another heater issue not the sail switch or motherboard

kjsalt

Member
Joined
Feb 25, 2021
Messages
11
Location
medford
First off it's not the sail switch or the motherboard or the igniter. it's a new issue to me. I have a 22 e19 and the Dometic heater has been a problem forever, first problem was a bad igniter. after that it worked well for the most part occasionally needing a restart after setting for awhile, but this is different. I turn on the thermostat and nothing when I open the hatch and realize it is kicking the blower sporadically. Not running and turning off as much as if someone where just touching a wire to power and immediately removing it, the blower runs not even half a second, and no error lights. I have tried checking wires, I have tried it on battery and shore power in case there was some voltage issue, I have changed out the motherboard with a known good board no change, and for chuckles I switched out the sail switch no change, checked the ground seems good. Bad reset switch? Anyone had this type of issue? I'm ready to rip this piece of crap and find an alternative. Any help or ideas would be appreciated.
 
Gosh, I feel your pain. . . . .

Ramblings - - Not a Solution - -


There is limited, at best, troubleshooting information for this brand of space heater.

Which is outrageous! - - - - and why I continue delaying an Escape Order . . . a better space heater option MUST Be / Is available yet nearly every RV Builder purchases and installs these out-of-date, low efficiency, difficult to DIY service units ! !

Alde, Truma for example have far better units yet most RV Builders (including ETI) won't install them . . .
So as one consumer I'll opt to Not Buy until a quality performance and serviceable option is provided

{{ yes, I'm a bit pissed at how "we" consumers are treated }}
 
I'm wondering if it is the sail switch and more specifically the air flow past paddle triggering proper operation. I went through sail switch replacements, motherboard and finally had success with now having an operating furnace in my 2017 E19. Unfortunately I did 2 things at same time that did change air flow and can't conclusively say which one solved my problem.

First, I slightly bent paddle of sail switch to grab a little more air. I ensured there was clearance with the blower by rotating by hand.
Second, I added a 2"heating duct off box into bathroom. This probably balanced intake to exhaust flow past sail switch?

Before my furnace was not reliable and I basically crossed fingers every time I initiated operation.
 
The sail switch doesn't controll the blower it triggers the ignition process after the blower is moving . It determines that there is sufficient air flow to start the propane. My blower isn't kicking in. But thanks for the feedback.
 
As I've posted previously, a couple of years ago ETI started drilling some holes on each side of the platform the unit sits on. My friend had taken delivery just before that and had furnace problems. He drilled the holes and that did solve the problem.

I sort of feel bad and hate to say it but I've owned several of these furnaces and never, touch wood, had an issue. But so many folks have that I installed a diesel furnace as a backup for when, probably, I will have an issue. Preparing the trailer yesterday and fired it up to make sure that it's ready to go. Quite a difference between the two furnaces. If has a larger heavier heat exchanger than the propane furnace. A little slower to start blasting hot air but when it does, it's much hotter and shutting down it extracts more heat longer.

Ron
 
We had trouble with our Bigfoot's furnace (identical to Escapes, but 16,000 btu's instead of 12,000) since the blower would not start, replaced the board twice and the sail switch once. Found out the problem was the thermostat. However the replaced sail switch was also bad, so we put in the old sail switch and the furnace has been working perfectly ever since.

You could have a bad thermostat.

Food for thought,

Perry
 
First off it's not the sail switch or the motherboard or the igniter. it's a new issue to me. I have a 22 e19 and the Dometic heater has been a problem forever, first problem was a bad igniter. after that it worked well for the most part occasionally needing a restart after setting for awhile, but this is different. I turn on the thermostat and nothing when I open the hatch and realize it is kicking the blower sporadically. Not running and turning off as much as if someone where just touching a wire to power and immediately removing it, the blower runs not even half a second, and no error lights. I have tried checking wires, I have tried it on battery and shore power in case there was some voltage issue, I have changed out the motherboard with a known good board no change, and for chuckles I switched out the sail switch no change, checked the ground seems good. Bad reset switch? Anyone had this type of issue? I'm ready to rip this piece of crap and find an alternative. Any help or ideas would be appreciated.
Perry makes a good point and if the thermostat is bad, it should be simple enough to remove the thermostat and jump the wires. If you have AC, jumping the wires might not be that easy. I don't have AC so no experience. Other than that, it seems your only option would be to check the continuity and voltage of wires.
 
