Community Forums

Ol-Forester · 10-06-2012, 07:17 AM

I am having problems with the furnace not staying on. Anyone have any similar occurances?

I am in S Dakota and temps have been below freezing the last two nights. Night before last I set the thermostat at 68 before going to bed. I awoke at about 4:00 am and the room temp felt cold. It was down to 62. Thinking that maybe I had ran out of LP(even though I had filled up a couple of days before) I switched the tank selector. The furnace ran fine the rest of the night.
I then went to take the tank out for a refill and discovered it was still fairly full. So switched back to that tank and furnce ran ok all day yesterday and past bedtime.

So it got even colder last night down to 22. I set the thermostat down to 66 thinking it would be easier on the system. I awoke at 3:00 and room temp down to 61. I switched the thermostat off/on and it restarted, ran untill 66. So I go back to sleep. Just go up and room temp is 57, swithced off/on and furnace has now been running for about 20 minutes.

Hard to have a -10 degree guarantee when the furnace wont run. I guess I will add this to the list of fixes when I go to Smith Center at the end of the month. But if it is like a car that won't do the malfunction when at the dealer, I am wondering how to diagnose this problem.

I have been able to restart, but what if I were not in the coach? I am laying over at home in Indiana for a week or so in Nov before going to Florida. Don't want to winterize for 1 week, just thought I would run the funace. But will be sleeping in the house. Anyone have advice for this RV beginner???

Scooter · 10-06-2012, 07:34 AM

Just a guess, but does the furnace owner's manual say anything about a safety cut off valve?

What is the make and model of your furnace?

Call the dealer today. Do you have any roadside assistance plan? Some have a tech you can talk to and walk you thru your problem.

TXiceman · 10-06-2012, 07:51 AM

Are you running off shore power or battery? You need to check the sail switch to make sure iti s closing to keep the furnace running. Also when the furnace is running check the voltage at the motor tureminal. It should be a good solid 12 VDC or a bit more.

Ken

Still Working "NOT" · 10-06-2012, 08:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ol-Forester

I am having problems with the furnace not staying on. Anyone have any similar occurances?

I am in S Dakota and temps have been below freezing the last two nights. Night before last I set the thermostat at 68 before going to bed. I awoke at about 4:00 am and the room temp felt cold. It was down to 62. Thinking that maybe I had ran out of LP(even though I had filled up a couple of days before) I switched the tank selector. The furnace ran fine the rest of the night.
I then went to take the tank out for a refill and discovered it was still fairly full. So switched back to that tank and furnce ran ok all day yesterday and past bedtime.

So it got even colder last night down to 22. I set the thermostat down to 66 thinking it would be easier on the system. I awoke at 3:00 and room temp down to 61. I switched the thermostat off/on and it restarted, ran untill 66. So I go back to sleep. Just go up and room temp is 57, swithced off/on and furnace has now been running for about 20 minutes.

Hard to have a -10 degree guarantee when the furnace wont run. I guess I will add this to the list of fixes when I go to Smith Center at the end of the month. But if it is like a car that won't do the malfunction when at the dealer, I am wondering how to diagnose this problem.

I have been able to restart, but what if I were not in the coach? I am laying over at home in Indiana for a week or so in Nov before going to Florida. Don't want to winterize for 1 week, just thought I would run the funace. But will be sleeping in the house. Anyone have advice for this RV beginner???

Question.

1. Which tank were you running on when the problem happened?

2. Mine did the same thing when I got it back in 2009. I was running on the driver side tank when it happened. Switch to passenger side and the furnance runs fine. I fought it for a long time before I finally figured it out after fighting it for a long time. I finally made a glass of soap water and started to check for leaks along the propane line from the tank to the selector switch. What I found was a very small leak in the hose from the piping to the selector switch. I replaced that hose and have be fine ever since.

3. Why such a small leak cause this problem I cannot explain why but thaat took care of my problem. I first thought I had a bad selector switch and replaced it with a new one. Didn't fix it. Spent a lot of time making sure there was not something in the propane line. The hose from the pipe to the selector switch is not a common hose and you may have some trouble finding on unless you are near Mitchell, SD were Jack's RV is located or his other location which I think is near Rapid City, SD.

Until you can get it fixed I would run on the side that the furance works fine on and change bottles when that side runs out.

Hope this helps.

Still Working "NOT" · 10-06-2012, 08:14 AM

Another thing if you have not done it, is get yourself an electric heater if you are in a hookup site. You'll be surprised how much it will help keep the coach warm. I use two heaters in my WC and heat the whole coach. Saves on propane and at only 22* you may not need to run the furnance much to keep the basement above freezing. I have done this down to 8* and furnace only runs every 20 minutes for a few minutes and keeps the basement around 35*.

