Ice Castle Heating Question

[FishFindHer]

I have a skylight too, and bay window. Huh. Maybe they just got too cute with some of these designs without testing for function, especially at extreme temps?

Lol on people complaining about too much heat. I suppose you could find someone who would complain about having too much money if you looked hard enough

[bak2MN]

I had a 8 x18 Ice Castle. made in 2009 2010? had only a 20000 btu furnace qand never had a problem with heat.

[FishFindHer]

So my husband called the RV repair guy to see how far along they were in the install. RV guy was hoping to have it done early this week. That's not going to happen because they haven't gotten the furnace yet.

So I called IC yesterday, got the same guy I've been dealing with and asked him to confirm whether or not it had been shipped out (I was of the understanding that this was supposed to have happened last week, when the RV guy talked to IC). IC guy said he needed to check with someone and that he'd call me back. He never called back so I called them yet again today and was told it was being sent out today. Good thing I checked because who knows if/when it would have ever been shipped?

Really hoping this can be done by Friday so we can actually fish in the d@mn thing. This is turning into quite the pain in the butt.

[boXCar JiggY]

Well I fired he up today, I started her at 450 an hour later I had 60 degrees, an hour later i had 80 degrees, an hour late it was pusing 90. think I can live with that. completley on the other end of the spectrum with a 30000 btu upgrade, BUTTTT.... not to excited how jamie ran the venting, the 3rd tub came outa the furnace than up the cabinet then across the underside of the cabinet the down the outer wall of the cabiunet an out,so there is 3 elbow bends in the tubing an a noticable difference in air blow betweeen on that comes straight outa the cabiinet. I know he was trying to hide the tubing but Im gonna redirect it straight. Also I have two 110 computer fans that Im gona install to get a convection system of air going> Im Happy If your having trouble heating with a 20000 or just not happy with the output. 30000 is the way to go. Sorry to here of ur trouble FFH, keep on them till ur happy. Good luck

[jerkbait]

Is there a damper on the straight run that can be closed down to force air up the other one?

[FishFindHer]

Glad to hear the new furnace is working better for you, Boxcar, sorry you're not happy with the vent placement. RV guy said we would need a 3rd vent too, not sure where he's going to end up putting it...we just told him whatever he thinks would work best. I guess there's nothing else to do at this point but wait for it to get done and see how it goes.

[Grandee]

Couple of things that I was told to try--and I thought I would report. granted it has been 20 degrees warmer. I lowered my house to the ground, and then I slowly opened my propane tank and at the same time tapped on my gas line going into the furnace. I was told, that in the gas line by the furnace is a magnetic valve that may be sticking--sometimes happens on new units. Result both nights was after about 20 minutes I was up to 60 and at an hour 70. The heat coming out was much warmer. Might stick with the 20,000 btu for now and see how it handles out on the lake. Not sure if it has to do with the outside temp but it certainly made a difference.

[Drama King]

On my Gambler, I had to add a 3rd vent as well. You can add a 4th if you want, but I decided that I would rather have 3 with more air coming out of them, than 4. Especially because its hard to find room to vent them around the house. I ended up just putting the 3rd one next to an existing vent. Had it up to 90 degrees last night as well!

I'd recommend a mounted 12v fan that plugs into a cigarette lighter. I mounted one at the front of my house to move a bit of air around, and with the Gambler, there is a plug in by the tv mounts up front!

Just a thought. Hope you get it all figured out!

[FishFindHer]

Yeah, we have the same setup with the cigarette lighter outlet by the TV. We were thinking about it anyway in case we still opt to do the "jump start" heating method with the burners.

Just want to thank everyone for their input, suggestions, etc. Nice to have other people to bounce ideas off of when you're having frustrating issues like this.

[Bryce]

An hour to get to 60 still seems long. I hope that means you have the house up in the air.

[outkast7222]

Had mine in today, cost me $150 but at least I should have a usable house now when it's cold. For that money they put in the new furnace and added two new vents. One directly next to each existing one. House now heats from 30° to 75° in about 10 minutes. On the plus side the new furnace is a ton quieter.

Kinda wish they would have stepped up and admitted there was a problem and fixed it for free. Lesson learned, my advice to the person I know looking at new houses will be either make sure the furnace works before buying or buy a Yetti or Big Bite.

[boXCar JiggY]

well there certainly is a learning curve when buying a house, three things come to mind,

1. size of furnace.

2. insulated floor/

3. windows/skylights

to highly consider when purchasing.

[Gus]

I've been following this topic since the beginning. For me, this is my first year owning a wheel house. All my previous skid houses or portables have used mr. heaters or buddy's.

I bought an 8x20 Toy hauler Salem Ice Cabin. It's got 4 windows and the toy door. Tonight I fired up the 20,000 btu suburban to do a test run. It was ~ 15 in the house to start. It was at 65 2 hours later. Most surfaces were still heating up and were cool to the touch. I have 3 vents in mine, although one of the three hardly puts out anything. It looks like they ran some mini duct instead of a full duct. I've got to dig into that later.

