What temperature should your ice castle heat to?

[boXCar JiggY]

been playing an getting to know the new ice castle, had to replace a regulater that seemed to get tings normal with gas pressure. Now as i run it, it just dosent seem to get as warm as I figured. Its sitting in my yard an the thermostat says about 68-69 an its maxed out. figured itd be closer to 75 just sitting in my yard. anyone have issues like this. thinking about swapping out thermostats for a better quality one than the chepo suburban brand it came with.

[RiverChuckNorris]

Switch out the thermo for sure. We thought we had heater issues until we tried switching out the thermo and presto! I bought a simple stupid one that you move the circular knob, works great. As far as temp goes, you should be able to set it to 70 in 20-30 below and it'll heat up and turn off after a bit. I take mine to Ely every mid-Jan and have had it in those temps, no problem.

[Redlineracer12]

Depends on the outside air temp, furnace BTUs, house size, and amount of insulation. You should be able to do better than 70 degrees this time of year or it's not going to cut it when it's below zero outside.

The thermostat on most of these is not very complicated. It's either telling the furnace to come on or go off depending if it reaches the temp you have it set at. If you suspect it's giving you problems you can just connect the two wires together and the furnace should run nonstop.

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

At these temps, you should easily be able to heat it to 90 degrees, or something is wrong. Could be a thermostat, or it could be that the furnace is undersized, or just not functioning properly.

I would do as mentioned above...pull the thermostat off the wall, connect the two wires, and let it run for awhile. If it gets warmer than with the thermostat, you know that is the issue. If not, then you can pinpoint it to the furnace, or possibly the propane delivery (bad regulator?).

[boXCar JiggY]

thanks guys, I already had the regulater swaped out an that fisxed one issue, Im gonna do that an see what happens. thanks

[huckfin]

I had the same issue with my IC, Removed factory thermostat cover, then the temp select slide had another 3/8", cut out a little plastic on cover and was good to go.

[Red_Eye]

Likely a the thermostat but if that doesn't solve the issue here is another idea. If the furnace is running almost continous, especially at these mild temperature, it could be its not getting enough air across the heat exchanger. There is an internal temperature switch that will cycle the gas on and off if it exceeds a certain temperature. Obviously furnace puts out hot then cold air. Some of these furnaces installed inside fairly tight cabinets there was not enough room air going across the heat exchangers. Open a cabinet door to let more air circulate thru. Good luck.

[boXCar JiggY]

right now its been running since 6, i diconected the thermostat an hooked both wires togehter so its been continously running for an hour. gonna give it till nine oclock, by then it should be t shirt an shorts temperature in there. see what happens. thanks guys.

[Larry3760]

If its running all the time chances are the furnace is to small, most ice castles have 16k-20k btu furnaces which work on something smaller than a 6.5 x 16 but rarely anything bigger when it gets cold out, replaced my buddies ice castle furnace with a 30k btu he bought from ice assault for a few hundred and it not only warmed it up much faster and hotter but he said he uses way less lp now because it runs half or less as much as his old one, how big is your house?

[wishing for walleyes]

Is there any adjustment on the regulator? You may be able to increase the amount of gas flow.

[boXCar JiggY]

Its a 20ft V. an a 20000 btu heater, chad at ice castle said all castles come standard with 20000. I can upgrade to 30000 for an hundy bucks pluse labor, an i have to get it down to montivideo an back myself, 6 hours one way. Pluse thers no garuntee I have it anytime soon or even when bigs rigs can safely venture out. the regulater has a adjustment but they are suppose to come preset, suppose to. My salesman aint in the office till next week in park rapids. I have a freind whos 20000 heats his 20ft V no prob, had t shirts on all winter unless it got down to 20 below with wind. driving me crazy for sure.

[RiverChuckNorris]

I have an 8x16. Is the air coming out hot after a few minutes or just kind of warm? If it isn't coming out hot, then I'd guess regulator. If it's coming out hot, then we might have a heck of a rabbit hole.

Either way, assuming you're not a handy fix-anything kind of guy (I am not), may I suggest seeking out the services of either a good electrician or a nearby camper sales/service place, having them fix it and send the bill for refund to ice castle or the dealer you bought it through?

Definitely not worth 12 hrs of driving, gas, etc

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

My cousin has a 20' Ice Castle, with a 19,000btu Atwood. It heats it up to whatever temp you want it.

