Problem: Furnace ignitor sparks, propane in the chamber, but no resulting flame (i.e. no ignition).
Question: Do I have a bad ignitor?
Full Story
We were about to set out on our 1st camping trip of the year and the night before as I was testing all the systems I noticed that the furnace wasn't igniting... The furnace is brand new, never used (this trip would have been the 1st time). It's a
Suburban NT-20SQ.
Long story short I ended up taking the whole thing apart at 2am convinced that there was just some secret valve that was in the "off" position that I had to turn on to make the thing come alive. No such luck. Put it all back together and my wife called in reinforcements (man do I love her) to help me at 8am the next morning.
Next morning, we pull the furnace out again, take it all apart and confirm the following:
- Propane is reaching the furnace
- Propane is passing through the furnace's gas valve with adequate pressure into the chamber
- The ignitor is sparking
Despite having the essential components needed for ignition (propane and a spark) the furnace just wouldn't light. It would just go through it's cycle 3 times (open gas valve, spark igniter for 7 seconds, detect no flame, shut gas value) then stop trying (fans stays on to vent propane from chamber).
The only thing that I can guess is that perhaps the spark just isn't big enough... looking at the igniter, the spark is just barely visible. Teeny Tiny.
Before I go and order a replacement part, I wanted to get some advice for anyone else who has experience with these furnaces.