Ice Castle Heating Question

[BryeGuy]

A dryer tube, computer fans and a Mr Heater? If it was only that simple.

I dont think "moving air" is his issue. That furnace should be plenty big not to have heating issues. However, I am not an HVAC guy. IC should honor the stuff they put in and not be charging a nickel for T&M. Or should they give you the run around.

[Fishalittle]

Lets not turn this into a bashing thread. If you have some helpful ideas great. Otherwise don't bother to post!

They aren't saying too bad, your on your own. They just haven't come up with the cause of the problem yet.

[brian6715]

I don't see this as a bashing thread, just a lot of honest people with real world problems with their IC fish houses. If IC is worrying about being bashed, they would put out a more quality product, or at least fix these issues promptly free of charge.

I to feel bad for owners of these fish houses.

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

Never looked at the manual.

Turned tank on and started heater.

I don't follow the logic of turning the heater on letting it run and then opening the valve. It tries to ignite shortly after it is on and will stop trying after several attempts if there is no gas. Learned this when your tank runs out. If you wait the 5 min. heater will have gone into the stop trying to ignite mode won't it?

My old house had way less windows, and was smaller. Still had a 16000 btu suburban. I am starting to think this 20000 just might be too small?

Anyone know what lodge or the Ice cabins have for a heater?

I'm pretty sure that if your furnace doesn't ignite after either 1 or 2 minutes it will shut down. Waiting 5 mins would mean it will shut down a couple times, so I don't see that it will accomplish anything.

Again, 20,000 is more than enough for your house. I have a friend with a 20' with the toyhauler door and 6 windows, and his 19,000 btu Atwood will make it as warm as you want. I have a 25,000 btu Suburban in my house with 40 sq ft of windows, and I will be up to temp easily in 15-20 mins, regardless of outside temp.

Barely being able to break 60 degrees is a trend here and on another forum for quite a few guys. You paid a premium for your house and warranty. My suggestion is to hold Ice Castle and/or Suburban accountable. There IS a problem, and it isn't with the size of the furnace.

[forcedtowork]

I have been following this thread, I built my own 6.5' x 14', and it is spray foamed, I have a NT20SE furnace, and my house heats up very quickly, Ice Castle needs to address the issue and fix it, in addition if I paid that kind of money for a house and I had to swap regulators or had issues right off the bat and stick more money into it, I would be a little torqued to say the least, espcially right now when you want to put it on the ice and you can't because the heater doesn't function properly.

[Chad Holst]

thats all im trying to say! thank you little ripper.

My point was not to suggest that people start setting up drier tube vent systems ran on a computer fan, my point was that if a sunflower and a little bit of air movement can get an uninsulated, air leaking shell, in 2 degree weather, house warm then there is an issue if it takes an hour or more to heat a reletively small space. And that some people seem to think that is exceptable.

I also understand that turning on more heat sources like a stove top will obviously create more heat, and therefor heat the house faster, but honestly, for the price we pay for these things, should we have to do that? I could see if a guy had a house that took 20 minutes to heat up and wanted to use the stove to make it heat up in 10, but to be forced to do this if you want a warm shack for your kids in 1 hour? i dont think that should be expected.

I dont know if its the name on the house, as much as the name on the heater and how they are vented. IC doesnt make these heaters, they buy them. yetti owners are also saying they take a long time (IMO) to heat up. If the house manufacturer knows they dont work and then still uses them, then i could see throwing them under the bus, but i dont know if thats the case here.

Something i would question is why a company would offer a heater upgrade for a charge, as this is a basic item and need in a house. It either heats the house or doesnt. if 20k BTU does it, then why ofer a 30K btu for the same size house? Good customer service would be to tell them NO, its not needed and fix the 20k BTU they have. If there could be a need for the 30k BTU heater, then why isnt THAT heater standard? What else are you looking for in a fish house other than a WARM place to fish, a WARM place to eat, a WARM place to sleep.... I would think making sure the house is warm, fast, would be the number 1 goal.

