Furnace not coming on

[Challenged]

I suspected my Furnace didn't come on when the temperature dropped at night, so switched my thermostat to on and the Furnace didn't come on. I thought I smelled propane but it was very faint, so it might have been in my head. It was working when I last used it a month ago. I don't even know where to start diagnosing this. There is propane in the tank and no fuses are blown. I am not even sure where it is in the trailer.

[Jim & DJ]

Try turning your thermostat up to 80 and see whet happens...

[JRTJH]

Make sure the thermostat is set to HEAT and the desired temperature is higher than the room temperature. The furnace should operate. If the fan runs, make sure your battery is fully charged. Sometimes there is enough voltage to run the fan but not enough to get the ignition sequence to operate. So, if your battery is low, you may hear the fan but not get the furnace to come on.

If your air conditioner also comes on when the furnace comes on, set your thermostat fan switch to AUTO. If it is in either HIGH or LOW the A/C fan will operate when the furnace is called to operate by the thermostat.

[hankaye]

Challenged, Howdy;

Had a similar problem last year, turned out to be
the control board for the heater. Unfortunately,
for me I couldn't see the front of the unit till it was
removed from it's home under the 'fridge. I don't
trust my insurance company to pay-up should something
go wrong and I did the fix myself, so for things like
electrical and propane I'll call in the pro's to do the fix'n.

hankaye

[GaryWT]

Check your propane. If you have propane, does everything else work ok on it? If not turn it off, disconnect and reconnect, turn on try again. I find my thermostat is off so I have to turn it way up to get the heat to run some of the time. Good luck.

[Challenged]

This morning it was cold, so I switched it on to auto, and it came on. Cold air blew for 30 seconds and then it turned off. Could it be propane even though my stove and hot water heater are working?

[JRTJH]

The igniter circuit and the flame sensing circuit are both on the control board. It could be either of those or possibly another issue. If you can get to the front of the furnace, remove the front of the air box and you should see a flashing green light, That is the "error code" and will relate to any malfunction as contained in your owner's manual.

If you're not familiar with working on appliances and propane systems, you might want to defer troubleshooting to your dealership or to an RV service tech.

[Ken / Claudia]

I had the same problem and kept checking things until I came to the fact that the furance could start and about 30 seconds shut down. I could feel alittle heat starting to come thru before it shut down. It was under warrenty and the dealer said the board failed.

[Scttw]

I'm not familiar with your trailer, but does it use a battery?

I only ask because mine requires the battery to send the ignition spark for the furnace.

If that's not the problem, get the stove top lit to make sure you have good flow and at least halfway down the trailer. It sometimes helps if it's a flow issue due to spiders and other guys.

[Challenged]

Okay, I am getting really weirded out by this. All I see of the furnace is a small vent on the outside next to the water heater. Is this thing completely embedded somewhere where I can't work on it without ripping the trailer apart? Is the only way to get to it is from the bottom of the trailer by removing a ton of stuff?

[scott24]

Does the exhaust port get warm? It's possible the burner fires but its not sensing the flame and shutting the burner down.

[hankaye]

Challenged, Howdy;

Ok, It's not imbedded nor is it encased in Superdudes Fortress of Solitude.
I tried looking for one of your model and year in a Google search, no luck for
the interior shots. No one, apparently wants to show the floors or lower
sections of cabinetry. However, trying to do some spatial dead reckoning,
I'm thinking that under your 'fridge ther is, maybe, a slotted section that
appears to have the louvered bits aligned so as to suck from the floor.....
if so , then you have discovered the Cold air return for the furnace. There
may be a few, mine has 4, screws that secure the louvered bit in place
and after removing them you should be able to access the rear of your Heater.
You'll most likely NOT be able to see the Green light that the other Hank
mentioned, it's facing the exterior wall (Keystones superb engineering practices
at work as usual). The next panel forward should grant you access to your
hot water heater. One thing about the cheap Bast**ds that build these RV's
is they will cluster the propane appliances so they can get by with the
shortest runs of plumbing possiable.

