I had a great night, curled up in my -7 sleeping bag under the duvet with the kitties. The rig is just a notch above tolerable this morning. It helps that we’re only sitting at -1, with a fine layer of snow.

Midnight seems to have had a good night. I heard him whining a bit as I was reading in bed before sleep and I just kept repeating “Go to bed, Midnight” until he did. This morning, he was glad to see me and we went out to the tree for a brief minute. I’ll take him out for a proper walk this afternoon, and we’re about to head out to run some errands.

He followed me around while I made breakfast and then just sat at the base of my chair looking up at me while I tried to get some work done. I put my arms down and he jumped right into them so I could bring him up onto my lap, where he is now snuggled and snoring. Too cute!

While I was waiting for the repair place to get back to me, I went to the office to check for mail and asked there if they had any other recommendations for service techs. They had one, so I gave the guy a call and he said he’d be over in half an hour to make a diagnosis!

He arrived as promised, I turned on the furnace, and the confirmed that I need a new motor. His rate was at least $100 less than what the other place ended up quoting me, so it was a no brainer to let him pull the motor right then and there. While he was doing that, Ken and Donna came by with offers of heaters. *hugs you guys!*

The repair will depend on the availability of the motor and could be tomorrow mid-afternoon or Wednesday. I’ll be okay for heat, even if I won’t be super comfortable. The worst will be getting up in the morning.

I should have seen this failure coming, but I’d read that RV furnaces are supposed to be noisy, so I needed the rattling to tell me that something was amiss. I’m definitely not kicking myself over this; I’m just grateful that I can get this fixed, and so easily to boot!

The warming trend was just a tease. *sighs*

And even bigger *sighs*, my furnace has conked out. Seems like a motor issue and the best thing is to replace it. I contacted a nearby RV place that does service calls and am waiting for them to get back to me about the price of the part and their availability. I’m already standing at $45 for the service call, plus $90 an hour, plus 12% HST. This is not a job I will comfortable doing myself since it could involve touching the propane system. I have been told that lubing the bearings on the fan could work as a stopgap measure, but with a twelve year old unit I feel I’m better repairing than coaxing along. What happens is that after the furnace has been running for a while it starts to groan and then makes the rig shake.

Until I get this fixed, it’s going to be chilly in here! I moved the good heater into the study and that’s working miracles, but I’m not looking forward to the chill in here in the morning. That said, the furnace runs fine for a cycle or two before symptoms manifest, so I’m sure I can get the rig warm when I need it. Worst case scenario is I’ll blow the motor, and I’m already resigned to replacing it.

I set up the dehumidifier, but it has yet to do any heating. 🙁 One thing I was not aware of is that some dehumidifiers stop working if the ambient temperature is less than 17 Celsius! I discovered this while reading the manual on my unit when it said, in essence, that the base model will not dehumidify below 17C and the mid-range and luxury models are good to plus 3. I was irked until I realised that I have the mid-range model! How funny is it that the only decent quality dehumidifier I could find is perfect for my rig?

I have a tip for new RV owners: go through your manuals and highlight the sections that are relevant to your appliances. I felt pretty smart when I called the RV place with my manual in hand only to realise that it’s a manual that’s good for five models and I had no idea what mine was! Thankfully, I remembered that there’s an information sheet on the inside of the door of the undersink cabinet in the kitchen, and that gave me the necessary model number, which then enabled me to find the correct part numbers. FYI, I have an Atwood Excalibur 8500-III 8531 hydro flame furnace.