Author: Rae

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Troubleshooting an RV Furnace Blowing Cold Air

I’ve been struggling with my RV furnace blowing cold air the past few days, but I haven’t had any need to troubleshoot, knowing that the arctic chill is to blame. But there are several other reasons for an RV furnace to blow cold air.

Andy Baird left some great troubleshooting info in a comment to a previous post and I wanted to make sure that readers who don’t look at comments get it. Thanks for this, Andy!

“One common reason for the furnace blowing cold air is low battery voltage.

Unlike a residential furnace, in which the blower doesn’t start until the plenum has warmed up, an RV furnace starts blowing immediately. That’s because it uses the same motor to power both the hot-air blower and a second, isolated blower that moves air through the combustion section.

If the batteries were too weak to power the blowers, or if the motor failed while the burner was lit, the furnace would quickly become a fire hazard. So as a safety feature, there’s an air-sensitive switch in the duct that has veto power over the burner’s gas valve. If this “sail switch” is not activated by sufficient airflow, the burner will not light, or if already lit, will shut off.

That situation can occur when the house batteries are weak. The blower motor spins, but not fast enough to deflect the sail switch. The result: a furnace that blows cold air. It happened to me the first time I camped in wintertime.

It’s also possible for the sail switch to get stuck, due to dust, rust, or insect nests. If you have propane and your battery situation looks good, this is a possibility.

Finally, some possible problems with the propane system include valves, hoses or regulator frozen due to moisture in the system, extreme low temperatures (propane liquifies at -42° C., so if it’s colder than that, it will never vaporize and you won’t have gas pressure), and too much butane in the propane.

Propane is typically sold mixed with butane, and in warm weather this is no problem. But butane liquifies at -1° C, so at any temperature below freezing butane won’t vaporize. Now, your local dealer’s supplier should have made seasonal adjustments to their mix… but if they have a load of propane left over from summer, it may contain so much butane that it won’t vaporize adequately in cold weather. There’s not much you can do about this except switch dealers (if there’s another one nearby) or hope that your local dealer runs through his supply of the less-volatile mix.”

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Arctic Front

The last few days have been… trying. We are experienced incredibly unusual colds do to an Arctic air mass. This cold is being experienced all the way down the Plains, from Omaha to Dallas and beyond.

The first bitter night was that of Wednesday to Thursday and I sailed through it. Thursday, I accepted that keeping the temperature in here above 60F wasn’t reasonable, so I added a shawl and kept working.

I had done some tests earlier in the week and found that I wouldn’t be able to get internet at Laura’s unless I put a pole on the roof, and even then there was no guarantee. Since this cold was supposed to last only a few days, it made more sense to stand my ground at home.

I slept soundly through the night of Thursday to Friday and awoke to find my loft curtains very stiff. It was bitterly cold in the rig, 40F. The furnace was blowing cold air. I went outside to switch tanks and noticed that my 30lber felt way too heavy to be empty. Hmm.

Once I managed to get the furnace going again with another tank, I considered abandoning ship. I knew that it would likely take all day to get the temperature back up again. My biggest fear about the deep freeze had just happened, the temperature inside had plummeted and I had to bring it back up. But 40F or not, I had internet work to do, so I added a couple of layers and got to to work, frustrated that I needed to go to town for propane when I hadn’t planned that in my schedule.

Around 10:00, I went over to M&B’s for coffee, a warm up, dog cuddles, and to borrow another 20lb tank.

I was all the way to town limits when I realised that I didn’t have my wallet! I had just put it in my coat pocket instead of taking my purse, something I’m normally smarter about. I had to drive all the way back home, retrace my steps to the garage, and then drive all the way back to town. So I lost another hour.

Unfortunately, M&B’s tank was expired and therefore got confiscated. I then discovered that I had a full 17lbs between my two seemingly empty tanks. I got a comment recently about propane freezing up in cold temps and I replied that I had never experienced temps cold enough to do that. Well, I apparently have!

Going to town for 27lbs of propane felt like a waste, but the propane guy said something that made the trip worthwhile: “Do you have an indoor place where you can store your not in use tanks?” Doh! I decided to keep my not in use tanks in the garage.

I got home mid-afternoon and the rig was at about 50F, having only gained 10 degrees. I was finally able to bolt down some food and then I had a nearly two hour long Skype meeting with a client about work for the weekend. And then, I had four hours of transcription to do by 9PM and I really wanted to get to Laura’s for cards before 8PM. So I typed for almost four hours straight, which was probably a record for me.

Just as I was heading out to Laura’s, I noticed that the air the furnace was blowing was getting colder. I switched off the furnace and exchanged the propane tank, which was still heavy, with one from the garage. For good measure, I put some blankets on the ground and then around the tank.

