Furnace Blower Motor Fails in 2018 Escape 19

[H&T]

Originally Posted by Nature Nurtures

Hello Harry, I just joined the forum to try to find a solution to our furnace issue. My husband will be home from a trip mid next week and I will show him your message. It may just be the ticket to our problem. We've had on going issues and are narrowing it down to the fan (blower). The heater works when plugged in to electricity but not otherwise. We almost never plug in and need the heater for the shoulder seasons too. Our camper is a 2018 Escape 19.Thanks for posting; more to come. Michelle

Hi Michelle, We were on 15/30 amp. shore power when the problem with our furnace cropped up, so I don't think it is related to our power source. The best advice I have received so far is to buy a small 110-volt electric space heater as a back-up, while I continue to wait (3 weeks now) for a second Dometic blower motor replacement part that works. Harry

[steve dunham]

Originally Posted by tdf-texas

Steve, you're leaving out the numerous crimp connections that come loose after a little while of bouncing down the road (assuming they were made correctly in the first place).

Or connections that were never made. Take a look at the second ground screw in the pic below - that screw was never tightened. I found it after tracing why some of my grounds were intermittent.

A heads up. If you have any electrical background, it would be a good idea to check every wire connection. I have been through my trailer and found so many electrical problems, I have lost count.

Escape was really bad at wiring when they built my trailer. Hopefully, they have improved under the new management.

I did not list all the electrical problem / issues I’ve encountered with our Escape , mainly because the list is too long and I was too lazy to type them all out
One of my main peeves is that often the wire runs from point A to point B are not a continuous lengths of wire . I have found circuits with 2 or 3 unnecessary poorly made crimp splices in the middle of the wire runs .
Escape does somethings very well , unfortunately electrical is not one of them.
Complying with the RV electrical code and not using best trade practices usually leads to premature failures somewhere down the road.

[Nature Nurtures]

Thank you to all the above folks chiming in with advice. We are going to get that volt meter and then go from there. We'll let you know what we find. Have checked wiring too making sure all is good there. Happy Labor Day. We'll camp at home. Too crowed out there for us during a weekend or holiday. Cheers

[Nature Nurtures]

Alright everyone, first off, thank you all very much for helping us troubleshoot what seems to be a recurrent problem with the Dometic (Atwood) furnaces.

So far:

-I Checked and changed the sail switch, and that did the trick for a couple starts, then back to not working...
-Checked multiple loose connections and tightened them all, and THAT did the trick for a couple starts, then back to square one with a none functioning furnace.
-Reset the breaker on the furnace itself (per Reace -at Escape- recommendation.) Didn't work.
-Checked the battery voltage with the blower on and off (at the batteries.)
No drop of voltage observed.
-Checked the voltage at the blower with shore power then with battery power apply to it.
No drop of voltage observed. However, there is a slight drop of RPM when the trailer is on battery power, as opposed to shore power.

Today (one day later) something new happened: I gave a shot at starting the furnace using battery power, and now I can hear the furnace starting. There is ignition, and there is combustion as well. However, when the start sequence finishes, immediately after, the shut down sequence is initiated and I am left with the fan blowing cold air for five minutes before the whole system shuts down completely.

We had a drop of temperature from 87 degrees to 57 overnight here in Montana. That came with a big drop in atmospheric pressure as well. I was wondering if that could affect anything?

[Oldtimer]

Originally Posted by Nature Nurtures

Alright everyone, first off, thank you all very much for helping us troubleshoot what seems to be a recurrent problem with the Dometic (Atwood) furnaces.

So far:

-I Checked and changed the sail switch, and that did the trick for a couple starts, then back to not working...
-Checked multiple loose connections and tightened them all, and THAT did the trick for a couple starts, then back to square one with a none functioning furnace.
-Reset the breaker on the furnace itself (per Reace -at Escape- recommendation.) Didn't work.
-Checked the battery voltage with the blower on and off (at the batteries.)
No drop of voltage observed.
-Checked the voltage at the blower with shore power then with battery power apply to it.
No drop of voltage observed. However, there is a slight drop of RPM when the trailer is on battery power, as opposed to shore power.

Today (one day later) something new happened: I gave a shot at starting the furnace using battery power, and now I can hear the furnace starting. There is ignition, and there is combustion as well. However, when the start sequence finishes, immediately after, the shut down sequence is initiated and I am left with the fan blowing cold air for five minutes before the whole system shuts down completely.

We had a drop of temperature from 87 degrees to 57 overnight here in Montana. That came with a big drop in atmospheric pressure as well. I was wondering if that could affect anything?

We had the same thing happen on our 21. Checked everything still wouldn’t work. We changed out the furnace board and now it works perfectly.

David

[steve dunham]

Originally Posted by Oldtimer

We had the same thing happen on our 21. Checked everything still wouldn’t work. We changed out the furnace board and now it works perfectly.

David

Same problem - Same solution

[Nature Nurtures]

Right; that would be the logical next step since the problem doesn't appear to be related to the batteries. And the furnace and blower are working normally, if only for few seconds...
how much does a board cost?
Didier

[Oldtimer]

Not sure, ours was replaced under warranty

David

[tdf-texas]

Originally Posted by Nature Nurtures

Right; that would be the logical next step since the problem doesn't appear to be related to the batteries. And the furnace and blower are working normally, if only for few seconds...
how much does a board cost?
Didier

The original Atwood 30575 control board has been replaced with the 31501.

https://www.amazon.com/Dometic-Hydro..._t1_B009TRTSAS

These are better made. 3 yr warranty.

https://www.amazon.com/Dinosaur-Elec.../dp/B0031NNFLY

[Nature Nurtures]

Thank you for your input.

[Nature Nurtures]

Super, this info is just what we need. Thank you.