Air blows cold but RV furnace doesn't light
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 มี.ค. 2020
- This episode is all about the Dometic Atwood RV Furnace repair. A few episodes back I had a problem with our furnace. I could hear the blower start up and cold air was blowing through the vents. A minute or two later the furnace would shut off with no heat coming through. I thought I had fixed it by hitting the reset button and jiggle wires, but all that accomplished was to temporarily jostle the sail switch by accident so it would make contact.
After extensive research I discovered that there is a common issue with the sail switch in the Dometic Atwood RV furnace. It doesn't take much to cause the switch to fail. Good news is that you can fix most problems with canned air. After blowing the dust and dog hair out of the switch, it has worked perfectly ever since. Replacing the switch is also an easy fix if you happen to have a faulty switch. Two screws, two wire connectors and a new switch for under $25. Hope this helps.
Safe Travels
Steve, Dawn, Atka and Sierra
We replaced an old Dometic in our 36 foot camper (vented). th-cam.com/users/postUgkxDDbPbIlwLRcX_ntp51ui5UMtAUGpHYxE The install was a simple swap, all holes lined up, the electric plug back in with no trouble. Getting it on the camper was the most "difficult" part of it, and my friend made it look easy. I've seen people "sled" them up ladders as well though. I watched a TH-cam video for instructions, very easily done. Some say it doesn't come with instructions, but I found the instructions under the ac in the box. I didn't need them, but they were there.It works well to keep a 36 footer comfortable, all by itself. It doesn't seem to be any quieter than the original, but it isn't any louder either. We're very pleased with it. Esp with the ease of swapping them out.
You are welcome
I swear that first-time RV buyers should be able to attend a hands-on class to learn how to do this kind of maintenance. My furnace access is under the futon.
I agree. I’m having problems now. It’s snowing and no furnace.
This was exactly what I needed to troubleshoot my RV furnace issue. It was an easy fix and now I can get back to roaming and exploring!
*Works so well **Fastly.Cool** for rv that it only requires daytime operation until high temp and humidity are overnight. It is difficult to get to side filters, but back is easily accessible.*
*Works great **Fastly.Cool** compact and Easy to install*
My heater stopped working on a cold March morning and I started Googling and found this video and I’ll be darned if this wasn’t the exact problem. I’m not a handy guy. I was ready to hook it up and drive it to a dealer and wash my hands from the whole RV thing. This video was titled exactly what the problem was and was thorough and simple and now my heater works. Thank you!!!
You are a God send!! I was sitting in 10 degree weather running off of a generator and couldn't figure out what in the world was wrong. This worked perfectly!!! Thank you for putting this out there and for the wisdom you've shared!!
Omg thank you.. 2 years later and u sir are still saving lives. I for the life of me couldn't figure it out.. ur one of the last true heros
Ditto what everyone else already said. Froze my "things" off last night when the furnace failed to ignite.
Fixed in 20 minutes. BAM!
We nearly froze until my wife sent me the link to this video. We are warm now!
God bless you!
The sailswitch(fan), limitswich has first priority. The termostat can stay on and work properly. My problem was the controlboard. The burner did cick on and off and It did not get warm inside. At last the burner did'nt work at all. Did replace the controlboard, and the burner did work again. But the temp from the ducts was still as hot as earlier. After watching videos on net, It could have be some issue with the the burner(jet) or electrode. Did disconnect the burner body and did find something inside burner jet. Did clean it and did replace the burnerhead. Now it works properly again. I think your furnace is not close to the wall as mine. I have got a short tube from the furnance that fits the short outside exhaust pipe. It was very tight . Had to clean both tubs inside and out to get a connection again.
As an electrician I did measure on the harness for the controlboard before I did order a new one.
Thank you a thousand times!!! You just saved me in the middle of a cold snowstorm! 🙏
This video saved us and the rest of our summer.
Thank you for taking the time to post this. This exactly solved the problem and saved us time and money.
Wow ... This was so helpful to this Newbie to RV life. Thanks for the clear direction and instructions fixing the same problem I experienced on the coldest night of the year. Bravo !!!
Top notch my friend... 5 minutes later my heater is back in action!
This unit doesn't take up a lot of room under my kitchen sink. I love that I have instant hot water when ever I want! Has enough capacity for my dishwasher also.
You are a life saver. Thank you so much for this video. It's 36 degrees here and we had the same exact issue. You literally helped us out so much. ❤
Exactly what I needed. Didn’t know which one was the sail switch. It really wasn’t that dirty, but everything’s working now.
