essie
Massachusetts
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Hi, I need some help. We decided we could do some fall camping if using the furnace to keep warm at night. While we were camping this weekend we decided to turn it on and make sure it was working properly. So we opened the propane tanks and we know there is propane in them as it was just filled. The blower came on, though no heat came out of the furnace. It was just blowing cold air. I checked at the exhaust outlet and that was not getting warm either. Any ideas of how to get this giving out heat. Thanks for any suggestions.
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Razorme
Calgary, AB
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Joined: 02/22/2007
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Could you hear the ignitor sparking sequence repeating? Try purging your propane line by hooking up the inside stove and firing it up before trying again. For some reason I always seem to need to purge my line first, even though I would have thought the propane would stay inside when not in use!
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essie
Massachusetts
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when you say light the inside stove do you mean light it inside or is it okay if it is lit outside and would that make a difference. I didn't hear any noises when trying to start the furnace. I just turned it on and the fan came on in a few minutes. We had the stove going on the outside of the camper when we turned on the furnace.
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He Ruide
Cincinnati Ohio
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Essie, To ensure you have propane going to the furnace all you need to do is make sure that a working device (stove, grill, or hot water heater) is down stream from the furnace.
I've had the same problem you had even though the stove which was down stream from the furnace was working. The situation resolved itself later that night and I still don't know what cause the problem in the first place.
The other question that Razorme asked was "Could you hear the ignitor sparking?" If not then the furnace would not light.
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essie
Massachusetts
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No we couldn't hear the ignitor sparking so we took the cover off the furnace vent inside and couldn't figure out where to light it. We saw no evidence of a place to light it. So we thought maybe it is located somewhere we weren't aware of. Any ideas? Thanks He Ruide. I always appreciate your help.
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essie
Massachusetts
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Razorme, thanks also for your help. I am sorry I missed saying that in my last post.
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Polishnurse
Schodack, NY
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essie, what there saying, when the gas (propane) is turned off it will often lose the gas and be filled with air. Very often you have to turn the unit off and restart it a few times and it let recyle, thus allowing the gas to fill gas line. It should light after the thrid or fouth time. If it doesn't them you might mechanical problem.
Note: by lighting the stove, you bring gas into the gas line, this will speed up the proccess. Godd Luck Bill
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He Ruide
Cincinnati Ohio
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Esseie, You are welcome. I also checked and I did not find a way to manually light the furnace. From what Bill is saying even with propane in the line there could still be air in the branch to the furnace and it might take several attempts before it lights. I'm worried that if you did not hear the ignitor sparking then you might have a mechanical problem. If possible you might want to try it again before going camping or taking it to your dealer.
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Razorme
Calgary, AB
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I'm assuming we have the same furnace...
When the thermostat calls for heat, the circulation fan kicks in, followed shortly by the sound of the auto-ignitor sparking away... if there is no ignition, it will spark again after a set period of time (as a safety feature to ensure that if there was gas present, it gets purged out so that only the proper amount of gas can build up).
If you don't hear sparking, you won't get anywhere... I don't think you can light it manually. If you can hear sparking, there probably was still air in the line to the furnace when it was trying to light.
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Mandalay Parr
Phoenix, AZ
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There is a sail switch that detects air flow (fan running) and signals the igniter to start.
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