Gulf Stream Owners RV Forum - View Single Post - Propane Furnace won't ignite on batteries

tcrsolutions · 11-15-2010, 11:53 PM

OK, so I've done some troubleshooting. Still looking for some assistance here. This is what I've done:

Using a Multimeter, checked voltage at the batteries: 12.75 volt on a full charge. Check the voltage at the converter, 12.5 volts (already a loss of .25 volts on a 6 foot run with 2 gauge wire to the inverter).

Check the voltage at each of the fuse terminals on converter and reads 12.5 and check voltage on the hot lead at the furnace and it is also 12.5. Turn the thermostat on and before the fan kicks on, the voltage dips to 12.4. Once the blower motor kicks on, it dips to 10.5 then goes up to 10.9. You can hear the electric igniter clicking and you can see the spark, but nothing lights. After 3 attempts, it locks out and the blower stays running.

I had some extra 12-gauge electric wire, so I decided to run a direct run from the batteries to the furnace. I ran two ~25 foot wires through the window and hooked one up to the positive and one to the negative and connected the yellow ground wire to the negative and the red hot wire to the positive and checked the readings. The reading was 12.7 volts. Interesting enough, when the blower motor kicked on, the voltage only dropped to 12.1 volts and the electric igniter lit and everything worked great. The voltage actually seemed to climb a little the longer I let it run, which was also interesting.

So, I'm assuming I've got a bad ground or a bad wire somewhere. Since the problem occurred with the older converter and now the new converter, I'm less likely to think that is the problem. I would think I would have a lower reading when checking voltage at the furnace wire than at the converter if the wire/ground were bad, but not sure on this. I have yet to try running a direct run from the converter to the furnace. I'm just trying to figure out if I'm missing something completely obvious here. What about the .25 volt drop on 2 gauge wire on a short 6 foot run from the batteries to the converter?? All other appliances work just fine.

Any help or insight would be much appreciated!

11-15-2010, 11:53 PM	#2
tcrsolutions New Member Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Vail, AZ Posts: 13	OK, so I've done some troubleshooting. Still looking for some assistance here. This is what I've done: Using a Multimeter, checked voltage at the batteries: 12.75 volt on a full charge. Check the voltage at the converter, 12.5 volts (already a loss of .25 volts on a 6 foot run with 2 gauge wire to the inverter). Check the voltage at each of the fuse terminals on converter and reads 12.5 and check voltage on the hot lead at the furnace and it is also 12.5. Turn the thermostat on and before the fan kicks on, the voltage dips to 12.4. Once the blower motor kicks on, it dips to 10.5 then goes up to 10.9. You can hear the electric igniter clicking and you can see the spark, but nothing lights. After 3 attempts, it locks out and the blower stays running. I had some extra 12-gauge electric wire, so I decided to run a direct run from the batteries to the furnace. I ran two ~25 foot wires through the window and hooked one up to the positive and one to the negative and connected the yellow ground wire to the negative and the red hot wire to the positive and checked the readings. The reading was 12.7 volts. Interesting enough, when the blower motor kicked on, the voltage only dropped to 12.1 volts and the electric igniter lit and everything worked great. The voltage actually seemed to climb a little the longer I let it run, which was also interesting. So, I'm assuming I've got a bad ground or a bad wire somewhere. Since the problem occurred with the older converter and now the new converter, I'm less likely to think that is the problem. I would think I would have a lower reading when checking voltage at the furnace wire than at the converter if the wire/ground were bad, but not sure on this. I have yet to try running a direct run from the converter to the furnace. I'm just trying to figure out if I'm missing something completely obvious here. What about the .25 volt drop on 2 gauge wire on a short 6 foot run from the batteries to the converter?? All other appliances work just fine. Any help or insight would be much appreciated! __________________ Chris Compton