No Heat From Furance

[navyAZ1]

Well we just had our first cold snap here in N. GA and the old furnace ain't work'n. We turned it on Saturday night it worked fine but sometime during the night it quit. Next morning we tried it again only the blower runs and no heat and can't seem to hear the igniter clicking. So, I removed the outside panel to do some troubleshooting turned off the switch there next to the gas line disconnected the gas line and a friend said "wait I'll do some research on the problem" said he would have an answer the next day, so I reconnected the gas line turned the switch back on and thought what the heck lets try it again. I went in the coach and turned on the thremostat and WA LA the furnace worked again. However, it only ran for 2 cycles then when it tried to run on the third try got blower only and no heat.

I'm getting ready to start some more troubleshooting I am hoping it isn't the circuit board. I have an idea it may be the "Limit Switch" locking out the burner since turning off the power switch seemed to reset something but I'll check the "Sail Switch" also. Anyone have any other ideas?

 

[htneighbors]

1. Turn thermostat off
2. Light all burners on stove and turn on HIGH
3. Set thermostat to HEAT
4. Watch burners and see if the flame height drops when furnace is attempting to light
5. If so, the propane supply is the problem, not the furnace

I experienced this last winter in Wyoming.

 

[cookie]

Well, I hate to admit this but.............we went through this yesterday. DW said the furnace is not working. So I go to check things out. She says we are out of gas, I said no way, one tank is full for sure. I checked the stove and the burners all lit. Although not quite like they used to. Furnace fan ran, no heat. So I decide to get the one empty tank filled and when I took it out, guess what. Duh........both tanks were empty. So now I have to listen to "I told you so" and "see, I'm always right". So any way just make sure you have LP. I am on my way now to get BOTH tanks filled. I hope your problem is a simple to fix as mine.

Peace
Dave

 

[SilverRhino]

Tank MUST Be Full

Dave;

Thanks for your post.......I've been in the exact same situation.......DW, also a Mary, had the same attitude!

Must have something to do with the name.............

Travel Safe!

Randy

 

[navyAZ1]

1. Turn thermostat off
2. Light all burners on stove and turn on HIGH
3. Set thermostat to HEAT
4. Watch burners and see if the flame height drops when furnace is attempting to light
5. If so, the propane supply is the problem, not the furnace

I experienced this last winter in Wyoming.

Tried this didn't seem to show any difference in the size of the flame. We had one gas bottle getting low but the switch had not been made to the full bottle so I manually changed over to the full bottle yesterday and it didn't seem to make any difference. The main thing I notice now is I don't seem to be hearing the "clicking" noise when the burner should be lighting which tells me there is no spark.

 

[navyAZ1]

Well it was the gas supply that was the problem! I took the furnace out and had it checked by an RV repair facility near where we are currently staying in Chattanooga, TN. They found nothing wrong with the furnace so they suggested I check the voltage coming into the furnace which I had done and it was fine. The tech said than it could only be gas supply and suggested it might be the gas regulator, so I went ahead and bought a new regulator. Came home and reinstalled the furnace then when I went to install the new regulator I found the gas line that came out of the regulator going to the coach was almost totally clogged with "pipe dope". When they installed this regulator at the factory they used sooooo much pipe dope that over time it must have shifted around and clogged the line where it only had a small opening for the gas to pass thru. Cleaned out the pipe dope and reinstalled the regulator and all seems to be fine now.

