Community Forums

chief02 · 09-24-2013, 07:03 PM

We are in MA at about 900 ft above sea level. Its been getting cold enough for the furnace to come on. I never noticed this before but when the furnace first lights there is a mild Pop. All works fine but this seems new and never happened at home at 5500 feet above sea level. Could this be caused by altitude change? is there a need or away to adjust air and or gas?

rockintom · 09-24-2013, 08:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chief02

We are in MA at about 900 ft above sea level. Its been getting cold enough for the furnace to come on. I never noticed this before but when the furnace first lights there is a mild Pop. All works fine but this seems new and never happened at home at 5500 feet above sea level. Could this be caused by altitude change? is there a need or away to adjust air and or gas?

Chief,

Which furnace do you have? I believe PI started with an Atwood in '10 and then switched to Suburban early on. Let us know which you have and we can go from there. rockin'

jesilvas · 09-24-2013, 09:25 PM

It might need a cleaning. Popping is usually a build up of LP because there is not a proper air/fuel mixture. However a good "thunk" ignition is normal.

chief02 · 09-25-2013, 09:30 AM

all clean,,,its a Suburban

jesilvas · 09-25-2013, 10:28 AM

You removed the whole furnace, removed the burner and orifice, and cleaned it all?

rockintom · 09-25-2013, 10:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chief02

all clean,,,its a Suburban

There are several reasons for a pop on light up. I can tell you that some Suburban units built from '10 to '12 have an issue where the orientation of the orifice is not centered in the opening of the burner. Depending on many variables, the unit may work perfectly, then the flame dwindles down and sometime goes out, relights, pops and may even go into lock out (3 light attempts and your out). It is very hard to diagnose. Like I said very intermittent, but when acting up when standing next to the exhaust it sounds like it's running out of propane. On mine it may run a week without incident, then acts up. It makes it so that you don't feel comfortable leaving your rig for days in the cold winter time unattended even on a very low thermostat setting.

Our does it, I have all the info to fix it, but Suburban wants a gas certified tech to correct the situation, but I haven't been able to get to such a place just yet (my RV guy in Portland kept putting me off until we left). Maybe I will get it done when we hit our winter destination. I have all the technical stuff on it and a couple of pix. It is a fairly major job as you have to pull the gut pack of the furnace out and disassemble.

BTW, Ralph and Kevin @ RV Sales are aware of this condition and they have fixed several of units. It took a long time coming to get a resolution, but we are there now!

Chief, you may not have this condition...but wanted you to know about it. HTHs rockin'

chief02 · 09-25-2013, 10:55 AM

gee thanks Tom! You make me feel so MUCH better now,,,ugh!, I pulled the cover and stood there to see if a massive fireball was blowing out when it lit. It lit, no pop ans no fireball! Oh well headed to warmer country in a few weeks. I will monitor closely.

rockintom · 09-25-2013, 11:13 AM

I'm always full of good news aren't I? If you had the situation I mentioned.....I'd would be really surprised you hadn't run in to it already. Our has done it since new. rockin'