Furnace not coming on

[jpfromla]

We have had our trailer for 1 1/2 months and have used the furnace successfully but now it will not come on…inside temp is 57 and we want heat!
set it to 68 auto and furnace at the top of the dial auto or hi on the fan part at the bottom of the dial ; the dial stays lit for about 10 seconds then goes to OFF...but still no heat…
can you help us?
had the tanks refilled yesterday but since refilling we did the furnace on for about 2 hours, went to bed and it came on once but turned itself off even tho it is much colder than what we wanted and has not come on since…

what are we doing wrong??????
electricity is on, our stove and refrigerator are working nicely…

trouble shoot us PLEASE!!!

[HowieE]

Turn the furnace off. They turn it on. The fan should come on for about 15 seconds at which time you should hear the gas valve open. If the fan remains on and you do not hear the gas valve open the proof of flame has failed indicating the pilot did not light.

I have seen when the bottles ate filled that air can get into the lines. The stove and frig can purge themselves of that air but the pilot orifice is too small to bleed off the air in that leg of the gas line and thus the failure.

What i do at that point is crack the flare nut on the gas line at the heater till I smell gas retighten and attempt to relight.

However with your claim that the heater was on for 2 hours after the refills this may not be the problem.

[dbj216]

Darn electronic gizmos. A lot of complexity for little benefit in my view.

When you command full heat, like set at 85 degree F, does the fan motor run? If so, then like Howie says, listen carefully for the "click". That is the gas valve opening and maybe the electronic ignition sparking. No click, no heat. Turn the furnace off and wait about 30 seconds for the fan to stop. Sometimes I have to try to ignite several times. If you can't get ignition after 5 trys, then I suggest a trip to the shop. One of those electronic components may have failed.

By the way, a 1500 watt electric heater keeps an Airstream quite comfortable down to 45F outside. (If you have shore power.)

David

[dkottum]

Are you sure the furnace control is in the heat mode?

[eubank]

I'm a little unclear about your sequence of events, but one event stands out: You just refilled the propane cylinders.

Several things come to mind, all having to do with propane feed to the trailer.

First just check to see that you're getting propane to the trailer. The easiest way to do this is simply to turn on the stove top burners. If you are not getting propane, well, there's your story on the furnace.

It could be that the propane lines were effectively drained of their vaporous propane content while you had the cylinders disconnected. Use the stove top to get it running again. Then start the furnace.

Or it could be that you have one of those propane regulators that shuts itself down when it (falsely) believes that there may be a leak. Just close the valves. Disconnect the lines from the cylinders. THen reconnect and very slowly open the valves so that there is no rapid rush of propane from the cylinders to the regulator.


Lynn

[Moflash]

Are you trying to run furnace or the heat pumo?

[dkottum]

Kindly tell us what you find, we're all (mostly all) here to learn.

[mefly2]

We had similar symptoms after a propane refill but coincidentally the high limit switch went out. The fan would come on briefly, but no heat ...

[richcrest]

Is your furnace an Atwood DuraFlame? The ADF 7916-11 in my 2005 Bambi ignited intermittently for years. I replaced the igniter module, the high limit switch, the solenoids on the main gas valve, and was getting ready to change out the board to a Dinosaur Fan 50. Over the years I had also replaced the OE Marshall regulator a couple of times. The Atwood tech guy diagnosed my problem as either a cracked igniter or insufficient gas pressure. I installed a new Cavagna 2-stage changeover regulator in place of the discontinued Marshall, and the furnace ignites on the first click. Hooahh!

[richcrest]

Oops, sorry, my bad, it's an Atwood HydroFlame (AHF) of course.

[PharmGeek]

we had a furnace issue early on with our airstream as well...

You will need to specify exactly what is going on...

Does the blower fan kick on? Is there "clicking"? Describe exactly what all you percieve when first turning it on.

I had an issue early on with my atwood furnace where nothing at all happened, no fan, no clicking....when inspecting the furnace from the exterior panel access...there was a faint buzzing and a little red light flickering at a certain interval.

If you have such a flicker, then the manual will give you an error code depending on the flickering (if that makes sense)...that information would be helpful if applicable here.

Of course check all your fuses I would think...use a light tester and just make sure all is well.

Depending on what you can describe, folks can maybe point you in the right direction - they did me.