoid the roasting problem.

Anyone ridden a sleeper recently in some more civilized part of the world? Do the heat/air controls work any better? The catch here is that in most civilized parts of the first world, high speed trains have made the concept of sleepers obsolete. FWIW, Japan does have a sleeper service from Tokyo to the north Island. Anyone here ridden that? China is the obvious other possibility but I don't consider it 1st world.. .

 

[buddy559]

I just finished a trip with heat issues. On the Trip out the element in the room heat was out. The attendant moved me to an open room later In the day, and my previous room was written up, blocked and vacant for the rest of the trip. When I called guest relations they had already received a call from the conductor about the problem. On the way back my room heat was working, but the car heat was not. I was cold, but not miserable. Customer relations must have some algorithm of human suffering because I could hear him adding up the 2 figures, the conductor reported one was worth twice as much as the non reported one.

Long story short I received a scripted apology and travel credit toward my next adventure, I was surprised the second incident was not reported because the SCA gave the customer service phone number twice during an announcement and told everyone if they felt they had been inconvenienced, to call.

Moral of the story, they aren't mysterious, they either work, and put out heat, or the element or thermostat is out, and they do not. The hard part is convincing a crew member to write it up, I am not surprised that the first SCA followed the book, had it documented,and the room blocked until repaired, he was on top of things,the trip back, not surprised it wasn't reported, and we were 3 hours late to my destination, and after I got home I checked the tracker and the train broke down for an additional 3 hours after I was dropped off so I would not be surprised to hear that my SCA from that trip got out and walked back to Chicago.

 

[Phil S]

I just finished a trip with heat issues. On the Trip out the element in the room heat was out. The attendant moved me to an open room later In the day, and my previous room was written up, blocked and vacant for the rest of the trip. When I called guest relations they had already received a call from the conductor about the problem. On the way back my room heat was working, but the car heat was not. I was cold, but not miserable. Customer relations must have some algorithm of human suffering because I could hear him adding up the 2 figures, the conductor reported one was worth twice as much as the non reported one.

Long story short I received a scripted apology and travel credit toward my next adventure, I was surprised the second incident was not reported because the SCA gave the customer service phone number twice during an announcement and told everyone if they felt they had been inconvenienced, to call.

Moral of the story, they aren't mysterious, they either work, and put out heat, or the element or thermostat is out, and they do not. The hard part is convincing a crew member to write it up, I am not surprised that the first SCA followed the book, had it documented,and the room blocked until repaired, he was on top of things,the trip back, not surprised it wasn't reported, and we were 3 hours late to my destination, and after I got home I checked the tracker and the train broke down for an additional 3 hours after I was dropped off so I would not be surprised to hear that my SCA from that trip got out and walked back to Chicago.

I'm afraid a lot of SCAs don't bother writing up a broken thermostat because so often, absolutely nothing gets done about it.

 

[FriskyFL]

I personally prefer too cold vs too hot, given the Hobson's choice that is Amtrak.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Amtrak Forum mobile app

 

[AlanB]

I'm afraid a lot of SCAs don't bother writing up a broken thermostat because so often, absolutely nothing gets done about it.

Actually the conductor is supposed to report the problem via the App on his/her iPhone. AFAIK that functionality has been turned on so that the shop at the incoming terminal knows the problems they're going to face.