[outkast7222]

People comparing how a blue flame heater, sun flower heater or any thing other than a forced air furnace heats these houses need to understand that the efficiency is way different. A wall heater puts nearly 100% of its energy into heating the house. A suburban furnace does not, it simply will take longer to heat. There is obviously a problem with some of these furnaces but an hour to get up to temp in sub zero temps is normal. If you want heat faster use the burners on the stove (99.8% efficiency) or change it out for a larger furnace or a wall style heater.

[brian6715]

I'm building a Yetti this spring, which heater should I avoid? The Atwood or Suburban?

I hope you guys get these issues taken care of, FREE of charge. What a joke that you pay $12,000+ for a new house and it won't heat to over 60 degrees. That would make me upset, but Ice Castle not fixing it would make me livid.

[Hawg]

Brian, both are top of the line reputable companies. In the right situation they will do everything you want. Don't look past direct vent wall mount though either.

[boXCar JiggY]

Again in my case I had mine in my back yard wen it was forty degrees out, wouldn heat. IC had no problem replacing the furnace under warrenty an putting in a new 20000 free of charge but i had to get it there an pik it up, fine, they have paper work for the buyer on this an buyers are well aware. The otyher option was to put in a 30000 upgrade for a hundy only because the 20000 is standard an i agreee with Lip its plenty. So if I gota bring it down there anyways what the heck, whats a hundy on the price already for mental comfert as long as this one isnt bad. Just as anythign else one buys "this is standard an under warrenty if you want bigger an better than what we offer in the the standard modle then it costs this much to upgrade. thers no doubt Im upset but Ibelieve their doing what they can to rectify the problem for me as advertised. Ive been in perm houses for a very long time an every one takes time to heat up from frozen temps theres just know way around it. The houses ive had have had open flame ventless heaters at 30000 btus an those even take a good hour to fully heat up, the air temp might say 70 but the articles like cusions an such stay cold alot longer. the best way an quickest way to heat up perm houses is to do the fore mentioned even with forces air furnace, push air down an supplement with a sunflower an stove burners. I never expected to be in socks in a half hour but I expected it to get over 65.

[wishinferfishin]

Id be happy if it was only an hour. Tried mine again today -6 deg outside, ran for 3.5 hrs steady 51.6 degrees inside. there is a definite problem But is it a defective heater, did Ice Castle undersize the Heater for the house, or are they under insulated. Either way it was engineered and sold by Ice Castle, and I bought this house from them because they are the experts. Like I said before We ice fish in the cold and there wasn't anything said about not using it when it's cold out because the heater wont keep up. I'm sure they will take care of this problem, Just wonder how long it will take to sort out. I don't think ill run my stove burners to keep warm after spending that kind of money. I'll be on the phone with them tomorrow again

[boXCar JiggY]

thes no doubt u have a furnace issue, running stove tops an sunflowers arnt ment to help heat there ment to help jump start the heating process in the beginning.

[FishFindHer]

I tasked to ice castle yesterday. Explained the problem and answered his troubleshooting questions. He said he was "stumped", but that no, this wasn't acceptable. Basically offered me a new furnace but I told him I wasn't interested in driving all the way to Montevideo. So I'm taking it to a nearby RV place certified to work on suburban furnaces this weekend. He said if we can't figure it out there to call them back. He's also going to reimburse us the full cost of the new regulator we put in (we upgraded to the auto switchover kind.). I guess I'm pretty satisfied with the customer service thus far....but yeah, sucks to pay that much money for somethg and not have it work right.

I will report back & let you guys know how it goes. I'm really hoping we'll be able to actually go fishing this year, lol.

[boXCar JiggY]

Yeah they would benefit from training their dealers in service repair an having on the road service vehicles. I dont like the idea of running 4.5 hours to montivideo would rather take it to the dealer I bought it form. it is what it is. good call on taking to a certified suburban tech.

[outkast7222]

Yeah they would benefit from training their dealers in service repair an having on the road service vehicles. I dont like the idea of running 4.5 hours to montivideo would rather take it to the dealer I bought it form. it is what it is. good call on taking to a certified suburban tech.