Let us know what you find, and where it is ... might help the next RV'er with
a similar problem.

hankaye

[Challenged]

Under the fridge is a drawer. There are louvers under the entertainment center. I removed the panel and there was the water heater. I really have no idea where the furnace is. The outside vent is between the water heater panel and the city water inlet/dumping handles/storage.

[Ken / Claudia]

It should be mounted to the floor. You found the chrome vents (2 open tubes) sacked one above the other it the same chrome piece right?. That is the furence vent. The furence will be inline with that about 1ft away. The cabinet it is in will be vented into the trailer. If you still cannot find it post photos of what you think the vent is outside and photo the cabinets at the floor.

[B&T]

Think I Found a video of your model, I'm thinking it's in the louver compartment and behind the water heater. May be a bear to get to.


Edit:
Just noticed the exterior compartment door right next to the heater exhaust port. Any way to access the heater inside that compartment?

[hankaye]

Challenged, Howdy;

I'm thinking this is the video that B&T found;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waRt2Fh_KRE

At 0:09 into the video it shows the exterior, the vent
and the exterior access door for the hot water heater.
and to the front of the vent is the access door for,
here I'm guessing, the water works and other things of
a similar nature... (?). The heater "should" be accessible
from the compartment just in front of it or from a panel
in the kitchen area, look for screws, pull the panels, see
what you can find, may be of help later when you have
difficulty looking for something else.
When you go exploring don't forget your Pith helmet and compass.

hankaye

[JRTJH]

To add to Hankaye's comment, sometimes there isn't an access panel, but you access the appliance (HWH, furnace, water pump) from the adjacent cabinet by removing a kick panel between them (inside the adjacent cabinet) or by removing a drawer in the cabinet next to the appliance.

You may find an access panel, you may find a removable wall between two cabinets or you may find that removing a drawer give you access to the HWH winterizing valve. On some of the "between cabinet access panels (inside the cabinet) there is even a 3 or 4 inch hole already cut so you can reach through without removing the panel.

[hankaye]

Challanged, Howdy;

Originally Posted by Challenged

Under the fridge is a drawer. There are louvers under the entertainment center. I removed the panel and there was the water heater. I really have no idea where the furnace is. The outside vent is between the water heater panel and the city water inlet/dumping handles/storage.

I really need to not attempt to figure these things out before my first cup of
coffee in the morning .......
Your Heater is on the other (front of RV), side of the Hot Water Heater. Do
the spatial analysis thing ... look at the outside, then look again from inside
the Heater is only about 6" or 7" tall and perhaps 14" wide.
In the video (see my post above), the HWH is aft of the exhaust port yours
is a single hole duplex (does both exhaust [inner tube] and intake [outer
tube]). So, I'm inclined to re-double my presumption that you will be able to
access it from the aft wall of that area behind the hatch where the water and
pull handles are located next to the intake/exhaust.
Happy hunting.

hankaye

[Festus2]

Challenged -
The furnace must have a supply of fresh air to function -- otherwise known as a cold air return. Almost always there is a slotted or louvered opening at or near floor level that allows this fresh air to reach the furnace.

Using hankaye's "spatial analysis" technique, look for such a louver. Be careful using this technique - unless you have had some training using it, you could hurt yourself.

It's gotta be there somewhere. When the furnace is operating (if it ever does) you should be able to figure out roughly where it is. As mentioned here, the furnace should be in a direct line with those two exterior furnace vents.

I can't imagine that your furnace is buried deep inside "Superdude's Fortress of Solitude". Not even Keystone could think of that. Hank might but certainly not Keystone.

Keep searching. It's there. Somewhere.

[hankaye]

Challenged, Howdy;

Hey!!! What ya find???
Let us know so the forum can help the next owner of a model like yours
that asks...

hankaye