May you live to be 120 and have a wonderful blessed life with family and friends eating steak and lobster for posting this. Not trying to be weird just the comment section casts a big shadow.
Sir, you just saved my sanity! I could not for the life of me figure out how to take off the cover of the furnace until your video. I was so nervous to break something. And the great camera work really made it easy to follow along cleaning the sail switch. Crazy how the smallest piece of lint could really mess up your whole furnace like that!
I have that EXACT problem. I’ll clean the sail switch and see what happens!! 🤠👍🇺🇸
You sir are a star! Thanks for the direct info without any fluff. Rare these days.
This video was very helpful and easy to follow. I was quickly able to repair the furnace, which I’m certain saved me a lot of money. Thank you, Sonny
Thanks for the video I didn’t know where the sail switch was, took it out and cleaned it works like new. Thank you.
Thank you! This resolved my issue of the fan coming on but not the heater. There was some cloth fiber/hair on the sail switch. Cleaned it off and works perfectly now.
Awesome advice thank you! My 2019 Montana 3121RL these symptoms started and sure enough this advice saved me service call, furnace is working great. Thanks!
I’m looking at same exact thing except with wasps nests! Thanks for the tutorial!
Wow! That’s crazy. Glad I could help.
Thank you so much, I went two days of freezing before I saw your video and I am so grateful. It was unbelievable how much dog hair was trapped in there.
Thank you so much!!! My furnace quite blowing hot air and thanks to your instructions I was able to fix it!
Thanks for this! It’s the middle of winter and your demonstration will probably help to keep me from being kicked out of the campground for using too much electricity.
Thank you so much for this great video. We are on our first night of the summer camping season and the temps are quickly dropping here and with the help of this great video my husband and I were able to fix the heat. Thank you again!
So glad to be of help. I have done a lot of research that hasn’t made it to a video yet... If you have any other questions please feel free to reach out.
Thanks for the tip. Taking delivery hopefully in the next month. Saving in case it is needed in the future.
Thank you Sir. You just saved us from a very cold sucky night up at Mt. Rushmore, Hill City SD. Thank you thank you thank you.
Thanks your video helped me to fix my heater with the same issue. My sail switch was not as easy to check because it was mounted on the inside cover of the fan unit. I had to take the entire cover off. The metal sail was bent and stuck so I straightened it out and it worked great! We now have a warm night ahead!
Watched you video and fixed the problem on a new Big Foot camper.Thanks👍
You nailed my problem and saved my newer camper. Everyone should know how to solve this issue. Geat job.
Thank you, sir! You said sail switch, found it on my diagram, and had it cleaned in 2 minutes. We were up and running in no time.
You were right on the money!!!! Thank you for a simple, clear explanation to the problem! Still not sure why it failed, but had it repaired in minutes!
Thanks for this, same problem I’m having. Will try this fix first. Almost bought a new thermostat!
Thanks so much! Took the new used RV out this past weekend only to find out that the furnace wasn’t working. Temps were in the mid 30s, colder than I like it. Took the furnace apart today and exactly as you mentioned - there was some hair and other debris around the sail switch. Saved me from a trip to the repair shop. Thank You Thank You Thank You.
Let me add a HUGE shout-out to you for your furnace troubleshooting video! I am still what I'd call an RV "newbie" after 19 months, but you made it easy. I had watch two similar vids, but in both of them, you couldn't see what was being done. In my case, my sail switch was just filthy and once I had cleaned it, it fired just fine. Your furnace was just like mine and very easy as I could clearly see what to do. Thank you so much!
Blessings & Peace,
Richard
Montana
You Sir, are a life saver! staying in a travel trailer in Mississippi during this crazy winter freeze. your video show'd me how to clean the sail switch which was the problem now heating back up after two days thanks a bunch!!!
So glad to help! 😀
Thank you SO MUCH!!! I fixed it myself with your instructions! Confident and for sure dog fur caught up in it! Sail switch! I appreciate you!!
Thanks for posting this Steve. You really saved my butt, so now I owe you one.
Great video old-timer
Old timer!?😂
Thank you so much for posting this, this exact thing happened to me and I feared the worse. I followed your steps in this video and I'm nice and warm again. Thanks again!
Texas just got cold and I just bought an older model. I turned on my furnace and what you explained is exactly what happened. I'm going to do this and hopefully it works! 🤞
Just bought a 2020 Courgar 366RDS and have already had to use your videos for my own repairs! So great to finally find another Cougar owner for info/DIY repairs.
Glad I was able to help!