Card night was fun and Laura made sure I had carbs to burn to keep me warm through the night in the form of bread pudding and ice cream. I do believe this was the first time I ever had ice cream at 40 below. 🙂

I got in around 11:30 and the rig was at a toasty 60F. I went to bed with my iPad and watched a movie. At 1:30 I shut everything down, but as I was drifting off to sleep, I realised that something didn’t feel right. I got up and discovered that the furnace was blowing cold air. I bundled up, went outside, switched tanks, came back in, turned on the furnace, and made sure it was blowing warm air before going back to sleep.

At around 6:45, I woke up and again something didn’t feel right. I groggily got out of bed and sure enough, the furnace was blowing cold air. It was 52F in the rig, so it hadn’t been doing that long. I switched tanks and restarted the furnace a couple of times until I thought I was getting warm air.

I woke up again at 8:00 and it was evident that the temperature had dropped. I actually can’t remember if I switched tanks again or just cycled the furnace off and back on again. Whatever I did, I got hot air immediately and went back to bed till 10:45.

I got up to a rig at a pleasant 60F and decided to try to get to 63F. It’s been 45 minutes and I’m at 61F but… the furnace is blowing cold air again.

This is a furnace issue because I tried the stove at 6:45 this morning and I had no trouble getting all three burners going even though the furnace refused to blow hot air. So I don’t even know if it’s worth the trouble of switching tanks or if I should just turn the furnace off and on again.

Last night was supposed to be the last bad night, but it looks like we’ve got one more and then temps are going to climb steadily.

The situation has been challenging and I’m tired this morning, but last night was akin to stoking a wood stove all through a bitter night. If I had stayed at Laura’s, I would have come in this morning to a rig sitting at temperatures I wouldn’t be able to recover from easily in order to do today’s work.

What I find amazing is that I was fine to about -30, finding that temperature no more challenging than minus -20, which wasn’t that much worse than -10. I’ve always considered the magic number to be -10 and then after that it should be abandon ship time, but I’m revising that to -30 if I’m sheltered from the wind and plugged into shore power.

Well, I have hot air again, so it looks like cycling the furnace is all I need to do.

If I had traveled south this winter, I would still be in an area right now with unseasonably frosty temperatures, but without the ability to skirt myself in and where I’d have to pay big bucks to plug in, plus I wouldn’t have community support. I think I’m in the right place.

Beautiful frost pattern on the picture window.

Beautiful frost pattern on the picture window.

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Relearning to Live in Cold and Snow

Winter has officially landed in Southern Saskatchewan! With windchill, we’re going to be in the -30sC/-20sF for the foreseeable future.

The weather turned really, really fast, in a matter of hours late Sunday night. I’ve been struggling to adjust to living in cold weather instead of just hibernating. I did that during cold spells during past winters, but I can’t do that for the full winter stretch!

How quickly the human mind forgets unpleasant things. It was not so long ago that I thought nothing of getting up in the dark on a frigid -40 morning, piling on the layers, coaxing my car to start, manoeuvring it down my icy laneway, driving 50KM to the city, parking, then picking my way carefully down icy streets on foot for half an hour to get to work. I had had a similar routine my entire life. This was the world I lived in and I did not know any better.

But the last few winters have really spoiled me and I’m struggling to readjust to the cold season being real work.

Being on my last propane tank, I made arrangements to have less work today so I could go get the 30lber and one 20lber filled, as well as pick up some badly needed groceries. Laura warned me that the road out to the highway would be slick.

When I woke up this morning and saw how nasty it was outside, the last thing I wanted to do was get dressed, navigate bad roads, and spend the morning running errands. But it had to be done.

I piled on the layers, starting with long johns, over which I put leggings, planning to wear my corduroy skirt. But it’s quite voluminous and I didn’t feel like having to deal with all the folds of material while wrestling with heavy propane tanks. I normally wear a skirt with a slimmer profile when running errands and doing physical work.

So pants. Since I had on the thermal underwear, jeans were an option and, since I’m continuing to melt, my smallest pair was about two sizes too big and fit nicely over both the long johns and the leggings. Add warm socks and the bottom half was cozy but presentable. I just put on two layers of polar fleece over my thermal undershirt.

I had a choice of coats, but settled for the short leather one L got me this summer. I have a nice long dress coat that is super warm, but it wouldn’t have been practical for hauling anything and my good leather coat that I normally wear in this kind of weather is about six sizes too big now. The short leather jacket is just big enough to wear a few layers under. I’m so glad L insisted on getting it for as it’s getting a ton of wear!

I added my winter boots, a scarf, a tuque, pulled up my fleece hood, and slipped into gloves then mitts. Whew!

