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Old 02-01-2021, 04:38 AM   #1
Mallardsx2
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2021 Keystone Outback - Propane Furnace Issue

Hello all.



I am new to the forum as my wife and I have just purchased a 2021 Keystone outback 340 BH. It has been a good camper but we have a problem with the furnace.



The other night we ran out of gas so I went to switch the tank to the other side and then the furnace was able to re-light. Then last night we ran out of gas again....I was thinking to myself there is no way we already ran out of gas already.....So I went out and changed the tanks and immediately realized that the one tank was 1/4 full and the other tank was 1/2 full.....So I hooked them back up and the furnace would not light just the blower would blow, but the stove burners were burning bright and blue flames....


So then I hooked up brand new tanks turned on the heat and the furnace blower kicked on and lit and started working.


Can anyone on here tell me why the furnace isn't working when the tanks get less than half full? This camper is literally 1 week old and the tanks were brand new from the dealer.


I should note that I do not leave both tank valves open and I have the propane directional arrow pointed at either one or the other tank, not to the middle.




Thanks so much for any help you can provide.
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Old 02-01-2021, 06:10 AM   #2
rhagfo
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Two possible issues, how cold is it outside, propane's ablity to become a gas reduces as it gets colder.
Second is a bad regulator, that doesn't sense the tanks pressure correctly.
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Old 02-01-2021, 06:20 AM   #3
Mallardsx2
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Its not below freezing last night when the issue occurred. I am leaning towards the regulator on the furnace itself being the issue. If It was the regulator at the tanks I wouldn't think that the stove would light.
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Old 02-01-2021, 06:24 AM   #4
sourdough
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Its not below freezing last night when the issue occurred. I am leaning towards the regulator on the furnace itself being the issue. If It was the regulator at the tanks I wouldn't think that the stove would light.

The furnace will require more fuel than the stove. Another thought; the first time I had one of the LP tanks on this trailer (new - first fill) filled it felt like it wasn't completely empty but showed empty. Took it in and the fellow at the LP place said it was full of air.(?) Stood there for quite some time as he bled it out then filled the tank. It's not been an issue since - never had it happen before.
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Old 02-01-2021, 06:28 AM   #5
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Thought I would post this as a follow up to my previous comments;

Why is purging a new propane tank so important?
If the natural volume of air inside your tank is not removed prior to the 1st filling, these problems will result:
During the warmer months of the year your tank could experience excessive and false container pressures. This could cause the safety relief valve to open, blowing off (discharging) the excessive pressure.
Any air mixture in the vapor space of the tank will be carried to the appliance burner. This could result in unwanted service calls from pilot light outage or improper burner flame function.
However, if the atmospheric air inside your new tank is properly purged:

The storage tank will fill faster, your appliances will function more consistently, pressure relief valves on your tank will be less likely to discharge.


Here is the link to the above excerpt:

https://www.propanetankstore.com/blo...-propane-tank/
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Old 02-01-2021, 06:41 AM   #6
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Interesting but it really doesn't explain why the stove is working and the furnace is not though. I called Keystone and they said that the the furnace should run until the tank is slap empty.



You can physically feel the propane is 1/2 and 1/4 full in these tanks by shaking them.
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Old 02-01-2021, 06:46 AM   #7
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Interesting but it really doesn't explain why the stove is working and the furnace is not though. I called Keystone and they said that the the furnace should run until the tank is slap empty.



You can physically feel the propane is 1/2 and 1/4 full in these tanks by shaking them.
I’ve never been able to shake a tank and know how much propane is in it. I’m thinking faulty regulator. There isn’t a regulator on the furnace, just a gas valve that opens when a set of conditions are met and closes when those conditions change or set temp is reached.
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Old 02-01-2021, 06:51 AM   #8
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If the regulator is faulty I would be interested to know why the stove burner works. It wasn't running on the gas in the lines because I left it run for 10 minutes. I would think it would have drained that gas in the line during that time period.
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Old 02-01-2021, 06:52 AM   #9
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Read my first sentence in post 4. A faulty regulator can cause that. Are you going to take it in under warranty or fix it yourself?
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Old 02-01-2021, 07:00 AM   #10
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Thanks for all of the advice thus far. I really appreciate it.

If it is indeed the regulator at the tank I will likely change that myself and eat the cost of it. Going through Keystone appears to be quite the ordeal...It really sucks that this camper is 1 week old and I am already having issues but I guess thats how she goes.
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Old 02-01-2021, 07:17 AM   #11
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A failed regulator, circuit boards etc. are sort of an expected occurrence since it is difficult to find a fault in one of them by just firing something up once then turning it off. In my mind I picture all of the circuit boards in a box with tech's hands reaching in grabbing one every few minutes beating them to death over time - then we get one of them in our RV....hoping ours wasn't the one completely beaten to death.

If you replace the regulator get a good one. I've had good results with Marshall Excelsior brand regulators. I've already replaced the high pressure regulator on this one and have a replacement two stage on hand for the primary regulator when it fails - and it's under warranty as well.