Thanks much. We thought our excursion was going to be cut short. Thanks to your research, description (It's exactly what we were dealing with) and video, the camp continues!
Awesome… glad to help
Awesome! It was nice to TH-cam something and have the 1st video come up be exactly what I was needing. Mine is in a 2001 5th wheel with access panel so I had to pull the furnace unit particularly out to see the valve. Not hard to do. We haven't used this camper in a while as we recently purchased a Seneca motorhome, so this one sat approximately 10 months or so. Blew out the switch & unit with an air-hose & it works perfect.
Thank you for such great, simple, to the point advice. You just saved me a lot of frustration & potential cost of having someone else do it.
Thanks, Rick
Glad I was able to help! Safe Travels!
We are up in the Canadian Yukon finishing up the season at our bakery. The tip you gave just saved us, the heater has not been working for several days and we have tried everything.
Your video was the answer.
Thank you very much for sharing it.
Glad to help!
This man deserves some kind of medal, look at the comments on how many people he saved, many of them he saved there actual real life with this video. It's a simple switch yes but to figure out it was the issue is not simple. It's 2 years later, I today was saved from being in fridgid temps by this video. I have gone thru the whole system, never would have guessed that
Thank you for the kind words!
Thank you so much! Our heater just did this the other night and your video helped so much! I cleaned it and it works perfect now. Appreciate it!!
Glad to help!
Thank you so much for taking the time to post this video. After five years the sail switch was pretty gunked up with cat hair and stuff. Easy two minute clean. Reattach switch and furnace cover and had her fixed in less than 15 minutes.
Glad it helped!
Hey! Thank you so much for this video. I am determined to understand and fix problems as they arise and this video just fully answered what was wrong with my heater. ( in my case the battery was low and not blowing hard enough to engage the sail switch)
Glad it helped. It’s amazing how simple a problem can be and how much a service call will be. Safe travels!
THANK YOU! Fix ours this morning. You probably saved us a couple of hundred dollars 👍
Thank you my man for my family is warm in our RV once again
I cant thank you enough for posting this important information!!! I have my mother in an RV distancing her away from us on our property till her house is built and her heater wouldn't turn on. It's going to be 12degrees here and all the space heaters are gone. I was freaking out and you have saved me! Took me 10 minutes to fix and she is toasty with her dog and so happy to have heat again with this freak cold front hitting.
Thanks again for taking the time to explain and show us how to troubleshoot this issue. I found no help from any other online sources.
Your the best!
Kevin from Texas
So glad to hear this was helpful and glad to hear your mom is doing great. All the best to your family!
You Sr. just made me learn something new, new to the RV world, I bought me a used one with some plumbing issues that I've fixed myself, but on the furnace side, it did exactly what you described, it was the sail switch, just cleaned it and starting blowing warm air. GOD BLESS YOU.
Wow!!! What a life saver! Now our heater works like a charm. Thankyou for this video. We had a fuzz bunny on that metallic plate keeping it from working properly. No more waking up to a 40 degree inside in the mornings! Can’t say Thankyou enough. May God bless you and keep you safe in your travels.
Thank you and glad I could help
Thank you so much! It seems to have fixed the problem! Have a nice trip to Camelot! Good day :-)
Great information; you saved a spring break vacation. Like you, I thought I fixed it. I put a battery charger and generator to charge up the battery. That must have given the fan enough power. The problem is it happened again. The sail switch was the issue, not the fan. Thanks again
Thank you! My sail switch had a tiny bit of lint. After cleaning it, it works fine now.
This fixed my camper cant thank you enough we live in MN and were living in the camper for the next 2 months till we buy another house and we have a 2 month old baby thanks for your very helpful video hats off to you sr
Wow, wintering in MN! I am very happy have helped. 😃
Thank you very much I watched this video and it was exactly that problem I got the heater running in about 20 minutes
Mostly cured thus issue by filtering cold air return. Change the (cleanable) filter every two weeks when using furnace. Noticed a big difference during maintenance. Happy Camping
Uggh, mine is doing something like this. I'm going to check this as soon as I get to my destination. Crazy part is it was working just fine an hour ago.
Thanks for the video.
Thank you for this!! I’m adding this to my maintenance schedule.
Good tip! I will pull mine come spring. I did find dog fur in the cabinet when I removed our cover. The micro switch for the sink was broken on our popup. Its designed to make contact when the part of the cabinet containing the sink is flipped up. If it is flipped over, it blocks the furnace and the switch is open. I have had several popups with out a switch and the replacement was $17 dollars. No one would ever run their furnace with the sink flipped over as thats usually when you are folding up the camper anyways. I just eliminated the silly switch with a jumper and shoved the wiring down inside the box.