Here are my thoughts. It's a vast difference in heating from my skid houses, but it's also a MUCH bigger house and not as well insulated with the toy hauler door and 4 windows. It's also a different kind of heat. Forced air compared to infrared or radiant (I can't recall which term is proper for the mr heaters).

It took longer to heat up than I would have guessed. I spent the night in it once so far, and when everything is heated up the furnace only runs once every 10-15 minutes.

Right now, I'm not too concerned. I'll have to get a good season under my belt before I go making a change. This house is just way too different than any other I've owned.

I know it takes my cabin a long long time to really get warm from stone cold too. The walls, everything needs to heat up before the edge is taken off. It may get to temp several times, but will drop very quickly while everything inside is still cold. I have to imagine this same thing is happening in my and others wheel houses also.

Just so you IC guys don't feel like you are the only ones. I'm really not so sure it's a faulty furnace or design.

[outkast7222]

I have been doing some research on the Suburban furnace that's in the Ice Castle. Somewhere along the line Suburban changed their furnace output and combined the 16,000 and 20,000 units (which is actually only a 19,000). When they did this change they used the burner out of the 16,000 and a larger fan to increase the CFM rating for the 20,000 unit. This was confirmed by a call to Suburban tech support and by looking up part numbers for both.

So when IC says your getting a 20,000 btu furnace your actually getting a 16,000 with a larger fan. So when you go to the 30,000 you are getting nearly twice the thermal output.

This may or may not be a problem in other houses depending on the furnace model. IC is using SF-20SQ (quiet version) others may be using the SF-20NT (non as quiet). The NT version uses an actual 19,000 btu burner and the larger fan wheel.

[low277]

I've been following this topic since the beginning. For me, this is my first year owning a wheel house. All my previous skid houses or portables have used mr. heaters or buddy's.

I bought an 8x20 Toy hauler Salem Ice Cabin. It's got 4 windows and the toy door. Tonight I fired up the 20,000 btu suburban to do a test run. It was ~ 15 in the house to start. It was at 65 2 hours later. Most surfaces were still heating up and were cool to the touch. I have 3 vents in mine, although one of the three hardly puts out anything. It looks like they ran some mini duct instead of a full duct. I've got to dig into that later.

Here are my thoughts. It's a vast difference in heating from my skid houses, but it's also a MUCH bigger house and not as well insulated with the toy hauler door and 4 windows. It's also a different kind of heat. Forced air compared to infrared or radiant (I can't recall which term is proper for the mr heaters).

It took longer to heat up than I would have guessed. I spent the night in it once so far, and when everything is heated up the furnace only runs once every 10-15 minutes.

Right now, I'm not too concerned. I'll have to get a good season under my belt before I go making a change. This house is just way too different than any other I've owned.

I know it takes my cabin a long long time to really get warm from stone cold too. The walls, everything needs to heat up before the edge is taken off. It may get to temp several times, but will drop very quickly while everything inside is still cold. I have to imagine this same thing is happening in my and others wheel houses also.

Just so you IC guys don't feel like you are the only ones. I'm really not so sure it's a faulty furnace or design.

Good post. There is a lot of mass in some of these houses to heat up before things start to stabilize.

[Fishalittle]

BINGO....we have a winner!

I knew there had to be a change in the furnace to some extent due to past experience and my new house. Simply put the old 20000 had a little more heat to it and my old house was a little smaller = good heat. Now a little less heat a little more space, more windows, not quite enough to get it done!

Also appreciate the insight on the ice cabin as I was choosing between my signature castle and there models last spring. If ordering a new one tomorrow I would most certainly want a 30000 from the get go.

Mine is getting changed over this weekend.

A little more headache then I would have liked but in the end....it will all work out!

[FishFindHer]

Ditto what fishalittle said.

Hubby is on his way home from the RV shop right now. Haven't had a chance to test it out ourselves yet, obviously, but the shop guy said it took about 15 minutes to get up to 65. Guessing it was about 15 degrees out when he tested it? Anyway, seems much improved.

My advice to new buyers would be to save yourself the hassle & upgrade to the bigger furnace right away. Hopefully this will help someone. Happy fishing, all.

Edit: took a quick look-see when hubby got home. Two things we noticed right away: 1. This one is quieter than the last one. 2. The air coming out of the vents is definitely warmer than the old one. Old one was "warm", this one definitely closer to "hot"...hard to keep your hand in front of it. We don't have time to do a full warm up test right now, but in the 10 minutes or so we were out there, it warmed up from 25 to 45 degrees (house up). Definitely glad we did the upgrade.