Basically every thing that one could have serviced could be done at any rv dealership. Most of which is covered by warranty longer than Ice Castle covers anyhow.

[aczr2k]

Let's not bring Yetti into this... they DO NOT MAKE finished houses, all the Yetti's you see finished are done by someone else.

[dirt292lv]

I have a 26' leech lake heats up good but seems like it eats up the propane fast I used it three days for rifle and left the heat on lowest setting last night around 8pm when i looked in the morning it was out i went thought 30lbs in roughly 4 days seems like a lot I did have the walls, floor, and also the ceiling spray foam because i wanted it to heat good I have a 40k suburban heater takes about an hour to reach around 70. I also think Ice castle could do a little better job but right now they pretty much own the market, give it a couple years they will have no choice to up the game other large camper company's will join the demands.

[Hawg]

4 days on a 30# tank in a 26ft house sounds about right to me.?

[FishFindHer]

Boxcar: If I remember right, I think you said in the other thread that you were getting your house back soon? Hopefully your new furnace will work like it should! I'm curious if it's a problem with the actual furnace or something else...propane delivery, weak fan...?? Of course I know next to nothing about heating systems, hoping someone smarter than I am can figure it out.

Interesting conversation about the quick connect vs. the old style fittings. My husband is going to mention that to the RV repair guy (he's taking it up there today) to see if that might be something? Would be nice if it was something simple like that, but Murphy's law usually prevails, ha. I guess we'll see what this guy says and go from there.

[POPS57]

I have a new 17ft. r.v. i.c. also. I will be checking out the heater also. One thing that doesn't make sense to me is the new hose connections. If you can run the furnace and the cooktops at the same time then then you are getting plenty of gas for just the furnace.

[Fishalittle]

You would think so....but I also noticed if the hose is tweaked a little bit it was leaking last night during some more attempts to test for a problem. So rather than leak propane from a convenient fitting. I will go back to the old school and use a wrench! I am also gonna try a new regulator.

Fish- If you get done at the repair shop and have good results please share!

[FishFindHer]

Will do...will share either way. Hubby just dropped it off a couple hours ago, so I'll post back when we hear back. Hoping he can get to it by early next week.

[FishFindHer]

Update: Apparently the RV guy got a chance to look at it today. Said there's nothing wrong with the furnace, in his opinion it's too small/underpowered for that house. Ice castle will send a new furnace, but wants us to pay the $100 upgrade fee for the 30K btu, plus shipping & labor for the RV guy, so $320 total. RV guy said he is also going to add a 3rd vent.

I definitely have issues with having to pay for an "upgrade" when the standard furnace isn't doing its job, even according to ice castle. I will be writing them an email shortly (want to have it documented in writing...next step is me going into biotch mode on the phone...they don't want that...trust me!)

The one bright spot: we would get our rig back by early next week.

I'll keep you all posted...

[chevota78]

We just bought a 2007 6.5x15 with the v front ice castle. It has an empire 15,000 btu direct vent heater, no fan on it. Ran it for 4 hrs and got it up to 60. New regulator, different tank, by passed the thermostat. Didn't make a bit of difference. Even cleaned the parts inside the chamber. Obviously they had problems with older heaters also. The house is in mint condition so im sure it wasn't used a whole lot.

[POPS57]

OK turned the heat on for the house in the pole shed. Temp. was 14* of course no wind and house was in the up position. Let it heat for an hour and the temp. was 56*. Heat coming out of the vents seemed around 100*. One thing that I noticed was the cold coming off of all the counters etc. You not only have to heat the air but also all the stuff that's been cold for weeks. I quit the test. Had to do some running around. So I really don't have a good answer to my question yet. I will take it outside and let it down and test again. If I am having the same trouble as others its time for all of us to go into the biotch mode. FishFindHer maybe its time to let i.c. know people are talking. Right now with this up in the air I would not recommend i.c. products. A lot of people have been watching this post. When your in that mode I would tell them after buying a pricey icehouse to use in the Minn. winter. The last thing in the budget is to redo the hole heating system.