Atwood furnace issue--Help?!

[Silvertwinkie]

Was out in the twinkie tonight and it was kind of chilly. Went to fire up the Atwood furnace and I could hear it spark, but not catch. I thought, well, I finally killed the first tank, but the stove still worked. Regardless, I switched to the new full tank and the same happened.

I am getting three flashes every 3 seconds and according to the fault cheat sheet, it has an ignition failure.

So I was thinking low voltage (since I am on batt power and the unit has sat for about 2-3 weeks). I plug her in to the house A/C still on the new tank. Same issue. I am now thinking I have a bit more serious issue. The heater has less than 2 hours of in service use, so I am a bit puzzled.

Any suggestions where I should look at on this hydroflame unit?

Eric

[dtbw]

Same problem. Mine would try the ignition, fail, wait a few moments, try again and after several of these attempts, it would set a fault and then never try again (had to turn the thermastat to off then back to on to get it to try again). When I first noticed the problem, the furnace seemed to light eventually, but then it got to the point where it would NOT ignite. I thought about towing the rig over to the local certified A/S service center, but being an engineer and never afraid of investigating things further, I decided to pull the igniter and see if there was trash or something near the igniter (I could hear the igniter circuit firing, so I knew it was not the electronics). When I pulled the igniter, it seemed to be a LONG way from the burner unit (which is where the sparks jumps when it is igniting). I cleaned the igniter rod with a little steel wool, just to make sure nothing was coating it, slightly bent it so that it would be closer to the burner once installed, reinstalled it and that seemed to fix my problem. I think the problem was based on two issues, the first was a small amount of surface oxidation on the igniter and the second being the distance from the igniter to the burner. Either one alone would probably still allow the furnace to ignite (obviously it tested okay at Atwood, again at the A/S factory, and finally at the dealer), but combined they seemed to stop the ignition process completely.

One warning, be VERY careful when you remove the screws holding in the igniter as they are small and CAN fall into the furnace. I had this occur and fortunately, I could still see it and I fished it out with a small magnetic retriever that I had. A loose screw in the heat exchanger would not make any difference to the furnace or in any way effect its safety or performance, but just the idea of a loose screw did not set well with my temperment.

We have used the furnace quite a few times since my fix and the no-light issue has not reoccurred.

David

[Silvertwinkie]

Thanks David! I'm the same way with the loose items floating around.

I will give that a try and report back.

Thanks again for the insite!

Eric

[femuse]

If it does not work, ask Pahaska.

With his "luck", it must have happened to him.

[Silvertwinkie]

Got it to fire once and it would not re-fire. Tried to re-adjust and the ignitor and the small bar broke off the plate!

So I ordered one from the local shop.

Before it broke, I hooked a ground wire to the furnace chassis and watched how well the ignitor worked and there were few sparks between the two posts. The only think I can say for sure is that there is plenty of gas in getting into the combustion chamber. One of two things has failed. Either the ignitor, which I will find out soon or the power board is not sending enough juice to the ignitor.

About the screws, they are in a very great place to try and work on it (NOT!)....

What I did was place some plumbers putty in the socket and a shaped 3x5 index card in case the putty dropped the screw. It seemed to work great.

Now I only need ignition and I should have blast off!

I'll follow up as I get further. If the ignitor does not fix the problem, I will take the A/S to the local authorized Atwood repair and have them replace the logic/control board under warranty.

Eric

[Weissbrewer]

We, have had ou 25 CCDfor Two Months & have been keeping it heated to 50 degrees because we use it to ski out of. Yesterday I heard the Carbon Monoxide Detector beeping and found the furnace out. tried to turn up the thermostat & it did nithing. turned off 7 back on ...still nothing.. checkedthe board 3 lighhts w/ pause... after four tries got it to light so I turned up the thermostat &left it for the night. This morningsame problem.. lit on the second try. Nearest dealer 150 miles away, so will have to work on it myself, Did you remove the shroud to work on the ignitor?Suposed to leave on a trip tomorrow tooXXXXX!!!

[Weissbrewer]

Oh I almost forgot, I found all kinds of screws and wire trimmings under the frnace lying around in the tray...must be from the factory

[Silvertwinkie]

When I took my Atwood apart, it was on the Bambi, which is a vastly different unit. I would assume that on our 25' Safari (which I think has the same as your 25' CCD) would be accessed through the outside panel. I don't think typically you'd access the internals from the inside. I'd have to check my owners manuals to be sure though.....be back in a few......

[Silvertwinkie]

Took a look at the manuals and they make no mention of any type of exploded diagram of service like the Bambi Atwood furnace. I still maintain that access from the outside panel to the left of the entry door would be where I'd look first.

[Weissbrewer]

Thanks silvertwinkie, I called atwood & they are going to send me to a local atwood(not a s) guy. Called these folks and they said it probably needs to be cleaned so here we go...the chase is on I will probably have to pay and chase Atwood...just the way these things usually work