Furnace Help please! Going to 11 degrees tonight!

Since it was 75% full, it could be that it couldn't vaporize fast enough to supply gas to multiple appliances. Sun shining on propane tank will help vaporize during day, but the vaporized supply may be consumed over night.

sandeeAR wrote:
...It came back on after 15-20 min aand has worked great since. Hoping it gets us through the next month...

If that's the case, it sounds like a dirty connection. Go out there and wiggle all the connections you can reach. That should shine them up enough for the short term you're looking at.

Sounds like mine which an RV shop said was due to a dirty sail switch. Works great now.

Thanks for all the replies. We made it fine. We usually sleep with just the electric heater. Just turn the furnace on first thing in the morning to warm things up, or as necessary. It came back on after 15-20 min aand has worked great since. Hoping it gets us through the next month. We are looking set trading in a few months.

Two part reply:

IF it started out fine then suddenly only cold air odds are low battery...

However: What is the outside temp? Sometimes moisture (Water) gets in the lines and freezes, when it freezes i the regulator thigns do not work, this is easy to test though.. Cook dinner on the stove (or heat water with propane) if these functions work,, not a frozen regulator

Butane has a vapor temp of around the freezing point of water,, Propane is closer to -40,, Some dealers, epically in the south, sell the lower cost Butane as Propane. To test.. Same as above, if the stove works, and the water heater,, NOT your problem.

part 2: This is a boiler plate, I put it together the hard way (Fixing my Furnace).

When the T-Stat calls for heat the control board starts the blower (1)
The blower blows closing the sail switch (2)
The control board then opens the gas valve (3) and begins sparking (4.1)
Gas Flows (5) And ignitets (4.2)
The flame heats the flame sensor (5)
The flame sensor sends .480 volts to the control board (6)
which then detects the .480 and continues operation (*)
When the T-stat says "Enough already" (RV is now warm)
The control board shuts off the gas flow (*)
and then turns off the blower after a cool down (*)

*: At nearly every step the control board is involved. IF IT IS BAD, things will not work.. I recommend replacement boards from Dinosaur boards.. When Mine went out the Dino board was less than half the price and when opened the box the quality of construction and workmanship, and then design was very clear to my trained eyes.

1: No 12 volt to furnace, blower motor shot
2: Low 12 volt, air ducts clogged, blower "obstructed" bad sail switch
3: Bad solenoid, Clogged Gas Jet
4: .1: Bad ignition circuit (high voltage) on control board. .2: Points too wide (Very common it seems)
5: These do not often fail but they can
5: Bad connection, NOTE:
5 and * Bad wire.

* applies to all steps by the way So does bad wire/connection.

one elect heater will not be enough, go get another one until gas furnace is working properly. You may need to turn every thing else off, if only on 30amps

Hope you made it through that cold night!

Our friend Chris Bryant has many service manuals on his website.

Chris lists Suburban, Duo-Therm and HydroFlame. HydroFlame is an Atwood brand, so see what you can find in Chris's documents using the HydroFlame manuals.

You'll need your Model Number and (at least an approximate) Date of Manufacture would help.

Open the link and scroll till you find Furnace.

As you can tell by the posts, your furnace broke. Mine did the same thing just a month ago, worked great then stopped. Turned out to be a plugged jet.

No silver bullet on fixing the thing, so best figure out how to stay warm. My vote is for a hotel room and a call to a mobile RV repair guy, if you're not handy with furnaces.

If you are plugged in, check your battery voltage. If it reads only 1/2 full or less, you might have a tripped circuit breaker to the converter 120 volt power (check all your GFI's) and plug in the converter to a extension cord if required to get the battery voltage back up to the 'full' or green level.

If you have a full battery, then probably will need someone to look at the problem. If the stove works fine, there is not much else you can troubleshoot yourself.

Let us know if the stove will not work. As a last resort, you could run the oven, and leave a roof vent and window open about 1/2" each, and let that warm the RV. However do NOT go to sleep with the oven and stove burners on. They produce to much CO to heat the RV.

If the stove burners are really small, then the propane tank might be frozen? OR regulator - as suggested above. A light near the tank will help warm it a bit, but if it is windy out, much of that heat will leave very quickly.



Good luck!

Fred.

Probably the ignitor. Get the the model number and call Bestconverter. They have all that stuff.