Community Forums

dsbike · 12-23-2010, 02:18 PM

Hi, I thought I would give an update on our heater & propane issues.

First of all, The regulator for the propane flow/pressure was set to low. adjusted and all is well with the propane pressure. They also have used up all the propane in the tank & had it refilled.

Next an update & recap to the furnace. The furnace cyles on & off 2-3 minutes for the burner then 1 minute cool down then relights the burner & continues this cycle indefinately. The furnace doesn't stay on long enough to heat up the MH so it continues to run until it is turned off at the t-stat. We took the MH to Tom Johnsons in Concord NC on Monday. They did the Norcold recall & started diagnosing the furnace. They found out that the fuel valve would not adjust the flame when turning the adjustment screw. Ordered a new fuel valve & put it in on Wed. No help. Took the fuel nozzle out & the burner can, found the burner can was burnt through on the end and the heater duct is at one point of the elbow at apprx 850', and the rest of the duct is apprx 450'. So in my & the rv techs opinions this is causing the high limit switch to shut off the fuel when it is inside the mh's limited space. So we have ordered a new furnace & it will be in on Monday morning. I sure hope this fixes the problem. There has been a lot of money spent on this & countless hours trying to get it right. We have done several other steps that I did not mention here to try to resolve this. Thanks for all your suggestions. My parents head south to FL on Jan 2nd & there is not a repair facility close to where they are spending the winter.

GaryKD · 12-23-2010, 05:42 PM

Hi Dan,
Thanks for the update. Please let us know if the new furnace closes this problem.

dsbike · 12-29-2010, 09:22 AM

Tom Johnsons installed a new Suburban heater on Monday and the new heater operates normally. After first installing it we timed the heat cycle and it went 5 min the first cycle before it shut the gas off & the cooled down for 1 1/2 minutes then it ran for 3 minutes & continued this cycle. We went in to make sure there were no obstructions in the air return & found the return register was 1/2 closed. Opened it up & I timed it for 10 minutes with the gas burner running before I quit timing it. The heat continued until it reached the set temp on the thermostat.

In my opinion. If I had this situation again I would do these steps in this order before I replaced the heater.
1) check for clean ducts
2) Check for good air flow into & out of the heater no registers blocked
3) check power supply, if on battery, you must have 10.5+v dc continous, on gen set be sure you have good voltage & on shore pwr be sure you have good voltage
4) on the heater placard it states the size of the cold air return in sq inches, verify & enlarge if not enough.
5) check to see that fan is operating normal, does not slow down when gas lights off. The best way is do a amp draw if you have the proper tools to do this.
6) check if the fuel valve is adjustable, if so make sure the flame is not too strong & adjust, can be seen through glass with heater on test bench
7) Replace heater assy.
Due to the cost of a new heater assy. apprx $600-$1000 depending on size & where you buy it, Before I spent a lot of time & money on labor, I would replace the heater & be done with it if some of the simple things did not work. The heater is an easy item to change if you have basic mechanical skills. Actually all of this can be done at home if you have a way to test it on a bench.
The shop where we took this MH spent at least 13 hours on this, at $95/hr it adds up quick. They did not charge us for all this time, but not all shops are as customer goal oreinted as Tom Johnsons In Concord, NC

a k · 12-29-2010, 09:26 AM

After reading this are you sure the blower was working? Sounds like it was lighting off and going off on high heat.

Sorry I wrote this before you posted yours