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Topic ClosedHeater needs shore power??
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Jdub View Drop Down
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Posts: 94 		Direct Link To This Post Topic: Heater needs shore power??
    Posted: 24 Sep 2013 at 7:40pm
Just got back from a four day cruise and, for the first time, woke up to a chilly pod...44 degrees.  We were in a forest service camp so no shore power. I hit the heater and it just blew cold air for 20 seconds and turned off. No heat. But now back home I find plugged in the heater works great. 

Really? You need shore power just to blow some propane heated hot air? This seems very dumb to me....
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Tars Tarkas View Drop Down
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Posts: 1454 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Sep 2013 at 8:26pm
Sounds like the pod was warmer inside than you thought and maybe you didn't have the thermostat set high enough.  Shore power is not necessary, but 12v is.

TT
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Craneman View Drop Down
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Posts: 387 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Sep 2013 at 8:29pm
Did you try again with the shore power unplugged at home??  Your batteries might have been low.

            Moe
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techntrek View Drop Down
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Posts: 9062 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Sep 2013 at 8:34pm
Usually with low batteries the blower won't blow hard enough to trigger the vane switch, which keeps it from igniting.  This is a safety feature to make sure the blower can move the heat out of the furnace.  However, the blower will still blow until the battery is completely dead.  I'm not sure why yours was turning off.
Doug ~ '10 171 (2009-2015) ~ 2008 Salem ~ Pod instruction manual
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Jdub View Drop Down
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Posts: 94 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Sep 2013 at 9:35pm
We had plenty of juice, 50-75% based on the panel lights. There was just no ignition for the propane.  
When the pod was 44 degrees and I had set the thermostat for 85, I think it should have fired. It did fire in the driveway when it was 75 and the thermostat set for 85.

Sound like something is set wrong.....still in warranty. 
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Posts: 94 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Sep 2013 at 10:03pm
Well ok. Just went outside and checked. Fully charged, no shore power, and the furnace kicked on just fine.

So what is a range here? The pod has to have 100% charge to fire the furnace? Not 75% or 50%? As usual the documents that come with the pod are completely worthless. This almost means that when dry camping we have to have the truck on charging the pod at the same time we are trying to fire the furnace. 

Any thoughts?
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Tars Tarkas View Drop Down
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Posts: 1454 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Sep 2013 at 10:34pm
If this was the first time you fired up the furnace in a while it may be that the propane never made it to the pilot.  Once the gas gets to the pilot it will probably light every time.  One trick to get the propane going is to make sure the stove lights.  Had you been using the hot water heater on propane?

Just guessing.

TT
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Jdub View Drop Down
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Posts: 94 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Sep 2013 at 8:50am
Hot water heater and stove and refrigerator were all working fine on propane.

I have to assume there is some kind of safety device that does block the firing of the heater when only running on somewhat drained 12 volt batteries (2013 178 with two batteries up front).  Maybe we need a generator, 
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Posts: 6128 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Sep 2013 at 8:58am
Ours has run at "lowered" battery levels just fine. I don't pay much attention to the factory battery indicator, but I have had the heater running when my batteries were at 12v exactly, which is a %50 charge, or just a hair less.. I try not to ever get that low, but it has happened a couple times.
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techntrek View Drop Down
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Posts: 9062 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Sep 2013 at 12:02pm
Originally posted by Jdub

Hot water heater and stove and refrigerator were all working fine on propane.

I have to assume there is some kind of safety device that does block the firing of the heater when only running on somewhat drained 12 volt batteries (2013 178 with two batteries up front).  Maybe we need a generator, 
 
As I mentioned in my previous post, the safety device is the vane switch.  It will prevent the ignition process but it won't kill the blower.  The battery has to be pretty low before this happens, usually the lights will appear very yellow and the blower will sound very noticably slower.  50% capacity isn't low enough to trigger this.
Doug ~ '10 171 (2009-2015) ~ 2008 Salem ~ Pod instruction manual
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