furnace question

pnichols wrote:
Earlier someone mentioned trying your furnace with a generator running if you had one along.

Out in the woods on a cold night with a failed furnace, I would probably run the generator all night powering an electric heater or two for comfort and to keep the water tanks and lines from freezing.

I carry my champion 2000 when I hunt so I don't really have enough wattage to run a bunch of electric heaters. I have an eden pure that draws about 1500 watts that I can run but that's about it. I have a 5500 watt gen I could take but I really hate lugging that heavy bulky thing around. It has to ride on the cab side of the 5th wheel and I don't like leaving it in the truck when parking up some remote road so it has to come out at camp and the only way to do that is lift it up and over the hitch. It about breaks my back every time.....I think it's in the 180 lb neighborhood. I'll be by myself so no help getting it over the hitch.

real test comes this weekend......taking it hunting for the weekend. Going to be mid to low 30's at night so the furnace will be ran. I'm still not 100% convinced that it's all taken care of....hence the electric heater I'm also packing along. :D The fridge ran non-stop on propane for 2-3 days without failing to start and the furnace has been started and cycled multiple times the last 2 days and has started every time. If either gives me problems this weekend I'll be buying a new regulator.

ok....got it to light again. This thing is going to drive me crazy. I covered the exhaust port since I could smell gas and it fired up. Now it's cycling on and off as usual.
I'm really wondering about that regulator now but what are the odds I would have 2 separate issues with this thing at the same time? It went from no spark to spark and gas with no ignition.
Is it normal to hear the regulator "surging"? I can hear it pulsing as it's drawing gas. Just not sure if that's normal or not.
Another thought I had about today's issue is japanese beetles. Had thousands of them on the camper yesterday and I don't have screen covers for the furnace intake/exhaust ports. I wonder if they got in there and partially covered the gas orifice? Never had an issue with them before and I've had them all over my camper every fall. I can smell them burning in the exhaust of the furnace though. I'll be putting covers on it but that still doesn't answer if they're the cause of this latest issue or if it's the regulator.

arrrgh.......tested it 10-15 times yesterday and it fired every time. Go out today and it won't fire. Completely different symptoms though.

Now I can hear the ignitor running....it just won't light. I can also smell gas in the exhaust as it's trying to light so I know the gas is on. My luck as usual....tons of it....all bad.

Earlier someone mentioned trying your furnace with a generator running if you had one along.

Out in the woods on a cold night with a failed furnace, I would probably run the generator all night powering an electric heater or two for comfort and to keep the water tanks and lines from freezing.

replaced the sail switch and everything seems to be running fine at the moment. That old sail switch tested good so I don't think the switch itself was bad. Just wondering if that armature was having trouble or sticking or something. I moved it through the range and it all seemed fine to me. For $10 though I just went ahead and replaced it. Furnace has kicked on every time so far. I'll keep testing it to see if that got it or not. I kinda ruled out that regulator because there didn't seem to be an issue with the gas other than those funny looking burners and that could be burners that are out of adjustment. I kicked the water heater and oven on and both worked fine. Thanks for everyone's time and input. Now on to the fridge. :D

wasn't the limit switch......I'm going to order a regulator. RV place here wants $50 for one. I can get it cheaper online.

curiosity got the best of me so I went out and fired the stove top up. I thought I'd discovered the problem and I'm still not convinced it's not related. The burners pulsed some but not out of hand. After running a couple minutes they looked like this.


I turned them off and started the furnace and it lit. I turned the burners back on and it wouldn't light. Problem solved.....or so I thought. I tried it again and even with the burners off it wouldn't light so that makes me think it was coincidence the first time. I'm back to the limit switch I guess. I would just run out and get a regulator and a limit switch but I hate throwing parts at something and I would love to figure out how to test that switch before just buying one.

edit:
I just looked up that limit switch.....it's like a $10-$15 part. I'll be buying one tomorrow. I don't mind throwing that kinda money at it. :D

I do think it's kinda odd that both would start acting up like that but that's just the kind of luck I have....tons of it....all bad. :D If it was an LP delivery problem though I would think that the ignitor on the furnace would cycle.....when the furnace acts up the ignitor doesn't even fire. I can't catch the fridge acting up when I have the cover off of it to see what it's doing exactly. I had my son turn the fridge off/on 15 times I bet and it fired up every time. I then left it running and would have him open the door every now and then to get it to come on that way....did that 5-6 times and every time it lit right up. I did hear it do it once over the weekend and you can hear it making that "pop" sound like it's out of propane. Just to rule out the regulator I'll run the stove a while tomorrow and watch the flame and see what it looks like.

Try lighting a couple of stove burners, and then try the furnace a few times. Given the similar problem with the fridge, I wonder if your LP regulator might be acting up. The stove burners would likely show some flame issues, if that's the case.