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beamisl · 01-19-2018, 04:45 AM

Hello,

We have a 2004 Itasca Class A. Bought it four years ago and have never needed the furnace since we only used it in the summer. I retired in January and we headed South. The weather has been crazy and we ran into some cold weather and a need of our furnace.

When we first purchased the rig and tried the furnace just to test it, it worked but had mud dauber nests in it. Not feeling comfortable enough to take the furnace out, we cleaned it as best as we could and it worked and produced heat.

Furnace would not work. Being a bit new at this we talked with friends here to find out what the issue could be and one came over and my husband and he took the control panel off our Suburban Furnace and replaced it. Did not fix the problem. Then took the sail switch off and replaced that, no difference.

Thank God we had an electric heater with us and our friend loaned us another.

The furnace would come on, the blower would work, but no heat. You could see the flame light and then go off. Apparently these things have a switch that if the furnace is not getting enough propane, it shuts off.

We are in a park in FL and there was a RV repair guy in the park and we had him come over and check it out. He took this kind of tool, attached it to our stove top burners and found out the problem.

When he had the tool hooked to the stove top it read 12 lbs. When he turned on one burner, it went to 11 lbs, two burners it dropped to 8 lbs. He said the furnace draws like a 5 burner stove top. He then went outside to the propane tank and the propane tank regulator was not working.

Asking the guys here, the majority of them would not have thought about this part at all. The first night with the new regulator the furnace worked just fine. The next night it got down to 23* here and we woke to the inside of the rig being 51*. What now?

What now turned out to be the propane had gelled (I think) because it got too cold at 23*. Last night it was expected to get down to 27* (which it did) but my DH had added a trouble light in the propane bay and the furnace has worked like a charm all night and it is 71* inside right now.

Wanting to post this in case others were trying to figure out their problem with their furnace and could not get it resolved, wanted to make sure they checked this part too. We still would have replaced the two parts on the furnace first because those are usually the culprits but would not have thought about the propane component.

We placed the wire covers over the exhaust and intake pipes on the furnace to keep wasps and spiders out of these areas.

Here are the costs for the repairs:

Furnace control panel $173.
Sail Switch $7.
Propane Tank Regulator $28.
Labor $120.

Heat? Priceless! Hope this helps someone in the future. I think the tool he used is in our future purchase.

Lynne

iamblum · 01-19-2018, 04:49 AM

Glad you got it figured out. Thanks for the input!

beamisl · 01-19-2018, 05:04 AM

You're welcome.

Someone is going to run into this and need to know this. It was definitely a learning experience for us.

The repair guy had an apprentice with him and was explaining everything while they were working and we learnt a lot. We now know how to remove the furnace and fix it ourselves.

Shouldn't have to anything else though for quite some time. Kept the old sail switch and control panel just in case.

Darwin · 01-19-2018, 05:26 AM

Sounds like someone had butane installed in your tank which turns to vapor at approx 32 degrees, should be propane which has a much lower vapor temp. Your regular should be set at 11 inches of water column not psig.

Darwin · 01-19-2018, 05:30 AM

Propane is a liquid when under pressure and or cold, it must turn to a vapor to burn.

twinboat · 01-19-2018, 06:35 AM

Propane doesn't gel, but stops boiling ( turning to gas ) at minus 43°F. Butane stops boiling at 30°F.

What's in your tank is a mixture of propane and butane and called Liqufied Petroleum Gas.

Here is a link to LPG, what your actually buying.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquefied_petroleum_gas

hoosierrun · 01-19-2018, 07:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darwin

Sounds like someone had butane installed in your tank which turns to vapor at approx 32 degrees, should be propane which has a much lower vapor temp. Your regular should be set at 11 inches of water column not psig.

Sadly, it is not unusual to get heavily laden butane in your propane fill if you bought the propane in Florida. Most of the fuel sold here is for pool and spa heaters, stove top burners, grills, and furnaces used at over 40 degrees. Central and southern Florida rarely gets temperatures like we are experiencing. There have been years that I never had to turn my furnace on in the Winter. This year is a rare cold year.

What really sucks is that many places are charging $4 to over $5 a gallon for this crap propane.

One other thought is that your propane tank may have moisture in it that is frosting up in the regulator. There is a chemical that a propane supplier can add to dry it up.