Starting Furnace for Heat/Hot Water

[freedomboy]

Hello!

I'm new here and also a new traveler trailer owner.

I own a very nice 96 Sunline Solaris T-2053 model.

I'm getting it ready for a trip and have everything working
besides understanding how to ignite the furnace. I don't smell
propane when turning on or to pilot, and it won't light. I have
a battery in front that is charged enough to lift the electric hitch
up and down, so I think it has enough juice.

I have a filled tank, and the burners on stove light, and the
fridge also lighted and began cooling on propane.

Does anyone have any feedback or troubleshooting thoughts
on how to get this fired up?

Also, once that lights, does it automatically make hot water ready?

I know I will want the duct heating to work, the thermostat is turned
on, but, hopefully it would make the heat and hot water.

I just drained the winterizing fluids and haven't refilled with
water yet, not sure if that is needed?

Thanks in advance!!!

 

[j52wf]

First thing. Furnace and hot water are two separate systems. Commonality is both run on propane, although hot water should have an electric option. Second, DO NOT run hot water heater unless filled with water.
For lighting, you need to push the pilot button in and hold it in while lighting. Once luf, continue to hold the button in for 30 seconds. This will activete the thermocouple and keep the pilot lit. It may take some time to get all the air out of the lines before you smell propane. Same for furnace unless you have auto ignition. Look for a small on/off switch on the bottom of your thermostat. Make sure it is on. Turn tstat to desired temperature. If auto-ignition, it should start clicking to light furnace. Send pic of t-stat if possible.

 

[mainah-SUN]

Do Not light the hot water heater until the tank is full. You may have a by pass system on your hot water heater make sure it is not in by pass turn on a hot water tap until you have water running then light the heater.

 

[JohnGB]

I'm getting it ready for a trip and have everything working
besides understanding how to ignite the furnace. I don't smell
propane when turning on or to pilot, and it won't light. I have
a battery in front that is charged enough to lift the electric hitch
up and down, so I think it has enough juice.

I have a filled tank, and the burners on stove light, and the
fridge also lighted and began cooling on propane.

Does anyone have any feedback or troubleshooting thoughts
on how to get this fired up?

Hi and Welcome to Sunline Owners Club. Congrats on your camper.

As was said the hot water heater and furnace are totally separate, and do not fire up the hot water heater with no water in it or it bypassed. I'll repeat that a 3rd time... If you do not know if water is in it and it may be bypassed, ask.

Now to the furnace, you mentioned a pilot and it won't light. You seemed to indicate "furnace" and pilot on a furnace does not add up unless by some odd chance you have a mega old furnace. The gas hot water heater, may have a pilot, but the furnace is electronic ignition.

I can see from this one pic, you have a newer style Hyrdoflame furnace and an Atwood hot water heater which are common for Sunlines.

The hot water heater is in the back of the camper near the rear wall. The furnace is under the fridge near the front portion of the camper.

The furnace has a thremostat inside the camper. and there should be a switch, most likely a sliding one, that turns it on and then to set the temperature. The T stat changes over the years so do not know which vintage you have, but... once you turn it on and the temp is set to call for heat, the first thing the blower should start blowing cold air to purge the system. If you have not made it past the blower running, that is problem one. The blower runs for a small period of time and then opens the gas and auto fires the igniter. No blower, means you have to get past why that is not working.

Now that you know these are different systems, which are you trying to get up and going, the hot water heater in the back or the furnace under the fridge? What which make which sounds either trying to get them going?

Since you are good with pics, on the hot water heater, undo the cover on the outside of the camper, fold it down, and take a pic of the outside heater with the cover down. Then we can see what you are seeing and help better on how to light it. And a super big help for us, find the Atwood model number and tell us that. It should be on a sticker somewhere inside when the cover is down. That model number can be decoded to tell if there is an electric element option and other features.

Hope this helps

John

 

[EMD_Driver]

John is spot-on as usual...

Our old 1997 T-2653's water heater had a pilot light and no DSI. I ended up having to replace the control valve on it, to get it to work properly. If I have any pics, I will post them here when I find them.

Edit: I must have lost the pictures in a system crash. If you could get any pictures of the WH from the outside, behind the white access panel, it would greatly help. Especially the exact model number of the WH.