My 20' house has a 25,000btu Suburban, also no issues heating it to whatever temp.

I'm guessing there is a problem with the furnace or regulator. That furnace should easily get it to 90 degrees. I had an issue with mine and took it to Brambilla's in Shakopee for warranty work. In and out in a few days, and it didn't cost me a penny. I was happy with that

[alleyesonme]

after reading this post yesterday i thought i would give my 20k btu suburban a run in the new 8 x 16 ic gambler last night for a few hours to test it out. outside temp was 25 degrees, set the thermostat to 70 degrees. took 15-20 min to get to 70 then came on and off a few times an hour to keep it at 70. i also changed out to a automatic change over dual regulator after i bought it. going to be nice to turn a knob to switch over tanks on url when it is -10 outside.

[Hoey]

To me you have two separate devices here.

1. Your heater, regardless of size, it is going to provide an inside temp rise of x degrees above the outdoor ambient temp. If the heater is continuously running, at some point it will get no hotter inside. for example it is -20F outside, with a temp rise of 90f, it should get to 70F running continuously, and likewise 40F outside will give you 130F inside. That is based upon BTu and heat loss of the house shell, including heat loss due to wind.

2. Your thermostat controls at what temp you want to achieve or run heat until it gets x hot, shut off, restart again at y.

You were talking about thermostat saying about 68 to 69, you were most likely describing the thermometer. At the 68/69 point was your heater running constantly or was it cycling on and off?

If it was running constantly and not getting any warmer, then it may be a heater related problem, such as a restriction in the fuel supply like a plugged orifice or a regulator issue or something plugging the burner. Who knows, the heater may be too small, but I doubt it.

If it was cycling on and off, then it is probably a thermostat issue. If it has the coiled metal spring, this spring may be rusted/corroded together and it is not letting it coil up or coil out far enough or you have some other issue with the thermostat as mention earlier.

How did the wire to wire test go? Also just about any RV service place should be able to help troubleshoot the problem and solve it. Messing with gas should be left to trained techs.

[boXCar JiggY]

I really appreciate all the intell. thnak you! what this has come down to is, after wireing direct it got now warmer than 68 degrees according to the "ahhhh yes the thermomerter" I even tried puting on a different tank thinking it wasnt purged properly, nuthing. The heat that comes out of the vents is warm not really hot. I donte expect not to put my hand over it but its on the side of warm more than hot. The exhaust gets hot on the out side when checking with my hand an wishing I had that heat inside coming out of the vents. The thermo has that coiled spring, but seems ok. What ice castle is willing to do is this. I bring it to my dealer in park rapids aout 2 hours away, ice castle eats the shipping of it to montivideo. Ice castle will upgrade the existing furnace to a 30000 btu unit for a charge of 100 bucks plus labor estimated total cost of 200 bucks. I have to eat the gas to go get it. estimated turn over time is mid to late december.

Now to me its a furnace issue, there should be now problem I agreee with a 20000 btu furnace heat this thing, thousands hit the ice every winter with out issue. so warenty will put a new 20000 free but for 200 bucks im getting the 30000. coming off the street Id pay 600-700 bucks for the upgrade. also gona have them check fuel lines for obstruction an kinks of any kind. I just have to go get it.

I could have them just put a 20000 back in on warrenty an probabley still wish i spent the money for the 30000, but their also paying for some serious gas usage by leting me shave off 8 hours of drive time. i feel i can live with this.

[boXCar JiggY]

sorry should preview befor posting, First sentence should read "no warmer than 68 degrees"

[Sea Hage]

maybe you could get them to send you a new furnace and you can have a local HVAC guy do the install and you cover that cost ? You would get done and be able to test it out before it's time to fish. I feel for ya, New rig and it don't work !! That sucks.. Good Luck JiggY

[boXCar JiggY]

yeah thoguth of that but it would void any warrenty with ice castle.

[Sea Hage]

What make of furnace do you have ? Chances are if you contact them they will have a dealer in your area, just go around Ice Castle

[boXCar JiggY]

its a suburban, but my castle is already on the way to montivideo. thnaks for the idea tho.

[outkast7222]

What make of furnace do you have ? Chances are if you contact them they will have a dealer in your area, just go around Ice Castle

That's what I did when my Suburban furnace was making noise. The north metro has a ton of warranty places. Camping World in Rogers being one of them. Also Castle doesn't advertise it but if you call Outlet Recreation in Clearwater they do warranty work for them.