I wound up being perfectly dressed for the conditions and activities planned for the morning and managed to look a heck of a lot more stylish than I normally do under the circumstances. 🙂

The road out was fine, although I had to take it very slowly, and the highway was okay. Downtown Assiniboia was a disaster, very slick and snowy, and I wasn’t the only one spinning out at intersections.

The propane lady was very cheerful about having to fill my tanks in the frigid conditions. While she did so, I enjoyed a cup of coffee. She told the cashier that I needed to pay for 52lbs worth, which made absolutely no sense as the maximum capacity between the two of them was 50lbs! The correct amount was 45lbs, which made a lot more sense!

I then stopped at The Bargain Shop! looking for what I call glittens, convertible fingerless gloves with mitts attached to them, but had no luck. I can’t these aren’t available locally and that I don’t have a pair in my winter bin.

Groceries were next and I went $30 over budget to get almost nothing on my list. I really hate that grocery store. 🙁

The drive home was fine until I tried to turn into the garage. There is more snow back here than I realised and I GOT STUCK. I mean, really, really, really, really, really, had to shovel loads and loads and loads and loads and just about had to go get some of my gravel stuck.

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Moya has winter tires, by the way, and they’re in good shape. I just forgot how little snow it takes to entrap a vehicle, especially if it’s covering ice.

Since I plan to go out so rarely, I need to make a point of keeping that back area shoveled and graveled otherwise my truck is going to be trapped in the garage all winter!

So that was my morning in Winterland. I’m glad to be back in my cozy home! I’m going through propane like crazy in these conditions (6 to 10lbs per day), so it would make financial sense to move to Laura’s, but getting internet there would be complicated and, frankly, I’d rather be home. I’m comfortable and productive, so I’d rather just stay here and buy the propane.

I’m trying to get into work mode, but having worked so hard for such a long stretch, I’m really struggling today. Even if I do nothing today, I’ll have a manageable amount for tomorrow, so I may just take the day to read. I had a surprise in the mail today, a package from my best friend from high school who lives in Toronto. It contained a tiny little book called The Quotable Traveler: Wise words for travelers, explorers, and wanderers. Curling up with a book and the electric blanket sounds very appealing. 🙂

“… travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” Miriam Beard

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Not As Much of a Cardboard Box As I Thought

Folks who ask me about living in my rig in cold weather have likely heard me say that at a certain point, it’s like trying to survive an ice age in a cardboard box. Well, it’s really not that bad when you have electric heat, plenty of propane, and are reasonably sheltered from the wind. It’s been really cold the last few days (dipping to -30C/-22F at night with ‘highs’ in the -20sC/-4C during the day) and I’ve been perfectly comfortable. And then last night, just before bed, the big OOPS happened.

I had put water on for my before bed cup of tea and thought that it was taking forever to boil. I went to the kitchen and noticed that the stove wasn’t even on. I was out of propane. You can just imagine the curse word that I blurted out. I was completely shocked since I have gotten really good at gauging how much propane I have left by how heavy my tanks are. But I had neglected to take into account one variable, the fact that I had a new tank in the rotation.

Earlier this week, Charles sent me home with one of his 20lbers that he thought was mostly full. As it turns out, this older tank weighs about twice as much empty as my 30lber feels empty! I thought that I had at least two days’ worth of propane at my current consumption rate and really only had about 24 hours’ worth.

It was almost 10:00 p.m., so much too late to go to town for some and definitely too late to go knock on neighbours’ doors unless it was a real emergency. I didn’t deem my situation to be that bad. I had the electric blanket and the electric heaters. It would be a nasty cold morning, but the night would be fine.

I turned off everything in the office to reduce my amperage draw sufficiently to be able to run both electric heaters on medium all night. I then pre-heated the bed and my pajamas, knowing from my winter camping experience that if I went to bed feeling warm, I would stay warm all night. I’ve made the mistake of going to bed feeling chilled and even having the electric blanket running all night wasn’t enough to make me comfortable. It was 17C/63F in the rig when I went to bed at 10:30.

The furnace always wakes me up when it cycles on, so with the chilly nights we’ve been having I’ve had to run it at night. I therefore haven’t been sleeping well. So imagine my shock when I cracked open an eyelid this morning and it was just shy of 7:00 a.m.! What a great night of sleep!

Part of my business in town involved going to the bank, which doesn’t open till 9:30, so there was no sense getting up. I just stayed in my warm cocoon and drifted back off to sleep.

When I decided to get up around 8:30 and pulled back the blankets, it didn’t feel nearly as bad in the rig as I had expected. I still had to pull on an extra sweater and was grateful that I had left the door to the toilet room open. The temperature was 8C/46F, not great, but much better than expected. If it didn’t require so much propane to go up from those temps to comfortable ones, I would leave my furnace off all night as I would sleep much better.

By the time I got the truck out of the garage, the propane tanks loaded, and had carefully driven out to the highway, it was just past 9:00 and I made it to the bank at exactly 9:30.