[SwivelDigger]

Just got home with the shiny new Big Bite...8x16 not an IC but decided to do heat test as I've been following this thread. Results: -8 at start in house off of ground. 24 minutes to 75 degrees. 30,000 but furnace......happy happy happy.

[boXCar JiggY]

A little update on mine, fired it up yesterday in my yard an it was off the ground. Cant remeber how long but it was 70 degrees befor I knew it. the one vent by the door pushes hot enough so's you cant hold ur hand ther, which I guesse is a good thing to make a hot air barrier at the door. I was tinkering an installing 6 inch 110v ceiling fans to circulte air down, just bought cheapo extension cords, the brown ones an attached them to two fans an put one on either end of the unit.I just plug them into the wall socket. just the little tinkering an I was sweating. had it running all day was just so awsome being in there and dreaming of the fun the family and I are anticipating. Wife bought a 32 inch lcd flat screen, really? when is it ice fishing an when is it ice fishing in a Hilton? I'll take the hilton. pretty mcuh ready to go, put in some cooking stuff, toilet bucket, dog bed, ect ect. an Red Lake here we come.!I appreciate al the intell an suggestons on this thread from every one, and without any sarcasm either.Just quality help. Thanks much good luck out there.

[FishFindHer]

I also have an update. Just got home from a 2 day trip to Red. Furnace worked great....until about 5:30 this morning. Just wouldn't ignite. It was about 25 below out, not sure if the regulator froze up or the propane ran too low for the temps or what. We knew one tank had emptied but the other one it switched over to should have still had enough (we used some of it for test runs, but nothing major). Stove burners still worked but just not enough pressure for the furnace? Anyway, we got the empty filled when we got to shore and fired it up, worked fine. Who knows...will make sure both are full next trip & see how it goes, hopefully just one of those things. Other than that we had a blast & yes, we filled out our limits:)

Boxcar: also wanted to you know (your other thread) that the Ion auger worked great. I even drilled my own holes...that was always hubby's job

[boXCar JiggY]

Thanks for that intell, I ended up going with th 10 inch propane. Im not a propane guy but the extream cold mght have had something to do with pressure in the tanks not liqufing the gas after it got so low or something like that. My buddys 30 lber 20000 btu furnace would last him a 3 day weekend an noit touch the spare. Im sure the 30000 would use more fule but not that much.

[mmartin]

I also have an update. Just got home from a 2 day trip to Red. Furnace worked great....until about 5:30 this morning. Just wouldn't ignite. It was about 25 below out, not sure if the regulator froze up or the propane ran too low for the temps or what. We knew one tank had emptied but the other one it switched over to should have still had enough (we used some of it for test runs, but nothing major). Stove burners still worked but just not enough pressure for the furnace? Anyway, we got the empty filled when we got to shore and fired it up, worked fine. Who knows...will make sure both are full next trip & see how it goes, hopefully just one of those things. Other than that we had a blast & yes, we filled out our limits:)

Boxcar: also wanted to you know (your other thread) that the Ion auger worked great. I even drilled my own holes...that was always hubby's job

I would check the thermostat. If you still have the cheap slide one that comes with it I would get rid of it. Happened to us last year on LOTW. It worked great for day and a half, and then out of the blue it stopped working. We checked everything. It was cold that weekend too, -30 so we thought ,maybe it was propane problems. When I got home I tried everything figuring it was the furnace it self. I finally got mad and took it out of my house and hooked it up in the garage. Crossed the wires for the thermostat and it worked like a champ. Put it back in the house and started playing with the thermostat and noticed it wasn't working right. Switched it out for a digital and it has worked ever since.

[FishFindHer]

Huh...yeah, I have no idea how long the propane should last, but it did seem like we used an awful lot. Didn't smell it though, don't think we have a leak. I know how much we use summer camping, but of course that's a different deal.

I'm not sure if the thermostat is our problem or not. It "wanted" to ignite, (clicked for three tries each time we reset it), but just wouldn't fire. It did actually work once, but after that cycle, nothing. Tried everything we could think of (that's doable out on the ice, anyway), but just couldn't get it to go again. When we tried it with the freshly filled propane tank it did work then...so I don't know. Might look into a new thermostat anyway, the one that comes with it is pretty cheapo.

[FIRECAT]

FishFindHer- I've got the same house and 30,000 furnace as you. I've got the same exact problems as you described, It has to be the extreme cold freezing the propane on the lower tank, switch to the full tank and away it goes. if it warms up some during the day it will suck the half full tank empty. I put in a digital thermostat and it works very nice.

[FishFindHer]

Firecat: thanks for that, good to know we're not the only ones, and that there's probably nothing wrong with the new furnace. I wonder if there are any fixes? Other than keeping the tanks as full as possible (some place charge for a fill no matter how much you have left...could get pretty expensive) . Wondering if anyone uses heat tape or anything like that? Or am I looking to win a Darwin Award with that idea...lol.