Zone heating ... one zone gets heat but not the other

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Yonder

Yonder

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 23, 2017
Posts
84
Location
Whitefish, MT
I've tested the thermostat in the "bad" zone area and it is working.  Plenty of heat from propane furnace to the front, living area but zero to bedroom/bath.  Stuck baffle?  Any RV HVAC folk out there with ideas? All help appreciated
 
I should have clarified that.  One furnace only.  It has a master control and then separate thermostats for each zone.
 
Recently both my furnaces quit.  Usually when you have zoned furnaces they are two separate ones.  My problem was that both had blown fuses right at the back of the furnaces.  There was originally a circuit breaker at those locations but they had been replaces by fuses. 

Easy to check with a test light or even visual inspection by removing the outside cover.

If you only have a single furnace this would not help. 

Not questioning you answer but make sure that you do have only one.
 
As I sit here and think about it, I will be surprised if a 40 foot coach with propane furnace did not have two separate furnaces with two zones on the thermostat.

If you are trying to get heat tonight then take a flashlight and carefully examine the rear half of your coach at about eye level looking for a square cover with an exhaust vent.

If you do find one then it is probably an Atwood and the cover comes off with four phillips screws.

You will find a switch and a circuit breaker.  Try resetting the breaker or better yet if you have a 12 volt test light check for power on both sides of the small breaker.

You can bypass the breaker BUT ONLY IF YOU USE A FUSE TO PROTECT THE FURNACE.

Sorry if this seems to basic but I do not know how much you know about furnaces.
 
Thanks Bill.  I was a Home Inspector for 28 years so I understand heating system fundamentals pretty well but the RV side can always have it's quirks so you cannot get too basic for me. Thanks for all the tips.  Will let you know what I find.

BTW, Thanks for your service.  I did mine '66 - '70. Never was in Nam though. Had a friend who was a door gunner. Glad you made it home.
 
According to the Winnebago literature, the '08 Horizon does indeed have a two zone system supplied by a single two-stage heat pump with  back-up furnace.  The brochure lists a 25,000 btu secondary furnace and either a 35,000 or 40,000 btu primary, suggesting there are two furnaces. However, when I look at the heat-AC wiring diagram, I see only one furnace connection. Is it possible that you have one one zone on the furnace but two on the heat pump?

https://winnebagoind.com/resources/brochure/2008/08-Horizon-Brochure.pdf
http://www.winnebagoind.com/diagram/2008/08_wire_138913.pdf

Can you get rear heat using the heat pump but not the furnace(s)? Nor either one?
 
I stand corrected, But you now have a much better source of help.  Gary is definitely the expert and much better at this than I am.

I was trying to give you a quick response based on my recent furnace failure in hopes of finding a fast solution to being cold.

I hate being cold.  Makes me shiver just thinking about it.

Thanks for your service also brother.
 
Trying the heat pump is good idea Gary.  Thanks. Hadn't tried it since it is so cold I didn't think it would to much good but at least I could tell if I had air flow ... even if only slightly warm.
 
If the heat pump struggles to keep the coach warm, it's time to point it south and fire up the diesel.  ;)  Course, even that sometimes ain't enough...  :-[  We've had a lot of 20 degree weather here in central Florida lately.
 
The Itasca brochure is confusing on the furnace(s). The feature descriptions says:
HEATING & A/C ? Automotive Heater/Air Conditioner blend air system,  Furnace 25,000 BTU, low-profile, secondary, TrueAir? Residential Central Air Conditioning System  w/heat pump
Click to expand...

but then proceeds to list two furnaces, one for the 40FD and KD, and the bigger 40,000 btu model for the 40TD
Furnace 35,000 BTU, low-profile
Furnace 40,000 BTU, low-profile
Click to expand...

So is it one or two? We have some other Horizon owners here - wish they would offer some input.
 
I would also like to know.  Then I would not feel like I was pointing him in the wrong direction.

I do not really worry about that because it was just done to help anyway and it would seem logical that a second furnace was not working for the rear..

 
Thank you Gents for all the focus. I am distracted now by some other pressing events (work sure gets in the way). We're at home so the heat matter needs to be figured out but not pressing. Will get to it maybe over the next weekend. I'll get back to this when I have some answers.  I do think it is only one furnace because there is only one, two-hole vent in the sidewall which, in my experience, is the norm for a single-furnace rig.  More to follow.
 
Since the basement a/c unit already requires some sort of air management "door" to provide two separate cooling zones, it seems practical to duct the furnace output the same way. That assumes the heat & a/c share the same duct system, of course.  A 40,000 btu furnace is probably big enough to handle two zones, and that seems to be how the 40TD is equipped (per the brochure, anyway).

A call to Winnebago Customer Service is probably the easiest way to get some answers on the zone management for the HVAC ducts and the number of furnaces.
 
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