Next stop was propane, which I knew would take a while as I was getting 70lbs worth and there’s usually only one or two guys to fill propane and pump gas. So I went into the gas station and treated myself to a coffee. Such as small thing, but having my coffee made for me first thing is a joy!

I then picked up a few groceries and headed home. I got the furnace started before putting away the truck and food. It was actually colder when I got in than when I had left, 5.5C/42F so I have a long way to go to get to comfy temps, but the temperature is rising steadily. With the warm air blowing, it feels way warmer in here than it is, so I can get some work done.

The moral of the story is, get propane as soon as I switch to the last tank! I estimate I’ll need to go to town once a week if these temps continue.

I also need to figure out if it’s going to be worth paying my estimated $400 to $450 monthly cost for propane and electric heat to stay home or if I should move in with Laura. Since I have been very comfortable, productive, and am sleeping well, so far the answer is yes. I’ll revisit that question in a month or so.

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Making Life Without Running Water a Little Easier

This is not yet another post about conserving water while RVing. It’s about those times that, for whatever reason, you are unable to fill your RV fresh water tank but still have a plentiful source of water nearby to haul home in jugs.

I will have spent a sizable chunk of 2013 in this position and finally have a system that almost makes me not miss being able use my holding tank. It helps, of course, that I can have a hot shower any time I want, something I was sorely missing on the beach last winter, as well as access to free laundry. But that still leaves having water handy for dish and hand washing as well as freshening up.

When it’s warm out, like it was on the beach last winter and on my property during the first part of the summer, I don’t miss not having hot water at the ready. I’m fine with washing my hands or freshening up with cool water. I heat up a kettle of water at the end of the day for doing the dishes, but that’s the limit of my need for hot water.

But when it’s cold out and you only keep your rig at about 60F, washing your face with cold water in the morning really sucks! Heck, even washing your hands with cold water after using the bathroom is less than pleasant. It’s also nice to have hot water on hand for making hot beverages during the day.

After spending so many months hauling water, I’ve got my method down pat.

I start with hauling water home in this Reliance 5-gallon water container:

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On the beach, I used a similar containers by Reliance in a flexible material, but both developed leaks (after three years of great service) so I replaced them with what I could find locally.

This is exactly as much water weight as I can carry a few staggering steps, like from my truck or Laura’s wagon to the rig*. What I like about it is that it has a tap, so it’s just like having cold running water. I have it set on the table by the entry so it’s out of my way yet accessible. When Neelix needed his perch 🙁 I would sit my water container on the stool by the counter. This is a much more desirable location.

(*It’s about 100 feet from Laura’s back porch to my rig so the only way I can get the water home without breaking my back is by putting it in her little heavy-duty wagon!)

I also have a typical water container used with water refrigeration systems that I can have filled at the grocery store:

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Laura loaned me a pump for this container, but I haven’t try it yet. If it doesn’t work well, I’ll transfer from this container to the other one.

Hauling water from Laura’s is really luxurious because her water is potable and I don’t have to filter it for drinking. It’s a treat to be able to open a tap and have drinkable water!

Next up, hot water. It didn’t take me long to figure out that I needed a large capacity Thermos-type unit, preferably with a pump so that I wouldn’t have to worry about lifting and pouring from a heavy container with dirty hands.

I happened to find this vintage double-Thermos unit on eBay for a great price and it matches my kitchen perfectly!

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If I’m going to have something like this sit on my counter all winter, I’d much rather it be aesthetically pleasing! As you can see, I can pump water directly into the sink. Each side holds exactly one kettle’s worth of hot water. And they don’t make ’em like they used to! I have added hot water in the morning to find it still scalding in the afternoon for doing dishes. It was then still nice and hot for a before bed wash and was still pleasantly warm in the morning for the morning wash! Pretty impressive!

Now, what’s that in the sink?

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I do my laundry at Laura’s, but I find that dish cloths and the like pile up very quickly. So I make it a point to wash what I used of those that day in the sink, using a kettle of hot water to soak them first in a little bleach and soap.

For the bathroom, I get water from the kitchen in a large bowl and I refresh it as needed during the day.

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If my hands are particularly dirty, I wash them in the kitchen using my hot running water! 🙂

Finally, I spray all my used dishes with a little soapy water from a spray bottle:

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Since I do them when they’re fresh, no soaking is necessary. I wipe everything clean, then rinse with the hot water from the Thermos. Having the hot water at the ready guarantees that I wash everything right away instead of waiting because it’s not worth heating water just to wash a bowl and spoon and ending up with a huge pile that needs loads of water to wash.

So that’s how I’ve been getting by without running water this fall. Hauling heavy jugs is a pain, but between that and the propane, I’m getting good exercise!