Repaired at the dealership... with a happy ending

[Desert_Captain]

A couple of weeks ago while camping at the Colorado River {Buckskin Mountain SP} my furnace unexpectedly just quit. It is a beast at 35,000 BTU's and for 7 years has performed flawlessly but one morning it just would not run{???}

I checked the fuse {first} and it was fine, then checked the operation of the thermostat. I could feel/hear the click when setting the temperature and it ran the AC just fine so I eliminated that as the problem. Next, I went outside and opened up the cover and checked all of the wiring, nothing loose, even turned the off/on switch on and off a couple of times hoping maybe a reset might help...zilch... arrrg.

Some research online convinced me that any further efforts on my part were way over my pay grade. Decided to bite the bullet and make an appointment with La Mesa RV {where we purchased the rig 5.5 years ago}. Arrived at 0800 and they went straight to work {at $149 per hour... Ouch!}.

I went over and spoke with Luis their tech giving him a little bit of history and he suspected it was a bad control board. He pulled the entire furnace and found no electrical or LP gremlins. Fortunately, they had a replacement board in stock {although I admit to cringing at the thought of what it would cost} and while I watched he quickly removed the old board, installed the new one and poof, it fired right up and ran perfectly.

He buttoned everything up replacing the wire connectors in the process for good measure. I thanked him profusely and spent a few minutes sharing my good thoughts with his Service Manager.

I rolled out 1 hour and 45 minutes after arriving, was just charged for one hour of labor - I'm guessing it was actually closer to 1.5. The new control board was $118.99 so with tax, shop supplies and labor I was out the door for $291.06. Yes, I am one seriously happy camper! :B

Here is a shot of the old control board:

[MNGeeks61]

That is a good ending! At our seasonal, we had a similar issue: the furnace would click, but not ignite. RV tech diagnosed a board - he did test a few other things first - replacement was about $125, total was almost the same as yours.

He also made the recommendation that I get a specific brand of non-OEM board (not sure if it was Dino) if this happened again. This was on a 2015 model year 40k btu furnace.

[Desert_Captain]

Fulltimers wrote:
Hopefully it was actually a bad circuit board and not just a bad connection that unplugging the connectors and reconnecting them could have fixed.
That's how I fixed my water heater once.

That is not likely... all of the connections were snug and tight not only when I checked them but also when Luis went through inspecting everything. For a connection to just fail when the rig had been sitting for 3 days with the furnace running on a regular basis doesn't sound plausible.

As noted he replaced all of the connections before buttoning it up but AFTER the new board was installed and the furnace roaring once again.

:C

[Fulltimers]

Hopefully it was actually a bad circuit board and not just a bad connection that unplugging the connectors and reconnecting them could have fixed.
That's how I fixed my water heater once.

[RobWNY]

$300 for a happy ending is a fair price. I've heard of guys having to pay a lot more than that.

[Chum_lee]

wa8yxm wrote:
One thing I did when my control board went Diodes Up.. was put in a DINOSAUR board.

I have a theory as to how the OEM died. it is only a theory but when I examined the Dino Board before installing I noticed a part NOT ON the OEM board... a part which has as its function the prevention of what I THINK happened to the oem.

Seems Dino folks have the same theory I did. so they fixed it.

There are a lot of companies that manufacture aftermarket PC boards and repair old PC boards out there. When the production quantities warrant it and there are pattern failures, some industrious recent college EE graduate figures out a cheap fix that can save $$$$$$$$ depending on the application. I like that. Google is your friend.

Bosch ABS units to name one. I saved $1,900 on ONE repair vs. buying a new/rebuilt ABS unit from Bosch. The new "dealer only" unit from VW was $2,250 vs. $350 to have the old PC board repaired and guaranteed to work for 1 year.

Chum lee

[wa8yxm]

One thing I did when my control board went Diodes Up.. was put in a DINOSAUR board.

I have a theory as to how the OEM died. it is only a theory but when I examined the Dino Board before installing I noticed a part NOT ON the OEM board... a part which has as its function the prevention of what I THINK happened to the oem.

Seems Dino folks have the same theory I did. so they fixed it.

[hotjag1]

That sounds like a fair deal to me. We love Buckskin Mtn state park.

[Desert_Captain]

We may live and often camp here in Arizona but this time of year rest assured that it gets cold. Not having the furnace ready to go was simply not an option. The good news is even with temps in the low thirties or below it only runs for about 5 minutes every 15 or 20 and that maintains 68 or even warmer if you want.

A 35K BTU furnace in a small, well constructed motorhome really gets the job done though it does burn a fair amount of propane. Last time I checked LP was selling for around $2 a gallon and by the way, regular gas here in Tucson is down to $2.09 and even less a few places.

Now if I could just find a campground that wasn't full up with snowbirds we could actually go somewhere...

:S

[toedtoes]

A computer board for my SUV that's only function is to allow the remote to work is $600. I'd say you did well!

P.S. I just use the key to lock and unlock the doors.

[ken56]

Fair price for the board and the work in my opinion. Good things worked out.

[Merrykalia]

I realize $300 is quite a bit, but if you are out in the RV and it's 30 degrees outside, $300 is not much! Glad things worked out well for you.