furnace repair

[cst34mil]

has anyone ever replaced a thermal couple or an ignighter in a furnace? was it an easy job? Does anyone have any idea on how to make the furnace quieter? Mine sounds like a jet taking off with its 90 mile an hour gale fore wind blowing!

[austinado16]

Whether or not you can repair your furnace depends on your skill at fixing stuff.

Rule number one is diagnose what's really wrong, otherwise, you may spend time and money that doesn't actually fix the problem.

Quiet them down?  Make sure it's mounted well and there aren't any loose parts that rattle or vibrate, including the fan motor bushings.  Other than that, I don't think there's a way.  I put a thick ceramic insulation blanket around the inside of the cabinet where mine is mounted (not up against the furnace) thinking that would quiet it down, and help keep it from heating up the cabinet and the refrigerator side.  Unfortunately, there was no improvement in the noise.

Oh, and welcome!

[cst34mil]

Im just fine at repairing things. I just wanted to know how to trouble shoot the problem

[Daddie_Tom]

http://www.camco.net/Menu.cfm?SupCategoryId=10000&SubCategoryId=224&ProductId=2258  Test your thermo-couple with this gadget..Screw on thermo-couple, Push button down, heat the end of thermo-couple, release button. If it stays down the thermo-couple works..

[austinado16]

Well, you haven't yet said with the problem is, so it's hard to point you in a diagnostic direction.

Thermocouple's simply make voltage when heated.  So heat the tip of yours with a BBQ lighter, and measure the voltage across it's 2 end terminals where it's wiring mounts to the gas valve's solenoid.  If you've got voltage, you know the thermocouple works.

The thermocouple creates a voltage that is used to energize the windings in the gas valve.  When these windings receive voltage, they generate a magnetic field that holds the gas vavle open.

As far as ignitors go, are you talking about an electronic ignition system with some sort of solid state circuit board driven off of the camper's thermostat?  Or are you talking about a manual "click" style piezo ignitor that you push a button to activate while you manually hold down the pilot light gas valve?

[PattieAM]

You didn't mention the make/model of your furnace or any of the particulars of the problems you are having with the furnace.

The furnace requires 10.5-13.5 volts DC (battery) to run the fan at a speed which will open the sail switch, ignite and run the furnace.  This is a common problem as we PUPpers forget that the propane leak detector is drawing from the battery 24/7 and our converters may not be charging/topping off the battery.  

Based upon the thermostat, your fan should come on and run for a minute or two, then you will have ignition (if you've got the voltage), furnace heating to set temperature, then the burner will shut down, the fan continue to run for another few minutes then it too will shut down.

The furnace fan is rather loud, and I supplement my furnace (so I don't use too much propane and less noise) with an oscellating electric space heater.