No furnace, no backup furnace, no AC, no fridge on LP

turbojamie · 09-23-2018, 09:45 AM

First post here crew so bare with me. Picked up a 2015 work and play and have used it 2 weekends. First weekend issue free everything worked perfect, including the furnace, backup furnace, AC and fridge. Fast forward this past weekend and we have no heat, no backup heat, no AC working, no lp on the hot water heater and the fridge won't run on LP. It was all working Friday night when we went to bed but sometime during the night it all quit. We were running on battery at the time.

I have done so far:

Disconnected both propane tanks they are full
Swapped tanks and tried switching tanks
verified the are not popped off
Reset the dometic thermostat
Verified the gas stove works correctly we have lots of propane and blue flame

When attempting to fire the furnace the blower runs to purge it but never tries to light, the hot water tank never tries to light, the backup furnace (switch under the fridge) never tries to light.

So my question is where is all this stuff commanded from? Is there some sort of LP lockout or something for these appliances?

The Lp stove works perfect. Pulling my hair out on this one, family froze Friday night so we had to cut our weekend short.

drittal · 09-23-2018, 09:46 AM

Battery charge?

CHICKDOE · 09-23-2018, 10:29 AM

everything you mentioned needs 12 volt dc to power the control boards. are your batteries fully charged? do you have a battery disconnect switch that has been set to disconnect the batteries? if you can plug into shore (or generator) power i'd expect the converter to supply 12 vdc to recharge the batteries and everything should work.

**Flybob** · 09-23-2018, 10:49 AM

Your battery is dead or too low to power the items. Running the furnace on battery ( no shore power ) will require you charge the battery every other day or sooner if you run other 12V items. If you plan to boondock often, you will need to add more/larger capacity batteries and a way to recharge them ( generator /solar)

drittal · 09-23-2018, 10:53 AM

If it’s cold enough and you have the furnace run at night it could be dead by morning, especially if you haven’t added a second battery.

**Mr. Dan** · 09-23-2018, 11:15 AM

Don’t expect your A/C to run on battery power unless you have a truck load of batteries.

cavie · 09-23-2018, 11:49 AM

You have a 15 amp fuse blown on the converter. It is the fuse that controls the boards in the items mentioned. Not sure about the AC. that should be a 12 or 24 volt circuit coming from the AC to the t-stat. But I have been known to be wrong before and probably will be in the future.

cavie · 09-23-2018, 12:02 PM

What do you mean by "Back up furnace?"

**wmtire** · 09-23-2018, 03:04 PM

Welcome aboard. I know you stated you are new to the forums, but are you also new to RV's?

If so these links may help you understand your different electrical systems in the RV and just what is powered by what:

Basic RV Electricity - RV Information (RV Maintenance)

Converter or Inverter (they are different)

I am also curious as to what you are referring to as a backup furnace? Is it a switch that perhaps says "heater"?

FYI, it does help to list your specific model/year RV. Work and Play will help somewhat but not narrow it down to a specific model, so others with the same may can help.

Cypressloser · 09-23-2018, 05:10 PM

Welcome to the forum.

I don't think you have a blown fuse if the furnace fan is still running bec. it is controlled by the 12 Volt thermostat but check them anyways.

On a cold night the furnace fan can drain a mediocre battery to the point where other 12 Volt appliances/systems are affected and won't run. Put a voltmeter on the battery before you charge it up to find out for sure and download a SOC (state of charge) chart for you battery type and keep it handy. Also, when you bought the trailer used you have no idea what the condition of the battery is, it may be in pristine condition but it may also be toast. It may help when you post the exact battery specs incl. build date.
I may be missing something but this is where I would start my troubleshooting.

cavie · 09-23-2018, 05:26 PM

Do you hear the click of the igniter trying to light on the furnace or just the fan run.? Again, what is the backup furnace?

UT_Grandpa · 09-23-2018, 05:55 PM

1. Do your lights work? Incandescent lights (normal bulbs) get dimmer when the battery charge is down.

2. The water heater uses very little power to light the burner as does the fridge BUT, as said before, if the battery is low - nothing will ignite.

3. The furnace has a "sail" switch that ensures that the battery voltage is high enough to safely ignite the burner. If the fan is turning fast enough a piece of metal (sail) moves up and out of the way of the airflow signaling that the fan is turning fast enough to be safe. If the fan is slow, the motor will run but nothing will light.

