Review on 🌡️ Atwood 93105: The Ultimate Adjustable Electronic Thermostat for Optimal Temperature Control by Rafael Lewis

Like many others, my goal was to tame boiling water and reduce the power consumption associated with the factory thermostat by 140 degrees. My water heater is a factory Dometic/Atwood (WH-6GEA) installed on my 2021 Coachman Freedom Express 231rbds. As others have said, for a factory-supplied aftermarket kit (Dometic/Atwood), it has the worst mounting system - a cheap metal bracket that works for some approach, and a horribly engineered weak spring that, by design, exercises along with the bracket not even squeeze out the thermostat and also want to squeeze out the extra space where the thermostat goes through the hole in the bracket. The uneven downward pressure created by the spring puts more pressure on one side of the thermostat, tilting it slightly where there is not even pressure/contact with the water tank. I believe that's why a lot of people think it's important to use thermal paste to get better and more even heat transfer from the tank to the thermostat. I will add that the factory 140 degree thermostat fitted perfectly and didn't use such heat dissipation paste. In my case, the bracket was also so long that the thermostat initially did not fit through the hole in the bracket (prerequisite). Again, like many others, I had to make some adjustments to the mount. First I actually shortened the mounting bracket by about 2-3mm by bending the mounting tabs forward and then installing the electrical spade connectors cut to the correct length. The rig of course, but it was reliable and worked well. Next I had to stretch the spring a bit longer and stretch/open the spool on one end to reduce the chance that it would want to push a bad fit between the thermostat and the mounting bracket hole. This also worked well. I also used the heatsink paste that was used to attach the computer processor to heatsinks/fans. This paste works great. Two more complaints. 1. In my opinion, this "upgrade" is most likely irreversible. To do this you will need to bend the three original mounting tabs as this thermostat is much larger than the original. I very much doubt that these thin protrusions can be bent back to their original position without breaking them. I feel like after this upgrade you are bound for life and still need to replace them with $40 thermostats instead of the original $15 version. 2. Installing a new thermostat requires removing the insulating foam, which cannot be effectively replaced. People will say that this foam is only cosmetic, but it is not. It serves to create a controlled environment between the thermostat and the hot water tank, preventing drafts and heat loss. I suspect that's why the factory thermostat doesn't use/need heat dissipation paste, but on this new adjustable version it does. If I had to do it again, I would never buy this adjustable thermostat. I highly recommend just getting the $15 91470 130 degree thermostat which is an EXACT replacement for the factory 140 degree thermostat. It drops the temperature 10 degrees, costs only $15, and is an exact replacement that fits properly and requires no modification. Dometic/Atwood needs to offer a better mounting system for their adjustable thermostat retrofit kit.