Furnace Gremlins?

[ksitte]

Okay, all you problem solvers out there, here's your latest puzzler: we just spent the Labor Day weekend in Glacier Park, just up the road from us about 4 hours. Spent the first night in St Mary Campground where they take reservations and then hotfooted it over to Many Glacier to grab the first available site we could get. Saw both a bull and a cow moose while there. Beautiful and wonderful, as many of you know. Truly, one of our national treasures.

Anyway, here's the issue. The 2nd night there, it dipped down to 26°F. We like it cool; it's great for sleeping. So it surprise us, however, when the furnace came on about 2 AM. I checked the thermostat and, yes, I did have it turned off and the temperature at the lowest setting.

So, I clicked it on and off again. After a minute or two it turned off, as expected. Then, about an hour later, it turned itself on again! Once more, I checked and verified that I had turned the thermostat to the off position. Once again, I clicked it on and off and a few minutes later, the unit cycled off. You can imagine our dismay when it started again about an hour later. At 5 AM, I considered getting out of bed and turning the master switch on the furnace to the off position but I didn't think it was worth it by then.

So what's going on? Why, even with the thermostat in the off position, does our furnace continued to cycle on? Admittedly, it was cold. But it shouldn't have a mind of its own. There are many parts to that thermostat, after all.

Any ideas out there?

Klaus

[Harold Kroeker]

On our Escape 19, the thermostat switch seems to have 3 positions: Off-On-On. When my wife thought she had turned the furnace off, I discovered that she had only turned it to the middle "On" position.

[gbaglo]

On a similar note:

I went out to Toad a couple days ago to turn on the 5.0 cu. ft. fridge and found condensation on the cooling fins and the drain tray full of water. The thermometer read 46 degrees.
I had shut the fridge off after our last trip and left the door ajar. However, the Old Bag keeps closing it, so it has been open and closed and I've done some cleaning since the last trip, but it appears at some point I must have turned the dial enough to activate AC. I can't wait to see my electric bill.

If anyone has a hint on how to be positive that the switch is on gas / off / electric , I'd appreciate it. I'm certainly going to pay more attention. Problem is that the switch itself doesn't have positive clicks for each position. It's sorta like manipulating a cotton ball.

baglo

[Harold Kroeker]

You could always turn off the breaker to the fridge circuit and any others that you want to be sure are off.

[escape artist]

Hi:kksitte... I discovered our furnace running several days after towing home from a trip. I thought I had turned it off but meerly turned it down. To get it off/off you must really push that plastic toggle till you think it'll break off!!! Make sure the contacts are free of dust too. Alf
escape artist N.S. of Lake Erie