As said before, if everything works when plugged into house power, did the lights get brighter? if so, look for a bad battery (I replace them at 4-5 year intervals and if I have a pair of potteries-I replace both of them at the same time with the same battery. Do you have an uncharged battery (less had 12.5-12.7 volts after sitting for a few hours after being on the charger)? When on the charger you should see a voltage across the battery of about 13.8 Volts but that does not mean it is fully charged after an hour on the charger. My converter only puts out about 8 Amps to charge the batteries reserving the rest for powering the trailer. If your batteries are both discharged to about 12.3 Volts it could take 6-10 hours on the charger to get them back up to full charge. You might have a blown fuse between the converter/charger and the battery or bad or corroded connections at the battery.

Good luck. If you don't have a voltmeter they are either free or $4 at Harbor Freight and they are good enough for this kind of problem solving.

Cold Lake Kid · 09-23-2018, 06:23 PM

I am not familiar with your unit, but does it have a generator?
If it does not, one would be a good investment.
Get advice on the size/type you need to run whatever is on board.
Good luck and welcome to the board and RV'ing.

Tom48 · 09-24-2018, 01:41 AM

What Flybob said early in the thread. You have to have batteries that hold a charge of AT LEAST 12.0 V UNDER LOAD or likely, not much will work right. People who are not knowledgeable about batteries tend to use them and run them down way too low which can damage or REALLY destroy batteries very easily. Get good batteries and keep them well charged at all times. Only two good ways are being plugged in OR, as we did, put adequate solar on the roof and seldom ever have to think about it again.

Jesse · 09-24-2018, 10:36 AM

LP Gas regulator? Ours went bad first year camping.

Brother Les · 09-24-2018, 10:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by turbojamie

First post here crew so bare with me. Picked up a 2015 work and play and have used it 2 weekends. First weekend issue free everything worked perfect, including the furnace, backup furnace, AC and fridge. Fast forward this past weekend and we have no heat, no backup heat, no AC working, no lp on the hot water heater and the fridge won't run on LP. It was all working Friday night when we went to bed but sometime during the night it all quit. We were running on battery at the time.

I have done so far:

Disconnected both propane tanks they are full
Swapped tanks and tried switching tanks
verified the are not popped off
Reset the dometic thermostat
Verified the gas stove works correctly we have lots of propane and blue flame

When attempting to fire the furnace the blower runs to purge it but never tries to light, the hot water tank never tries to light, the backup furnace (switch under the fridge) never tries to light.

So my question is where is all this stuff commanded from? Is there some sort of LP lockout or something for these appliances?

The Lp stove works perfect. Pulling my hair out on this one, family froze Friday night so we had to cut our weekend short.

What you did to resolve the problem Did Not include the battery.....
Every problem that you talked about includes the battery....

It is the Battery....

JohnD10 · 09-24-2018, 11:54 AM

So far it seems the consensus of most here is that the battery is bad!

OP...are you still out there?

TheWolfPaq82 · 09-24-2018, 12:17 PM

Has anyone suggested to check the regulator on the propane tanks ? If nothing is running on LP and everything has power, I have to look at a faulty LP regulator as a possibility.

Sorry...missed the stove working part.

The AC is never going to run on "Battery Only."

Cypressloser · 09-24-2018, 12:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheWolfPaq82

Has anyone suggested to check the regulator on the propane tanks ? If nothing is running on LP and everything has power, I have to look at a faulty LP regulator as a possibility.

Sorry...missed the stove working part.

The AC is never going to run on "Battery Only."

It's probably not the LP pressure regulator, his cooktop is working fine bec. it requires no electricity to function.

McCormickJim · 09-24-2018, 02:32 PM

Your description reads like two problems:

1. 120v for AC not working
2. 12v or gas for gas appliances not working.

For the AC, since you are operating on battery only, your AC won't work until you hook up to shore power or a generator.

For the 12v or gas for appliances not working, and they all stopped at once:
a. Hook your camper up to your tow vehicle, start your vehicle, and then try your gas units. If they work, you have a low or bad camper battery.

b. Check your CO detector. Some of the units have an on/off switch which can accidentally be turned OFF. If OFF, no gas appiances will work. If there is no switch, remove the CO detector and tie the power lines together. If things work in this configuration, you have a bad CO detector.

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