Atwood furnace quit working on the road...

[slowsandtan]

Thanks for the feedback. If it fails again, I will pursue the sailswitch. The guy that worked on it had to remove the exhaust pipe from the outside to get the furnace out. I’ll give it a good test when we take it over on the Washington coast in November.

[Meandering Minstrel]

Thanks for the information. We live in Washington but do a lot of camping in Eastern Oregon so I added Tom & Ely to my contacts. I had the same problem with my furnace this spring and had to find the darned sail switch. At least I could get to ours from the outside so didn't have to remove the furnace. The sail switch had a teeny-tiny piece of lint on it - I only saw it when I got ready to give up and put back in place and the sun caught the little fleck. It's insane that those things are so sensitive.

[John in Santa Cruz]

In my case, the sail switch wasn't even faulty, there was a piece of polyester lint caught in it that kept the sail from opening.

[Kingfish]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

In my case, the sail switch wasn't even faulty, there was a piece of polyester lint caught in it that kept the sail from opening.

The only time mine failed I guessed it was probably because of dog hair or lint. I used an extremely strong leaf blower through the front grill and it started working again.

[TahoeJoe]

Originally Posted by Kingfish

The only time mine failed I guessed it was probably because of dog hair or lint. I used an extremely strong leaf blower through the front grill and it started working again.

Now that's a clever solution I didn't think of...no harm in trying that first!

[h2owmn]

History: My furnace was failing to ignite. When I got home, I had a mobile service come out and he found lint in the sail switch. The bill (which I knew in advance) was outrageous as it took only 40 min. total to remove the furnace (no outside access, 2018 17A) and clean the sail switch and reassemble.

Next trip it worked for 3 days and then stopped.

I ordered a sail switch, removed the furnace (surprise: there's an added ledge on the bottom front of the inside trailer opening in the kitchen that also had to be removed), and installed the new switch. I put the furnace back in and screwed down the mounts.

Before I reconnect the gas, I am having trouble getting the exhaust pipe back in from the outside. The pipe on the furnace is offset to the left, and I am inserting the pipe so that the angle/bend will match . The pipes meet and the exhaust should slide inside the pipe on the furnace, but it won't slide in far enough. There's a good 2 1/2 inches left to go.

Suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Can I put some sort of lubricant on the outside of the exhaust pipe that goes inside the furnace pipe? If so, recommendation? Thanks in advance for any help.

[ColoradoSwany]

Originally Posted by h2owmn

History: My furnace was failing to ignite. When I got home, I had a mobile service come out and he found lint in the sail switch. The bill (which I knew in advance) was outrageous as it took only 40 min. total to remove the furnace (no outside access, 2018 17A) and clean the sail switch and reassemble.

Next trip it worked for 3 days and then stopped.

I ordered a sail switch, removed the furnace (surprise: there's an added ledge on the bottom front of the inside trailer opening in the kitchen that also had to be removed), and installed the new switch. I put the furnace back in and screwed down the mounts.

Before I reconnect the gas, I am having trouble getting the exhaust pipe back in from the outside. The pipe on the furnace is offset to the left, and I am inserting the pipe so that the angle/bend will match . The pipes meet and the exhaust should slide inside the pipe on the furnace, but it won't slide in far enough. There's a good 2 1/2 inches left to go.

Suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Can I put some sort of lubricant on the outside of the exhaust pipe that goes inside the furnace pipe? If so, recommendation? Thanks in advance for any help.

I assume you watched the videos in Post #2 of this string? I had to remove my furnace several months ago to clean out some wasp nests. The videos were a great help. I did remove the outside exhaust pipe, which was a beastly job when I tried it while camping without my heat gun, but quite easy to finish up with the gun. My wife helped on the inside while I wiggled the exhaust from the outside until we lined up. There is, on most of these furnaces a bit of a wooden shim near the outside wall that the furnace must be wiggled upon for the pipe to line up. I would skip lube. Could be flammable.

[Vermilye]

Originally Posted by h2owmn

History: My furnace was failing to ignite. When I got home, I had a mobile service come out and he found lint in the sail switch. The bill (which I knew in advance) was outrageous as it took only 40 min. total to remove the furnace (no outside access, 2018 17A) and clean the sail switch and reassemble.

Next trip it worked for 3 days and then stopped.

I ordered a sail switch, removed the furnace (surprise: there's an added ledge on the bottom front of the inside trailer opening in the kitchen that also had to be removed), and installed the new switch. I put the furnace back in and screwed down the mounts.

Before I reconnect the gas, I am having trouble getting the exhaust pipe back in from the outside. The pipe on the furnace is offset to the left, and I am inserting the pipe so that the angle/bend will match . The pipes meet and the exhaust should slide inside the pipe on the furnace, but it won't slide in far enough. There's a good 2 1/2 inches left to go.

Suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Can I put some sort of lubricant on the outside of the exhaust pipe that goes inside the furnace pipe? If so, recommendation? Thanks in advance for any help.

I had what I expected was a bad sail switch on a 2017 21C (ie needed pull the furnace to get at it). Called a mobile RV tech since I didn't have a spare sail switch. I I don't know what you consider "outrageous", but he charged me $67.00 for 45 minutes of work which ended up not replacing, but cleaning the existing switch. He had to remove the outside exhaust connection to put the furnace back - I carry a heat gun & had already loosened the adhesive. He suggested not sealing the chrome flange, but used butyl tape to seal between all 4 sides of the black inner flange & the fiberglass. He had to "twist" the exhaust pipe to get it back into the furnace. No lube.

[h2owmn]

Thanks, Colorado! That was a fast response.

Yes, I've watched the videos and they were a great help.

There's no shim/ledge on the floor of the compartment near the outside wall. The floor is just flat. I took the exhaust pipe out before I took the furnace out. I did not remove the black sleeve shown in this video...(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP-kAVU_eio

) but the furnace went back in just fine, and the holes on the front brackets line up, so it seems that it's in the exact same place it was before.

Luckily, the repair person had taken off the outside exhaust cover in the first service, and I hadn't yet resealed the edges, so separating it from the trailer and removing the exhaust pipe was easy.

Now the furnace is back in, and the pipes line up, and connect. Just not far enough. Sigh. I covered the hole, and I'm gonna let it sit for awhile. Maybe something will occur to me in my dreams.

[Eggscape]

“ I put the furnace back in and screwed down the mounts. ”

Maybe if it is not screwed down like you say you have done, the pipe will slide in better.

[ColoradoSwany]

Originally Posted by Eggscape

“ I put the furnace back in and screwed down the mounts. ”

Maybe if it is not screwed down like you say you have done, the pipe will slide in better.

That’s precisely what I did. Got everything lined up, then put in all the screws snugly, then tightened up and double checked tightness of all screws/bolts.

[h2owmn]

Thanks, also, Vermilye. Your response didn't show while I was typing my second post.

The charge was *several* times what you paid. Ah, well, a lesson learned. It inspired me to attempt the replacement myself, which has been successful til the "replacing the exhaust tube" step (leaving only reconnect gas after that)

As above, the furnace is back in place and secure.

I've been reading all the results of searching the whole forum for "furnace", and one person used dish soap as a lubrication, which at least wouldn't ignite. I questioned whether the outside tube went inside or outside the pipe on the back of the furnace. I tested this using the tube from a roll of paper towels. I can get the outside tube *into* the cardboard tube, but not the cardboard tube onto the inside tube.

Still musing about what to do next. May try dish soap solution ( which is ready for test when I connect the gas!) in the morning.

[gbaglo]

Originally Posted by h2owmn

The charge was *several* times what you paid.

It was mobile service, which, in my experience costs significantly more.

[h2owmn]

I appreciate all the help.

I'll try just loosely connecting one of the screws in the front L bracket (noticed on third viewing of Reace putting the furnace back in) which should allow some wiggle in the back while trying to connect the two pipes.

News in the morning.

[Rossue]

I would dispute the charge- hopefully you paid the bill with a credit card. Sometimes even the card provider will give a credit.

[noblets]

After fighting with the furnace to get it back together, I ended up shimming up the floor of the cabinet about 1/8" and putting a little strip of wood along the side to help position the exhaust. It works.
The furnace can be very frustrating. After a recent failure early on a month long trip, I pulled it out and took it to a local RV dealer. Of course, it ran perfectly for them. Of course, I put it back in and it failed early into our next month long trip.
I decided to pull it out and replace everything in sight: sail switch, control board, etc. There is on outfit in Oregon (PDX RV LLC) that sell a "Tune-up kit" with almost everything needed.
I invite folks to read David Murphy's (davidmurphy02) excellent thread on this furnace.

[h2owmn]

My furnace is back in, and ready to test. Thanks again for all the help.

[UncleTim]

I suppose it is just a matter of time before we all find ourselves in this same spot.

Thanks for letting me follow along.

Good luck.

[h2owmn]

All systems go. Saved the old sail switch, and ordered two--installed the new one and still have a new backup.

As Dave Murphy says, now it'll be good to go forever.

[John in Santa Cruz]

phew, my sail switch on my 2014 was just fouled with this kinky thin poly lint that came from some insulation. I extracated that, replaced the furnace, it worked for a while, then it did the same thing, I extracted it again, cleaned the lint out of the sail switch AND vacuumed the whole area with the big shop-vac, removing any similar lint from the vicinity, and haven't had any problems since.