Intermittent heater issue

[jcfly]

Went to turn on the heat when temp fell to 50, and the furnace would not fire. Tried again the following day when it was warmer and it fired right up. Hmm, I'll have to try this again. Tried this morn, and no go. The battery is under a year old, has 12.62 volts at rest. Voltage rises to 14.35 when starting the truck, and then settles down in a minute or so. Tried again , and the furnace fired up as it should.
My camper is an '04 Hawk, and has a simple solenoid for power and charging transfer. Could this be the problem ? Any ideas to check this heater issue out ?

All replies welcomed !

 

[LookyLou]

We had a similar if not the same issue last winter. It would light intermittently. Resetting it and jiggling wires a little would sometimes get it to light but once it shutdown, it usually wouldn't relight. For us it turned out the be a bad circuit board. Works fine now.

 

[kmcintyre]

If it's the circuit board, there's a 3rd party board which is cheaper and has a longer warantee. Dinosaur brand I believe. Easy repalcement on my atwood.

 

[Stan@FourWheel]

JCFly

Call me if you want.

Been out of the office for 2 weeks, so writing a long reply will be hard as I'm trying to get un-buried.

My guess is that you have the old Suburban Furnace and the "sail switch" was always an issue.

I can give you some good pointers on what to look for over the phone.

Thanks -- Stan (800) 242-1442







.

 

[jcfly]

Stan, I'll take you up on your gracious offer.

Thanks.

 

[Yukon]

Hi,
I have been dealing with 'intermittent' heater issues for several years (more than one) on my Atwood 8516-IV furnace. These are very frustrating. Yesterday I confirmed that I had a broken wire that goes to the blower motor. It would go on and off just by lightly touching it. In the past I have had other symptoms that forced me to replace the over-term sensor, the main circuit board, and the electrode burner sensor. My recommendation is to take the cover off the heater and just wiggle wires and connectors before buying parts. Also, be aware that if the board detects a fault (such as from the sail switch, etc.), after trying to re-light 3 times it locks out and won't try again for about an hour. You can get a complete service manual for Atwoods on line for free. Good luck!

Chris

 

[jcfly]

A Big thank you goes out to Stan from FWC. The sail switch was indeed the issue. I used some tape as a temporary repair whilst I scheme up a more permanent repair. For those interested, there is a little flag or "sail" at the end of a micro switch which engages when the heater fan begins to move air. This sail was not engaging, so I added a piece of plastic tape to make the surface area of the sail larger and Voila , the switch worked. Small hand needed to get to this switch.

Thanks to all that replied, and to Shaw from FWC as well.