Suburban Furnace/propane connection advice

[JoeR67]

I have an Ice Castle fish house with a Suburban forced air furnace.

Last Sunday morning when it was -10° we had an issue with our furnace. The blower was working but no hot air was coming out, just cold air.

We would turn it off, unhook the propane, reconnect, start the furnace and it would work for 1 cycle with hot air. The next cycles would be all cold air.

I took it home and tried it in my driveway and it worked perfectly for over an hour until I turned it off.

I called Suburban and they suggested I check the gas pressure - obviously would have to have someone else do that for me.

The RV store suggested otherwise. They said that having 1 20lb. propane tank connected is not big enough, especially when it gets that cold. They suggested switching to a 2 tank connection so both tanks run at the same time.

Has anyone had a similar problem?

How is your gas hooked up to your forced air furnace?

[limited out]

We have same heater and exact same thing happened during the ice storm before new years. The issue was the gas pressure and was due to the regulator vent being completely iced over that night resticting air flow. Next morning we poured boiling water over it and wrapped in cloth and it worked fine after that. Note: always position your vent on your regulator down when connecting to propane tank. We have ours hooked up to 100 lb but it has worked with 20lb has well.

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

I had a similar issue at -21 a few weeks back. I had 2 full 20s when I started the weekend. On Sunday night I assume the first 20 ran out, and the regulator auto changed to the 2nd tank. We ran out of heat at 4am, and it was -21. I thought we totally ran out of propane, didn't even think to check the connections or regulator. Had to pack up in a hurry and get off the lake :-)

When I got home, I pulled the tanks off, and was shocked that the 2nd tank was still completely full. I took the hose off the tank, and there was a bunch of ice/snow in the orifice where it makes the connection to the tank. I'm not sure if it fell in the snow, or if something froze up. In any case, I cleaned that out, and it worked fine.

2 lessons were learned:

1) Make sure the orifice is clear when you connect the tank.

2) Shut off the 2nd propane tank, even if you have an auto changeover, so that you know when the 1st tank runs out.

[JoeR67]

So what size propane tanks is everyone using and do you have more than 1 hooked up at a time?

I have to imagine guys are fishing in colder temps than -10° without a problem...

[boxcar46]

I have a suburban 16,000 btu and I run 2 - 20 lb tanks. Mine does not change over by it self. I half to change it over myself when one tank gets empty. Never had the problem with pressure like you did.

[jerkbait]

Lip Ripper, with my auto changer over regulator. If I don't have both tanks open it wil not work. Seems that it needs the pressure on both sides to wpork propely.

[fowldreams]

I have the 20,000 in my Ice Castle two 30 lb tanks. The same thing happened to me on lake of the woods this past weekend. The regulator was froze. I always bring back up heater so I fired up the sunflower inside the house. Pulled the regulator off and thawed it out for a half hour and we were fine to run the rest of the weekend. Make sure regulator vents are pointed straight down or you will keep having this issue.

[JoeR67]

Upon further investigation, the single regulator that is currently on there doesn't even have a vent.

I ordered the dual stage regulator to hook up to both tanks at the same time. Hope this helps!

[mnbuckhunter]

A propane tank cover would take care of any ice or snow issues.

[3kidsfishing]

Thanks for the information-I was having issues with getting the furnance to work and your tips helped get it working!

[dougger222]

Ran a 30K BTU Suburban forced air furnace in the camper for several years and the only issue I ever had was the batteries running low causing the furnace to blow cold air. Ended up always running the generator.

To do it over again would have gone with a Empire furnace with no blower.

The heat blowing out is nice but not having to deal with batteries or a generator is even nicer.