It is 35* here in Alamosa, CO and all I am running is one electric heater and keeping the coach a nice 72*. Now tonight they a talking 22* so I'll run both heaters.

Ol-Forester · 10-06-2012, 08:36 AM

Thanks for replys. I am on 50 amp service. The furnace is a Suburban mfg. of Dayton TN.

I got my cloths on an went out and investigated. I did find about a 1" diameter wasp nest far back the intake vent. My bad for not checking this more thoroughly before the trip.

I did call Jack's in Mitchell and talked to the service dept. He had me light the range top to make sure the flame was blue. He said if yellow that would indicate low regulator pressure. The flames were all blue.

After I removed the nest the furnace did fail once, but now has cycled once. I am hoping that was the problem.

Jacks recommended that I take compressed air and "blow out" the vents and burner. Guess I will drive to Pierre and purchase small compressor, would like to have one anyway. I also called Suburban but being Saturday could only leave a message.

Still Working "NOT" · 10-07-2012, 05:56 AM

Hope your furnance worked for you last night. Just to let you know how it was here in Alamosa CO last night. The outside temp. is 25*, basement is 44* and inside is 67* running only one electric heater during the night. I just turn on the furnance to make it nice and toasty. I do have the garage closed off since the Smart car is loaded ready for the trip down to the Ballon Fest this morning.

What I do to keep an eye on things is have a atomic clock with a remote temp. sensor that I put in the basement. That way I can monitor the temps down there and not freeze up.

I do have a second heater that I put in the garage to keep the Mexican Seal Team warm just in case Tom tries to snick up on us.

bpendley · 10-07-2012, 06:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Still Working "NOT"

Another thing if you have not done it, is get yourself an electric heater if you are in a hookup site. You'll be surprised how much it will help keep the coach warm.

That is ALL we use anymore. The Vornado heater heats our 30' travel trailer just fine.

RustyJC · 10-07-2012, 06:51 AM

With a couple of small ceramic heaters, our furnace never runs. In fact, if it gets much below freezing, I have to remember to turn the heaters down and turn on the furnace to keep the basement and tanks/plumbing warm.

Rusty

bigmichael · 10-07-2012, 06:51 AM

We had the same type of problem a few years ago. Very intermittantly, the furnace would not come on. They will try to light 3 times, and then lock out if unsuccesful. Ours literally would run fine for days at a time, then not light, seemingly out of the blue. We had it in a service shop in NM, where they thought they had fixed it. So did we. It ran fine for a few days again, then same problem.

Finally, we had a mobile tech come out in Tombstone. Explained the whole scenario we had been dealing with. He had been working on RV's for 25 years and immediately said he had an idea of what causes that kind of intermittant problem with the furnace. He pulled the furnace out-put it on the picnic table, and began working his way into the innards. He found a bird nest down in about as far as it could have been. In fact, he said he had never seen one get down inside that far before, and was surprised it ever fired, as tight as that nest had been wound.

Soooo---hopefully your wasp nest was te answer--Good Luck

didymop · 10-09-2012, 12:01 AM

That wasp nest extraction worked for him and so did the small heater that we shared with him after we invested in a tower infrared heater and had an extra. It's a cousin thing.

bigmichael · 10-09-2012, 05:15 AM

Good to hear.

Back when we were dealing with this problem, what we were told a few times was that if it were mud daubers, or nests of some kind, it would not be an intermittant problem. Even the RV service center we had stopped at in NM told us that. Obviously not the case.

Ol-Forester · 10-09-2012, 08:14 AM

Yeah, so far so good. Of course the nights have not been near as cold, now in the 40's instead of the low 20's. Have been setting the thermostat at 62 and using the electric heater in the bedroom during the night. Also using heater in the living room during the day.

The furnace has been OK, but hasn't had the opportunity to run near as much. Am optimistic that it was the wasp nest. The manual with the furnace stresses no obstructions in the vents. The service guy I talked to at Jack's in Mitchell thought that the nest could be the cause.

I guess I am a little surprised that it would be the nest as it was small and in no way was "blocking" the airway. Time will tell.

Big thanks to didymop for the heater!

WOMD · 10-09-2012, 09:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RustyJC

With a couple of small ceramic heaters, our furnace never runs. In fact, if it gets much below freezing, I have to remember to turn the heaters down and turn on the furnace to keep the basement and tanks/plumbing warm.

Rusty

We love our 12 volt heater. We've got it hooked up directly to our house batteries, separate from our engine batt for obvious reasons

.

It'll keep the chill off into the 30's but that's about it. It wont make it 'hot' in there, but it does make it bearable until we get moving in the mornings.