How's the weather

[considerations]

High today of 21.  My propane furnace died about 5AM.  I woke up to the cat trying to climb in with me.  I was going to let him until I realized I wasn't hearing the furnace blower come on like usual.  I have no idea what croaked.  Did the layman's check, replaced fuses in the dc box, checked the batteries, etc.  Rotten.  Stared at the inner workings of the thermostat, hmmmm.  Did the same with the gobbledygook of wires under the outside door of the furnace....more hmmmm.  Read the trouble shooting manual, hmmmmmmm.  Guess we all cant be geniuses in every department.

Leaving for town in a few minutes to seek a safe alternate form of heat.  Really wish that wood stove was installed and working in the cabin.  I'd move 75 feet east real sudden like and this would not be an issue.

Thank heavens the horse blankets are rated for super cold weather.  The "hand" check confirms they are quite warm under them.  Hay, now that's an idea! 

[MountainDon]

RV furnace?  Ours has a faulty gas control or solenoid. When it gets real cold (40 degrees or colder it seems) it will sometimes stick and not allow the propane to flow. I can get it going with a series of swift thunks to the case when I hear the ignition click. Once it's warm it's okay.

G/L. It's not nice to wake up to no heat. 

[fishing_guy]

-15F tonight at our warm and toasty suburban home.

-29F forecast at our up-north retreat.  We are staying down here in the (relative) warmth.

I went up a week ago, planning on spending the night.  I bailed after the dogs were worn out.  Glad I did as it got down to -18Fthat night.

[MountainDon]

    I don't like those negative signs in front of the numbers.   

[Drew]

It was so cold here today I had to close the door.   

I really, really like California.

[considerations]

That's right Drew, rub it in.  This is the coldest for the longest in 20 years.  I'm so close to bailing out of the 5th wheel and into the new cabin, I can tough it out.  Bought a little radiant heater, cranked up the little Honda gen, put on a pot of beans, wool socks and longjohns...should be ok in a little while. Everything and everybody else is warm. Now it's my turn.

Tommorrow in the daylight I start studying the thermostat, its 20 years old and it's next on the list.  It should have made a "thunk" after each reset, because it's getting power.  No thunk. So I'm thinking that may be the culprit.

The adventure continues...

[Ernest T. Bass]

The cold weather is really not bad if you're prepared for it.. Nice excuse to wind down and stay indoors....plan the next building project. The only real bummer is frozen pipes. Right now we've got a surface pump in a small well house, and if the power went out tonight we'd be in a real fix..

[MountainDon]

Tommorrow in the daylight I start studying the thermostat, its 20 years old and it's next on the list. 

RV thermostats are usually very simple on-off affairs operated by a bimetal coiled strip. If you remove the 2 wires from the thermostat and connect one wire to the other the furnace should fire up, if the thermostat is at fault.

Do not short across the thermostat with the wires connected. It's bad for the thermostat. Remove the wires first.

If that doesn't make the furnace kick to life try connecting jumping the connection points at the furnace.

[Redoverfarm]

Had always heard that when the temp drops low that propane will actually gel and not flow as it should.  This can be attributed by a low capacity in the tank. Once had a 500 gal and the weather was bad and they couldn't fill when I needed.  The distributor gave that explanation.  Well with the furnace not working the water sensor froze and it kept shutting down. Woke up to 32F in the house (rental) .  Ended up with 8 frozen water pipes and alot of dead flowers.   

[MountainDon]

True, the liquid propane does not change to a gas as well at low temperatures. However, in years of RV'ing in cold weather I've never run into that problem. At the BTU rate that a typical RV furnace uses propane there should not be a problem until somewhere below zero or maybe with a supply tank that is less than 25% full.

Do your propane fired range flames appear normal? Does the water heater operate okay?

In cold weather bigger tanks are better than smaller ones; same as fuller tanks supply more pressure than near empty tanks.

I interpret the problem as one of the furnace motor not coming on, the blower not working. If the thermostat tests okay (bypassing as above) it could be many things. With any RV furnace I've seen when the thermostat completes it's circuit the furnace blower should come on. After about 15 seconds then the gas valve solenoid should activate to allow propane to flow. Then the igniter fires and the burner lights.

If the fan doesn't work it could be the fan motor gave up, or the circuit board has a problem.

From your description of waking in the cold I assumed the fan did not work at all. This could require mork than thunking the case the right way. 

Have you ever replaced the fan motor? The orignal in ours lasted about 20 years. When we replaced it with a new motor I was amazed at how much more air it blew.

Mark's RV has info and he sells parts to DIY'ers.
http://www.marksrv.com/furnace_trouble_shooting.htm

[considerations]

"From your description of waking in the cold I assumed the fan did not work at all. This could require mork than thunking the case the right way." 

