Atwood heater not igniting

[rubicon327]

Originally Posted by rubicon327

He means there is a high limit switch inline with the sail switch. See schematic on page 4. If the furnace is still on the bench you could jumper it to see if it resolves the issue.

www.atwoodmobile.com/manuals/furnaces/MPD%2032072%20SP%201.08.pdf

Originally Posted by Rossue

Just dont leave the jumper if it does fire up of course. Did that with a gas spa heater 20 years ago and almost had a fire.

Very good point. I should have stressed that this is for troubleshooting to see if a bad high limit switch could be the problem. Obviously it is a critical safety item that should never be bypassed under normal use or the combustion chamber could overheat if there is another problem.

[rubicon327]

Originally Posted by Scotty...B

We have had our 2014 19' for one year now and love it except for one problem. The Atwood furnace fails to light. It failed on our first trip, and since that failure, it has worked only three times, and only for a short period each time, always after a service person checked it out for us. One RV place in Oregon put the circuit board on his test machine and pronounced it ok. Another place started diagnosing voltage and found inconsistencies. Like when pulling 12 volt fuse labeled furnace, the blower motor still runs. one of the LED lamps flickers. The indicator for Grey water tank and black water tank are reversed. I pulled the furnace out today, and removed the sail switch. The switch test fine with an ohm meter. the sail arm is clean and it moves. I have read hours of posts about this problem and at a point of frustration. I'm wondering how much more money do I sink into this
Atwood product. Looking at Propex.....

If you do find that it is something related to the furnace and you aren't quite ready to make the jump to a different heating system you have a couple of options. I assume you have the 8012-II.

Tune up kit which has new burner assembly, sail switch, high limit switch and electrode:
https://pdxrvwholesale.com/products/...ii-tune-up-kit

Could get a new furnace (still available here even though they are discontinued by Atwood). Seems kind of pricey, as you are more than halfway to a new Propex HS2800, but you don't have all the custom installation work.
Hydro Flame Furnace

[richardr]

Originally Posted by Scotty...B

We have had our 2014 19' for one year now and love it except for one problem. .....The indicator for Grey water tank and black water tank are reversed. .....

I apologize for being off topic.

When we picked up our 2017 Escape 21 last August, the gray and black water tank indicators were reversed. I emailed Reace. Here is his response. It resolved the problem.

"I am not sure what went wrong here, but simply cutting and swapping the wires will get it straightened out. Cut the Green-Gray and Brown-Brown and reverse them. Green-Brown and Brown-Grey."

[Scotty...B]

Found it, thanks rubicon. I'll give that a try

[Scotty...B]

Just tested continuity on the limit switch and it is closed, which it is supposed to be.

[Scotty...B]

richardr, Please don't apologize for being off topic, I appreciate the advice. I will swap the wires. Was this just behind the indicator box?

[richardr]

Originally Posted by Scotty...B

richardr, Please don't apologize for being off topic, I appreciate the advice. I will swap the wires. Was this just behind the indicator box?

Yes. Just remove the 4 screws holding the indicator box and pull the box out of the wall. Mine had plenty of wire and was easy to work on.

[wetzk]

Originally Posted by richardr

I apologize for being off topic.

When we picked up our 2017 Escape 21 last August, the gray and black water tank indicators were reversed. I emailed Reace. Here is his response. It resolved the problem.

"I am not sure what went wrong here, but simply cutting and swapping the wires will get it straightened out. Cut the Green-Gray and Brown-Brown and reverse them. Green-Brown and Brown-Grey."

Must be more common than they realize as ours also had the black and grey sensors reversed.

[richardr]

Reace told me the QA would check the level indicators by filling up both tanks at the same time. He said they would change their process to filling them up one at a time.

[wetzk]

Originally Posted by richardr

Reace told me the QA would check the level indicators by filling up both tanks at the same time. He said they would change their process to filling them up one at a time.

If anyone else would like to check theirs an easier way you need 2 jumpers and a resister. I used 2 alligator clip jumpers and a 470 ohm resister to do mine. Clip one side to the post that has the white wire at one of the tanks and the other to one of the other post. I used the top one so it would show full

AKKK! Glad I looked at the resister, its 470 ohm not 47K ohm. I found an site that described testing the sensors and they showed using a resister to jumper the probes. Honestly it may not even be needed, you might be safe just jumping them but I did not want to take a chance.

[Scotty...B]

Pulled the face off my indicator unit and I have brown, blue, grey, red and white wires. Should I swap the grey and brown wires?

[Scotty...B]

That sounds like a good deal for the kit. I just don't know if anything in that will fix it. I just found a new possible issue. I cut the three wires to the furnace. Red labeled thermo = 12 vdc, Black labeled 12 vdc, and a blue one labeled thermostat. the red wire is hot, the blue returns voltage when thermostat is closed, the black has no voltage. If the black wire is supposed to be hot, could this be my problem?

[rubicon327]

Not sure of the exact colors for each but that sounds like the right functionality. Black is likely just ground so you wouldn’t see a voltage there.

[wetzk]

Originally Posted by Scotty...B

Pulled the face off my indicator unit and I have brown, blue, grey, red and white wires. Should I swap the grey and brown wires?

The wires for the sensors are the thinner ones closest to the circuit board. There should be Blue ( Freshwater) Grey ( Grey water) Brown ( black water tank ) White ( return)
The stock wiring colors are in the photograph, I did have to swap the grey and brown wires when I replaced this board with the one that also has the third switch for the electric water heater on it. ( another post covers doing that )
http://www.escapeforum.org/forums/f8...tml#post230056

[Scotty...B]

Update: We have a functioning furnace again! turns out, it WAS the sail switch. The puzzling part though, is that the switch seamed OK out of the furnace. It was not clogged, or sticky, and it measured on/off correctly with an ohm meter. The only difference is that the new switch has less sail area than the old one, thereby requiring more wind to close the switch. I drilled out the rivets from the outside to make reinstallation easier. I would highly recumbent that method.
Big thanks to Reace for your help with this! I will be in touch with you on Monday.

[Rossue]

Yeah, my radar went off when you first said sail switch was ok as it a common problem. Glad you got it going!

[Scotty...B]

The thing was that the switch tested fine on the meter, the sail arm moved freely, there was no contamination of any kind on it. ...?

[skiman]

Originally Posted by Rossue

Yeah, my radar went off when you first said sail switch was ok as it a common problem. Glad you got it going!

I keep a spare. The one on my old HiLo crapped out too.

[lloydjdorsey@gmail.com]

our Atwood hydro flame furnace doesn't work either. Or very seldom; maybe 10% of the time we've tried. We use our 17B trailer from April thru October in Wyoming, so mornings & evenings are chilly. The furnace just won't work even after allowing for the 3 sets of starter clicks, no whoosh, shut off thermostat, wait minutes, try again. Nope. And again, and again, etc.. We've watched the 5 minute ETI video. There isn't an outside maintenance access door on our trailer, so the furnace is built into the kitchen cabinet. Having no furnace makes camping less enjoyable. We bought the Escape- which was not cheap- expecting durability, dependability. Why would they put such a crummy fragile furnace in something that gets towed hundreds of miles each season on chuckholed public lands roads, thru mud and snow? During chilly weather an operating furnace would sure make a difference.

[gbaglo]

Originally Posted by lloydjdorsey@gmail.com

Why would they put such a crummy fragile furnace in something that gets towed hundreds of miles each season on chuckholed public lands roads, thru mud and snow? .

What brand would you propose they use?