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Topic ClosedDead furnace

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Tars Tarkas View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Topic: Dead furnace
    Posted: 09 Feb 2014 at 9:10pm
We got to the Smoky Mountains campground at 8pm the other night (just at the end of generator hours).  Got set up and turned on the heat.  Nothing.

The water heater, stove, fridge, all work fine on LP.  Nothing at all from the furnace.  No fan, no clicks, nada.

It worked fine last time I tried it a few weeks ago.  Since then, I took the dual tanks off, filled them and put them back.  (I'm thinking something like vapor-lock? But as I said, all the other LP appliances work fine.)

The fuse is okay.  I don't know what else to check.  I did check all the frame-grounds I could find and they appear fine.  I haven't pulled the furnace, so I don't know if there might be a loose wire from travel vibrations.  Of course I took the cover off the thermostat but saw nothing obvious.  Is there a way to jump the furnace at the thermostat, or some other way to isolate the problem to the furnace or the thermostat (assuming the problem is in one or the other.)

No hookups at the campground, but with the generator in the morning still nothing -- but I could turn on the air con fan by flipping the fan switch to on.  It was too cold for the thermostat to allow the air con to come on.  I should have tried it after we got the inside warmed up but didn't think to.

Fortunately, we were the only people in the campground the net two nights, and the park rangers are essentially non-existent in the campgrounds in winter, so we ran the generator pretty much nonstop and stayed plenty warm with a little 1500 watt heater.
TT
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Feb 2014 at 10:17pm
i would have to think T-stat issue.  weird though if you just had it working a while ago.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Feb 2014 at 10:26am
Ditto, especially since the other propane stuff works.  I believe if you pull the thermostat you can jump the wires running to the furnace to test it.
Doug ~ '10 171 (2009-2015) ~ 2008 Salem ~ Pod instruction manual
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Feb 2014 at 6:02pm
Awfully cold right now to not have the heater working ... hope you get it up and running quickly
P & M ... and Comet too!
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Feb 2014 at 10:15pm
Thanks for the thoughts...  I haven't really fooled with it anymore yet, but I have googled around a bit about the Dometic thermostat.  It seems they don't have a stellar reputation.  But they aren't very expensive so I guess I'll get another one and give it a try.  I'd like to figure out how to bypass the thermostat though to start the furnace just to ensure the problem isn't on that end.  Maybe it will become apparent how to do that as I dig in.

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Feb 2014 at 10:33pm
Originally posted by Tars Tarkas

I'd like to figure out how to bypass the thermostat though to start the furnace just to ensure the problem isn't on that end.

Its quite easy - just short the Rh and W wires - the furnace fan should come on right away.  Also, you don't have to replace your thermostat with the stock Dometic model - you can use a household model; the wiring and labelling are identical.  Personally, I installed an old programmable thermostat in my R-Pod.
Craig :: 2009 RP171 towed by a 2017 F150
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Feb 2014 at 11:04pm
Originally posted by Outbound

just short the Rh and W wires - the furnace fan should come on right away. 


  What is an Rh wire?  I see 6 wires, left to right, red, yellow, white, blue, brown, green.  Labeled, in the same order, +7.5, Cool, Fur, Hi Fan, Fan, Gnd.  W, I suppose is White, Rh might be Red (but that seems odd).  I don't know what +7.5 (the red wire) means either.

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Feb 2014 at 11:49pm

The following are the wire colors used in a 5 wire thermostat cable. if it is hooked up correctly by installer.

  • G – Fan, usually a green wire
  • R – 12 Volt usually a red wire 
  • C – 12 Volt Common usually a blue wire
  • Y – Cool, usually a yellow wire
  • W – Heat, usually a white wire
your wiring is as follows from your discription.
+7.5 red wire = voltage to thermostate
cool  yellow = AC
fur white wire = furnace
hi fan blue wire = high fan speed
fan brown wire = normal fan speed
grnd green wire = common or ground

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Feb 2014 at 12:16am
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Feb 2014 at 8:55am
I think you will find that shorting the white and green wires is what you want to try. You said you had ruled out the fuse, so it almost has to be the stat or wireing..
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