Furnace Issues

[northwindone]

A couple weeks ago I was woken up at 3 am by a loud buzzing sound coming from the kitchen area of our 29BHS. It took me a second to realize it was coming from the furnace. I went over to the thermostat and turned it off and of course the sound stopped. I turned it back on and it fired right up and I proceeded to go back to sleep.

Over this past weekend I was again awoken at 4 am to the same loud noise that I forgot about. Tried to cycle the furnace at it wouldn't stop buzzing and wouldn't start up. I shut off the furnace and figured we would be fine without as it was only 67 inside and 55 outside and we all have nice warm blankets.

The next day I tried to get the furnace to start and got it running again after several times buzzing. However, I finally got the point where all I got was a click from a relay and no startup. So now I'm to the point where there is just click.

In an effort to get the exact model number, which is an Atwood 8525, I noticed signs of an old leak from the water heater dripping onto the furnace. This makes me wonder if water got into the motor or into the board. The buzzing sounded similar to motor lock-up, but somehow different. I thought it could be a relay buzzing, but didn't sound quite right for that either. I can get a motor for $50 and a board for $100 it seems. For any of you that have had furnace issues which would you recommend trying first?

And my other two questions are why would Jayco put the water heater above the furnace?!?!?! And why would they put the furnace inside the corner of our L-shaped kitchen where you have to take down a partition under the sink and pull it sideways and out under the kitchen sink?!?!?!

 

[sundancer330]

You should be able to have a local RV dealer test the board. If you have to replace it look for a Dinosaur Elect. UIB S Universal Ignitor Control Board Small, they are about 25% less than the Atwood replacement.

 

[northwindone]

You should be able to have a local RV dealer test the board. If you have to replace it look for a Dinosaur Elect. UIB S Universal Ignitor Control Board Small, they are about 25% less than the Atwood replacement.

I've now seen that Dinosaur Electric brand 5 or 6 times with your reply. I think I'll look into them. As for getting the board tested, we don't have any "real" RV shops less than 90 miles away, and I need to get this thing up and running soon as I am using it as a guest house and currently running an electric heater at night to keep my visiting brother halfway comfortable.

 

[RoyBraddy]

The fan is being run from 12VDC. The rule of thumb for us when using the Propane Furnace is one battery one night haha... Fan can draw 5-6 DC amps from your battery setup - that adds up big time in a one night run off the batteries.

Don't know if you were camping just off the batteries or from a shore power connection. There is also a sail switch associated with the Propane Furnace blower to shut off your Propane in case of fan failure. Sometimes mine would get debris around it. Make sure that area is free of any debris.

Roy Ken

 

[sundancer330]

I've now seen that Dinosaur Electric brand 5 or 6 times with your reply. I think I'll look into them. As for getting the board tested, we don't have any "real" RV shops less than 90 miles away, and I need to get this thing up and running soon as I am using it as a guest house and currently running an electric heater at night to keep my visiting brother halfway comfortable.

If you need one quick Amazon sells them, if its not the problem they have a no hassle return policy

 

[northwindone]

The fan is being run from 12VDC. The rule of thumb for us when using the Propane Furnace is one battery one night haha... Fan can draw 5-6 DC amps from your battery setup - that adds up big time in a one night run off the batteries.

Don't know if you were camping just off the batteries or from a shore power connection. There is also a sail switch associated with the Propane Furnace blower to shut off your Propane in case of fan failure. Sometimes mine would get debris around it. Make sure that area is free of any debris.

Both times was on shore power, but I can definitely see low voltage causing issues so thanks for the input. I should check my voltage anyway just to be thorough as I probably wouldn't even know there was a problem until I got down to 10 volts as the only other thing running on 12V is the LED bulbs and TV booster and neither of those is sensitive to low voltage. I kind of ruled out the fan switch though as I don't even think the blower is turning on or is seized up judging by the noises.

If you need one quick Amazon sells them, if its not the problem they have a no hassle return policy

Yep, found the boards and motor on Amazon after I read your post, though it looks like I would be better off with a Dinosaur FAN 50 Plus Pins with my Atwood HydroFlame.

 

[northwindone]

Follow Up

I had a suspicion that the scotchlok connector was the source of my issues after thinking about how reliable those things are in the first place and then that it was dripped on causing corrosion. So tonight I pulled the divider panel out of the way and got under the cabinet and cut out the old connector and replaced it with another one.

Turned the furnace back on and it worked perfectly. When I get a chance later after this next trip I'll be getting under there again and installing butt connectors with shrink sleeves. I'm just happy my furnace is working once again with a 10 cent repair, even if I don't use it as often with the Big Buddy.

Now to figure out why my empty freshwater tank is reading 1/3.

 

[Atlee]

Because the designers (?) 1) never have use what they have designed, and 2) never have to repair what they have designed, 3) really do not care about repairs after they've left the factory.

So they just put stuff here and there to get it out of the way.

And my other two questions are why would Jayco put the water heater above the furnace?!?!?! And why would they put the furnace inside the corner of our L-shaped kitchen where you have to take down a partition under the sink and pull it sideways and out under the kitchen sink?!?!?!

View attachment 35694

 

[northwindone]

Update

Well the furnace worked well up to and through our Thanksgiving camping trip and several nights after for my brother who was using the TT as a guest house before and after the trip. But it was too good to be true, on Wednesday night he was awoken at 2 am by a loud noise, then the blower started, but he smelled something off. He went ahead and turned it off at the thermostat and went back to sleep with an extra blanket.

That evening when I got home from work I couldn't even get it to do anything but make a faint click when I turned it on at the thermostat. Now I probably have to pull the furnace out and figure out what is actually going on.

 

[o2silverado]

sounds like a bad fan motor to me . Fan starts first if sail switch closes, igniter , gas = heat .

 

[o2silverado]

Well the furnace worked well up to and through our Thanksgiving camping trip and several nights after for my brother who was using the TT as a guest house before and after the trip. But it was too good to be true, on Wednesday night he was awoken at 2 am by a loud noise, then the blower started, but he smelled something off. He went ahead and turned it off at the thermostat and went back to sleep with an extra blanket.

That evening when I got home from work I couldn't even get it to do anything but make a faint click when I turned it on at the thermostat. Now I probably have to pull the furnace out and figure out what is actually going on.

Curious if you got this problem figured out ?

 

[northwindone]

Curious if you got this problem figured out ?

Nope, been too busy with Christmas stuff the last few days. Most likely won't get to it until after Christmas. We plan on going camping a few days after Christmas, but if we do we'll probably use the Mr. Heater to keep warm at night.

 

[wags999]

Could be a low battery also...if the fan doesn't turn fast enough to open sail switch the gas won't come on.