• We’re Back – Thanks for Your Patience! We’re thrilled to welcome you back! After some time offline, our site is up and running again, though you may experience occasional instability as we work through the final steps of restoring full functionality. Your understanding and support mean the world to us – thank you for sticking with us through this!
  • Email notifications are being sent but may be blocked by spam filters. If you don’t receive an expected email, please check your spam folder.

Furnace Furnace Run Time

G

ghaynes

Novice
So last night on my first long trip shooting fall colors in the Colorado mountains I ran the furnace for the first time. Outside temp was low 20's. best it would was was get the cabin to about 50 degrees. Kept shutting off after about a 5-10 minute run time.

From other posts sounded like the CI should turn into an oven. Is there something I am missing? I can almost immediately restart if it turn it to off and then back on. It never cycled off and on during the night. Got a might nippy and tonight is supposed to be down below 20.
 
Gary,

I think there is a big difference between camping in cooler weather where 5 minutes of heat gets the cabin toasty, and camping in temperatures that are below freezing.

Our experience has been similar to yours. At those temperatures, the heater kept us alive, but it was still very cold in the cabin.

I have never had much luck getting the heater to kick on and off by itself - the thermostat isn't as sensitive as I would like. It will run far longer than I would prefer, and then wait too long to come on. Hence this thread:http://www.campinnforum.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=4109&page=1

Of course, if you are out of propane, the furnace will only run for about a minute before it shuts off.
 
Last edited:
Evan thanks. Shouldn't it cycle on and off like your house?

Did see the Betsey's remote control. What a hoot.

Was timing it this evening. It runs 10 minutes. Got to about 65 on the temp gauge. Has now been off for about an hour and temp has dropped to 55. Something doesn't seem right. Outside temp is about 38.

I'll give Cary a call in the morning.
 
I am not sure how relevant this is to the furnace problem, but it is worth noting that propane as it gets colder gets less efficient and generates significantly less pressure. If too cold, the propane it will not vaporize at all. The attached link was posted in another form in a thread that addressed a similar problem about propane stoves in cold weather. They also noted that the larger the cylinder the better it will work in cold weather.

Propane in cold weather
 
Yah, the Cold freeze up on the tank, happens to me all the time.

I turn it on full blast just before bed, the secret is to have a warm Down/Synthetic bag/quilt/whatever to keep you warm as it will get down to lower temps. I've had it where there was no heat coming out at all, just cold air, Yikes at 3am... forgot what the problem was, oh battery. If the battery is down, it won't ignite and but the fan keeps going.

If I'm powered/hooked up, I use the heat pad which really works.. but only with power as the battery drains at about 3am.. heheh Seems everything happens at 3am.

I use a propane tank for my fire pit and it kept freezing up, no vapor, no fire. Even pouring hot water over the tank only worked for a little bit, block of ice at the bottom ring. My next "Fix it" would be Duct taping some Chem heat hand warmers to see if that would help and then last resort might be those electrical winter pipe heaters. Just heard about those, but wraps a wire coating around the tank. May not be a good idea, still have it as an unexplored option though.

The real fix is long johns and a real warm cover. Only open the top and windows to keep fresh air in, heat will escape, of course through the roof fan if opened more than just a crack..

It can get C-C-c-c-c-c-cold out there. Me thinks the lowest I've been in was 17F In that case, the coolers keep the beer warm.. heheh It's a matter of priority of course.. ;-P

HTH
 
I probably will never camp in temperatures that low but I keep a sleeping bag rated to 15 degrees in the front inside storage just in case.
 
Left the sleeping bag at home. Talked with Cary today. I need to get to a Campingworld to have it checked. Hoping it is something as simple as the thermostat. Did nt get much sleep last night. Would wake up every 3 hours and run through a cycle of several starts. Dawn was 22 on the Yukon and the temp on the thermostat didn't register 50, pegged to the left.

Not a big problem. Bought a small ceramic heater heater since I have power the next couple of nights.
 
Hopefully it's an easy, inexpensive fix like a thermocouple or something. Good luck.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top