Suburban Heater

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14cardinal

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Joined
Feb 10, 2015
Posts
6
The heater in our trailer will work fine for awhile, cycles of and one, around the set temperature on the thermostat.
Then, usually in the middle of the night it seems, it won't come on.
I awake in the early hours to find the trailer temperature well below the thermostat set temperature.
I turn the thermostat off, I can hear a "click" in the AC unit. Then  I turn the heater back on and it comes right on.
It will work fine for awhile, then off again - usually the next night as we don't use it much during the day time (We use elect. heater and fireplace)
Any ideas, help it's cold in here.
 
Are you boon docking or on shore power?

And if on shore power.. What converter do you have?

One of the more common problems with RV furnaces is they run on 12 volts DC, or rather than fail on 12 volts DC, 12.5 they run, 13.6 they run but 12 they sometimes fail.

Depending on your converter..... Well some of them just do not have the OOMPH to keep up with the furnace, and as the battery runs down, the furnace blower can no longer build up enough speed to sail the sail switch, and thus the ignition system never even attempts since the sail switch is what turns it on.
 
If moving the temperature setting arm on the thermostat makes the furnace come on, you have a problem in the thermostat, not the furnace.

I'm assuming you're on shore power as you mention using an electric heater during the day.

You might have bad or dirty contacts inside the thermostat itself - if there's a bit of dirt on them the relatively weak force exerted by the thermostat coil as it expands and contracts with temperature doesn't displace the insulating dirt so they don't make contact.

Turning the thermostat off then on makes the contacts come together with a more positive motion and breaks through the dirt.

See if the front panel snaps off of your thermostat and if you can see the contacts that make and break to turn the furnace on and off.  If so, soak a piece of blank paper in a solvent like WD-40 or rubbing alcohol and drag it through the contacts a couple of time to clean them.

If your thermostat uses a circuit board instead of a visible coil and contacts, the fix is similar except the dirty contact is in the relay that switches between the air conditioner and furnace - the "click" you hear when you turn the thermostat off and then back on.
 
Yes we are on shore power. We have a digital thermostat, which was replaced a little over a week ago.
The heater seemed to operate fine, cycling off & on, for almost a week. I had the thermostat set on 67 degrees, so it doesn't get so warm in the bedroom a night.
The other night I adjusted the thermostat temperature setting up to 68 degrees, and it has gone back to the same problem we had before we changed the thermostat.
Each night it works for awhile, then stops. I turn it off, hear the "click" in the AC unit & then back on and it works again - for awhile.
 
sometimes there is a probe that you can see sticking into the where the burners on the furnace are ( i looks kinda like a silver stick you would see on a childrens sucker you get at the candy store its about 4 inches long and 1/8in wide) take some emery cloth or fine sandpaper and clean it up should solve the issue.
 
How cold is it outside.  The. Propane tank may be getting  to low and is vapor rising correctly and the furnace is shutting down on safety
 
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