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Not the thermostat, same issue after jumping the wires. Thinking the li it switch or the reset switch. Anyone know if I can temporarily bypass those?
 
huh, I thought I posted and asked what version of the heater do you have? I have an older one, I think its an Atco or something, if it has a fault, then an LED behind the grill blinks error codes.
 
But so many folks have that I installed a diesel furnace as a backup for when, probably, I will have an issue.

Ron
We have a Wave 6 catalytic available in our Bigfoot 25RQ for emergencies and to save LP gas when the temps are above freezing. We tried it one night when it was around 20F and it had no problem keeping us warm.

We used a Martin catalytic heater in our Escape 5.0 for four winters that worked great to keep the trailer warm when our Escape's furnace would quit working (usually a sail switch) and liked it for sleeping since there is no sound.

Food
 
I've had unreliable service with our 2022 21C heater since almost day 1. It's been a pain in the $%#. Each time everything pointed to the stupid sail switch. This safety device is a problem but what I think might be more of the issue is the oxidation of the 12V connection points or possibly the basic manual Dometic thermostat.

I'm not engineer by any stretch and everything I'm saying is most likely just speculation. But.........

On our last trip out, when we needed heat the most, the heater would not work. I changed the sail switch in the middle of the night to no avail. After I got back home I ran through every possible connection with my multimeter. What I found was odd.

Checking continuity across the thermostat was intermittent and had fluctuating voltage readings across several points when I checked the furnace connections. I then disconnected every connection and sanded each connection and replaced the Dometic manual thermostat ($13).

After almost 3 months of running the furnace at Campsite #1 several times a week I have yet to have a failure. Hmmmm!
 
Which ETI trailer model did you do the diesel addition?
Is there a forum thread with information on your installation?
I added it to my 21C but it'd be easy to install on any model.

The write-up is "Vevor Diesel Furnace" Vevor Diesel Furnace

Looking at the temperatures from Monday night on for heading South. It'll get a workout for a few nights.

Ron
 
As a reference, "my RV works" has a series of furnace troubleshooting videos and reference documents that may be of help. From my understanding of the situation, the blower fan turns on for a few seconds and then turns off. The startup procedure is when the thermostat calls for heat, the control board verifies that the sail switch is open, then the blower turns on and the board then verifies that the sail switch is closed, and the high temp switch is closed.

I am presuming you have experience in 12VDC electricity diagnostics and propane safety.

Recommendation - find the two thermostat wires on the furnace and short then together to get the furnace to startup without using the thermostat. Eliminate that potential issue and see if the furnace works. If the furnace is still faulty, check the high temp switch continuity.
 
first, with a volt meter, verify that there is 12V at the input terminals on the furnace. If there is no 12V, then the furnace isn't the problem at all.
 
Yep, I ran through every article/video that every RV Specialist said to check. Checked 12v at furnace, checked voltage at battery, checked continuity of the high temp switch, checked continuity at the Tstat (sometimes yes sometimes no), held Tstat wires together to see if the unit would turn on, removed mother board & all checked connections, replaced & sail switch, blew out fan area with sail switch removed and disconnected/sanded/reconnected every wire connection in the furnace area.

It's working fine now. Crossing my fingers! (y)
 
I have checked the thermostat and bypassed it to be certain. I have switched out the motherboard and the sail switch with known good parts and operated the sail switch by hand, no change. The blower doesn't start for a few seconds and turn off it randomly clicks on and off for a fraction of a second, it never runs enough to even get to an error code. I have been thinking about the limit switch and the reset switch, I will test them for continuity today. I have tested it on battery and shore power with no change, but I better check the power terminal to be sure, and maybe some dielectric grease all around for good measure. Thanks for the imput.
 
So it seems the reset switch is the culprit. During testing power went from sporadic to gone. I won't know for sure till I get the replacement but seems like that is the problem. Too bad these furnaces use such cheap components, they are pretty basic units and should be reliable but junk components can drive you nuts. Sorry I'm off my soap box, I will post when the new part is in
 

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