 

[navyAZ1]

Need Help! With Furnace Problem

We are having a strange furnace problem that neither myself or the RV techs who have worked on this problem can figure out. Here it is; we had a short cool snap and I turned on the furnace just to make sure all was well, it worked fine but sometime during the night it locked out due to the burner not igniting. I checked all the switches I could access with a meter and all seemed to be okay but still the burner would not light. I called an RV service center near us and made an appointment to bring in the furnace for a check so I pulled out the furnace took it to the RV service center they bench checked it and said all was fine. I reinstalled the furnace and it worked great for about 5 or 6 cycles then it failed to light again. Called the tech and he seemed to think it was a gas pressure problem so, I had the local propane dealer come out and test for gas pressure they said all was good at the furnace. I made another appointment with the RV service center and took the entire coach in, they found the furnace not working pulled it out cleaned the orfice, gas valve, burn chamber, cleaned igniter and checked the gap, and they also checked gas pressure at the furnace. The furnace worked fine got back to our campground fired up the furnace it worked for a few hours and once again shut down due to the burner not lighting. Can anyone shed any light on this problem the RV tech seems to be at a loss and I don't want to have to keep throwing money at this until someone just stumbles onto the problem. Any help would be greatly appreciated we plan to take the coach back to the RV service center next week and leave it for a couple of days so if anyone could give me some ideas as to what the tech's need to look at this would help a lot.

 

[JohnDar]

You might want to try calling Suburban about it. Kinda sounds like an intermittent electronics problem (module board) since you've had everything else checked out. Works for a bit, gets warmed and something somewhere opens up and you're non-functional.

 

[jbeletti]

Navy,

I agree with John - give Suburban a call. Their phone, website and email address appear on the left side of the Portal.

Jim

 

[dgoy]

I had a similar problem with the Suburban furnace in my ED M18. The dealer spent a lot of time trouble shooting. They replaced the high limit switch, thermostat and two module boards. The first replacement circuit board was found to be defective. The second worked. It looks like Suburban may have problems with their module boards. So you may have to try a few boards before fixing the problem.

 

[navyAZ1]

Navy,

I agree with John - give Suburban a call. Their phone, website and email address appear on the left side of the Portal.

Jim

Well I called them and they wouldn't even talk with me the lady stated they only talked with authorized repair techs. So, I sent an e-mail asking them to give us some info or at least send the repair tech some info on what to check, they have done neither. I think I'm going to take a trip to their mfg. facility since it is only about 40 miles from where we are right now. Guess I'll go up there and be nice until I get attitude then I'll be on top of somebody's desk!

 

[jmgratz]

They may fix it at their facility if you ask nice.

 

[navyAZ1]

I was as nice as I could be but the Suburban folks wouldn't even talk with me since I was not a authorized tech, and yes I even asked if they would fix it for me and they declined. So, with a little luck I have found the problem and it does appear to be the circuit board. We just had a new campground host come in here where Ann and I are hosting and turns out he knows a little about this stuff, his idea was to turn on the furnace and let it run so we did and after the burner lit he held a hair dryer in there aiming it at the circuit board and in just a few seconds the burner went off and would not re-light. So, he thinks mine and few others thoughts were correct concerning that the circuit board has a bad circuit in it that is being affected once it heated up. I called the RV service guy I was using to find out how much a new circuit board would be and he quoted $190 (YIKES). Then this same new host and a few other folks told me about Dinosaur circuit boards that they say are better than the OEM boards Suburban uses. I found a dealer and am getting a new board from them for $85. I'll let y'all know after Wednesday if it fixed it or not.

 

[JohnDar]

Depending on your date of purchase, the furnace is supposed to have a two year warranty on defective parts. Says so on the back of the manual. Sure sounds like a defective part to me. Too bad Suburban gave you the bum's rush. Maybe HL needs to give them a crash course on customer service.

 

[SmokeyBare]

On our (SOB) Fifth wheel I replaced the circuit board for the hot water tank... replaced with a "Dinosaur" board... it worked great and was far more protected than the original. It even came with a replaceable fuse built into the board and a plastic shield that protected the board from moisture and badly directed streams from a garden hose.

 

[Rickhansen]

Bravo! Nice troubleshooting. I hope it works out for you. I know I had to fire our furace this morning here in North Florida. Several years ago I replaced the electronics in a Dometic fridge with a Dinosaur aftermarket board. It solved the problem at half the price, and provided several "added" features too.