When getting warranty work performed it's all about the dealer. I have no doubt Keystone will replace the regulator BUT arranging to get it into the dealer, them getting to it to trouble shoot the regulator, then getting Keystone to approve the replacement, THEN ordering/getting the new part can take a LONG time. They should have one on hand but it will be something similar to the OE part.
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Old 02-01-2021, 07:23 AM   #12
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I am going to hook everything back up the way it was and try to replicate the issue again tonight in the daylight. Hopefully I will have something to report back.
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Old 02-01-2021, 08:05 AM   #13
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I am going to hook everything back up the way it was and try to replicate the issue again tonight in the daylight. Hopefully I will have something to report back.
Be sure to open the tank valves slowly til you hear it pressure up, otherwise the safety valve in tank will sense a rapid release & shut off the flow.
You can operate how you like, but I always opened both tanks, pointed the regulator to side or the other, this prevented going out in the middle of the night to switch tanks, just check periodically that the regulator had switched & go fill the empty. A 20# bottle should last 2-4 days running the furnace, plenty of time to check & refill, mine had 30# bottles that would last 5-7 days.
Also if I were to bet your dealer filled these tanks til vapor came out the weephole rather than liquid which is the cheap dealer way giving you about a gallon of liquid instead of 5.
Might to check another item dealers tend you cheap out on, battery/ies. If there's CCA, CA or MCA number listed on the top they are not true deep cycle batteries, they're starting batteries not designed for RVs & will have a very short lifespan.
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Old 02-02-2021, 11:28 AM   #14
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I have other brand new tanks I tried last night and had the same sporadic issue. They said that since the igniter is working and the blower is kicking on that this would be about the only thing that could cause the issue.



I called the furnace company (Dometic) and they told me that they were pretty certain that it was the "Sail" switch. Because it is a random problem and since I was getting gas to the burners on everything else that almost the only thing it could be that would be acting randomly. The only other thing they said it could be would be the limit switch but they highly doubted that that could be the issue.



So now it looks like I have to order a new sail switch and pull the entire unit out of there to get into the sail switch to replace it. It appears to be about a 2 hour job.





On another note: I was able to get the furnace to fire using the 1/2 filled tank last night and while it was running I switched the valve across to the 1/4 filled tank and it kept running for 15 minutes. So I now know that it isnt the regulator because it kept running the entire time.....So therefore it must be the sail switch.



This thing is literally 9 days old but I guess a switch failure is possible???
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Old 02-02-2021, 11:50 AM   #15
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I just went through this. I didn’t see you had a Dometic furnace. There has been discussions that they got a bad batch, and after fighting with a furnace that “bench tested” good but failed when installed in the trailer, I called tech support. Talked to 2 different techs, the second one had me do a test with it installed and sure enough if I bypassed the sail switch it ran. Got a new one coming, but it took me a long time and a bunch of other tests, even the boss was confused.

Hope a new sail switch fixes your issue.
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Old 02-02-2021, 12:12 PM   #16
Mallardsx2
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I just went through this. I didn’t see you had a Dometic furnace. There has been discussions that they got a bad batch, and after fighting with a furnace that “bench tested” good but failed when installed in the trailer, I called tech support. Talked to 2 different techs, the second one had me do a test with it installed and sure enough if I bypassed the sail switch it ran. Got a new one coming, but it took me a long time and a bunch of other tests, even the boss was confused.

Hope a new sail switch fixes your issue.



Where did you order your sail-switch from? I need to look at my serial number to make sure I get the right one. Apparentley there is a specific one for years 2017 and never.
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Old 02-02-2021, 02:50 PM   #17
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I don’t order parts, I just tell the boss what it needs. I think he’s getting it from Dometic under warranty.
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Old 02-02-2021, 04:35 PM   #18
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You probably don’t need a new switch so much as cleaning out the crap that is causing it to fail. When ours was installed the blower suck stuff in and got hung up on the switch. Some times would work sometimes would not. Pulled the furnace and cleaned out the whole area and haven’t had an issue since.
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Old 02-02-2021, 05:07 PM   #19
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Had a friend a couple years ago who couldn't get his furnace to stay on while out at Quartzsite. He had a two year old Montana and the stove burners worked fine, or so he thought. He found a Dometic tech in town who told him to bring the rig in. Turned out all he needed was the regulator adjusted as it was only putting out 5 inches of water column. Hasn't had a problem since.
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Old 02-02-2021, 05:31 PM   #20
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You probably don’t need a new switch so much as cleaning out the crap that is causing it to fail. When ours was installed the blower suck stuff in and got hung up on the switch. Some times would work sometimes would not. Pulled the furnace and cleaned out the whole area and haven’t had an issue since.
I took the sail switch out of the furnace I was working on. It had just a tiny bit of lint on it. Both tech support personnel admitted that Dometic had a bad batch of switches. OP: you can try cleaning it, maybe it will work for you, it didn’t fix mine (customers).
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