That's exactly what mine is doing!
Thanks!
Thank you!! We got charged $80 for this same issue last year! Happened again tonight.. saw your video and within 5 minutes we have heat!
Thank you sir! I think this is what’s wrong with my rig, it’s my second night as a proud new owner and your video was extremely helpful! 🤩
Glad I could help!
Saved my bacon! Thank you so much!
This was exactly my problem on a 1996 Suburban SF-30. There was an accumulation of link that must have been the culprit. Thank you!
Very helpful. Thank you for the knowledge and getting straight to the point
Thank you for this, you showed where the switch is located, so now I know what to look for. I had hoped you hadn't cleaned it out yet, so we could see actually how much lint can get in there. We have two small dogs, a Dachshund, and a Rat Terrier. The Terrier sheds like crazy, so I'm expecting to find a lot of hair in there. Haven't used the heater much, we've had the rv for 19 months, so we'll see how much we accumulated, lol.
It doesn’t take much, but then again we have two Siberian husky’s 😁.
This was PERFECT and exactly what I needed to solve the problem. THANK YOU!
Exactly my situation and so I will view and clean sail switch. Thx for sharing
With your help and me paying attention, my fan blade was too far down shaft to draw sufficient air flow, blades needed adjustment, cleaned with compressed air and it’s perfect. Thanks
I'm about to go and see it the sail switch is part of my furnace; then do as your very well done video describes. With luck that will fix my furnace - that was working fine but just started to fail to light.
Unfortunately, my furnace is only accessible from the inside but it's a huge compartment going full across my Toyhauler.
Liked and subbed. Nice job.
Thank you so much! This is my 5th winter in an RV (second in this one), and I have never come across this issue. Fortunately, I just needed to hit the reset, but now I know the steps to take if ever that should fail. Thanks a million times again!
Thank you for the video. My exact problem. We don’t have pets and we store our RV indoors. Only two years old and the smallest amount of lint accumulated on the switch just as you described. Working like a champion now. Unfortunately I just paid $200 to have the awesome General RV dealership fix it, got it home still didn’t work watched the video did it myself. Dang
Thank you for your video the problems with only air flow then furnace cuts off we did reset button a couple of times nothing then removed sail switch had very little lint but not much mashed metal strip to see if small tiny button underneath would mash down the heater is working again I am 75 youtube has been a blessing sometimes the Manuel’s doesnt tell u anything
Thanks again
Thanks a bunch. Exact same problem fixed in 5 minutes. Much appreciated
Many Thanks!
Knew it was something simple!
I will be trying this tomorrow !!! Thank you!!!
Awesome! So helpful, so detailed, yet concise. Great video!
Thank you... glad to help
Wow, Thanks!!
Just fixed my less than 1 Year old Dometic Furnace that wasn’t giving heat
Thanks Again!!
Glad it helped!
Great video, just used it at midnight in a campground here in Montana to get heat going so the wife and daughter won’t be cold in the morning when they get up!
Glad I can help!
Well, there was the slightest bit of cat hair to remove under the sail switch, I didn't wiggle any wires or flip the reset switch, and lo and behold...out came the warm air. Hopefully it will do the same early tomorrow morning when the temperature drops. Thanks, you gave me the confidence to open up that panel and check the sail switch.
Thank you sir I just fixed mine now. Much appreciated.
Thank you , you saved me from the mechanics
Glad I could help!
Thank you informative and straight to the point.
Exactly what I needed as well. Didn’t know which one was the sail switch. It really wasn’t that dirty, but everything’s working now.
Didn’t help me at all !
Sail switch good , thermo switch good . What next ? PC board ?
Thanks for the tip! Solved my problem and saved me a bunch of money!
You just saved me a service call. You are the man!
Glad to help
Worked like a charm! Thank you so very much!
You look like a Navy man. Thanks for your service!
I take that as a compliment but I didn’t serve in the armed forces. I was on the front lines in the classroom as a teacher. 😄
Ahh. You have the look of a Navy vet. Educated and honest. You must have been a teacher when they still taught rather than indoctrinate.
Take care and happy RVing.
Thank you for your video. I just checked my sail switch and it had lint wrapped around it. I don't have pets but dust & lint happens in my Class C. Once cleaned, it turned on perfectly. I'll purchase a backup sail switch, just in case. Thanks
Thank you very much! Tonight will be much warmer!