The usual sequence from a "user" standpoint is that when it gets too cold in here, the thermostat knows it, "thunks" (all by itself), then the blower comes on, and soon after that you can hear a change in the furnace sound and the hot air starts coming out the vents.

"Have you ever replaced the fan motor?"    About 2 years ago. I really hope that is not the problem. They don't make this model anymore, I just got lucky with finding a replacement motor.

[MountainDon]

If the motor is that new it could very well be the igniter board; I truly hope not. I did have the board go bad a few years back... the furnace didn't do a thing when the thermostat called for heat.  I replaced it with of the fan control dinosaur boards from Mark's RV.

[southernsis]

We had freezing rain/sleet, so now everything is shut down. Arkansas does'nt have the equipment to clean the road. Most businesses in my area shut down early yesterday.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

  It's cold here but we lucked out so far and didn't get any freezing rain, sleet or snow.

[Drew]

38 degrees here at the coast. 

I'm off to the Goodwill store to see about some flannel shirts.  I love that place!

[ScottA]

Heat wave today, all the way up to 23.

[considerations]

We got up to 21 today, it got warmer just after dark, go figure.  I think it is because more snow is coming.  And......drumroll.........it was the THERMOSTAT!  Wahoo! Yippeee!  $20 bucks and I was back in business!  Thanks for all the coaching on how to test the thermostat.  It worked! 

Better yet, my next door neighbor works at an RV repair business, I called her, she grabbed the replacement off the shelf, let me buy it with her employee discount and delivered it to me after work. 

I was up and running shortly thereafter.  There was a moment.....the instructions said to connect the red wire to the terminal marked R and the White wire to the terminal marked W.  I'm standing on a stool looking at a grey wire and a yellow wire sticking out of the wall...hmmmmm.  No gentlemen, I did NOT make note of which was attached to what when I disconnected.  Hindsight, not foresight, is 20/20.  Figured my chances of success were about 50/50....wired it up, plugged the RV back into the power board, and ran inside to put out any fire I might have started.  The furnace was running...it was getting warm.  Whew.  What a relief.  Its hard work wearing so many clothes both indoors and out that you feel like the Pillsbury Dough Boy.   

The gods were smiling today while granting me the small favor of not having to replace my furnace and concurrently freezing up the water hookup. I left it dripping, really.  Fortunately, I'm hooked to a yard hydrant by a very short hose, so after digging through and trashing the really thick insulation that USED TO WORK, I detached the hose and brought it inside to thaw, now that it will...because the furnace is working again.

Pioneering at it's finest. 

Needless to say I didn't get much done on the cabin today.  I have a half-baked set of stairs and a wood stove with no chimney.  The stairs dictate where the stove goes, then the money dictates when the chimney arrives.  I want to move in so badly sometimes my eyes bulge . 

However, it was a beautiful day, the sun was making the snow sparkle, and I'm really tickled that the furnace is still ok.

[Redoverfarm]

Glad to hear that you got it worked out.  No heat is not fun.  CF you might want to check some of the recent threads on the stove placement.  It's late or I would go back myself and post them. Stay warm.   

[MountainDon]

What a happy ending! Superb!  Delivered at a discount no less.


BTW, for something like the 2 wire RV thermostat it doesn't really matter which wire goes where. It's not a case of a positive and a negative wire. It's a positive lead with a switch (thermostat) in the run.

[considerations]

"BTW, for something like the 2 wire RV thermostat it doesn't really matter which wire goes where. It's not a case of a positive and a negative wire. It's a positive lead with a switch (thermostat) in the run."

That is a fortunate thing for me.  I was just hoping for the best and expecting the worst.

It's 6AM, the temp is 32, its raining, but it freezes when it hits the ground.  Gonna be a skating rink out there.  So its warmer. 

[John_C]

buy it with her employee discount and delivered it to me

[Sassy]

It got up to 50 today - still a lot of snow, but melting fast.  The sun was shining & I actually sat outside on our deck for about an hour reading it was so nice!    

The other night our bedroom was 37 degrees - didn't get around to making a fire in the wood stove over there - just piled on the down comforters & quilts... 

[MountainDon]

... 37 degrees - .... 

  was the window open? Crimoney that's cold! 

[glenn kangiser]

We have a separate stove in that part of the house and since it is across the bridge from the main part if we don't start a fire in there it gets cold.  It is the part of the house with the most exposed above ground also. 


The three boat docks above the bathroom only have about  6 inches of dirt over them. hmm 

I have a 25 foot boat that would really look cool moored there.

[Whitlock]

You could make a room out of a 25 foot boat Then you would have a boatroom