Suburban brand furnaces

[ice_it_06]

Anyone familiar with these type furnaces ?

The 5 X 8 I just bought has one in it and I'm new to anything automatic and pilotless.

I got a new tank (tank was purged)and LP.

Connected the LP to the house and the battery kicks on the blower and the thermostat seems to be ok but the "furnace" burner will not ignite.

When I bught the house last week the thing was running fine when I went to pick it up.

I've always had "Empires" so this Suburban unit is new territory.

[dangnear]

Ice, I had 2 Suburban RV brand furnaces in my boat, they acted the same as yours, turned out to be bad circuit board, Mikes RV, White Bear,MN repairs these furnaces

[ice_it_06]

dangnear:

Thanks for the heads up on repair outlets.

I'm thinking I got air in the line but have recycled the thermostat three times but no go. Battery is a new deep cycle holding 12.5 volts right now so I don't think thats a issue as the blowers light up immediately.

The furnace is only two years old with very minimul hours on it. Mentioned earlier it ran fine the day I bought it.

Been looking on0line about tech info on these units. They eeem to go in to lock out pretty frequently.

Hopefully I can figure something out I'm doing wrong.

[ice_it_06]

dangnear:

You happen to recall what kind of $$$$ those board replacements were ?

I'm not getting any feed back on the issue so I assume these "Suburban" furnaces are not fish house popular.

Anything I pull up on the net shows various common problems with them including your curcuit board.

I've sitched out three LP tanks, fully charged the new deep cyle to 100% and cycled through the start process endless times trying to rid of any air in lines.

I also took off the grill and noticed a main line valve that was a T top type. It was in the horizontil position running with the line which I assumed was "open" so I tried it vertical as well with no luck.

I cant imagine what could have happened just pulling the house home on a flat bed trailer, but it will not ignite.

It was transported with the slide part of the house inside the main house which leaves a good amount of "draft" blowing through the house from all angles on the freeway. I wonder if some dust and junk got in somewhere its not suppose to be. It was a four hour trip in heavy wind but the house is all but new and was clean inside.

Half the reason for buying the little thing was due to the furnace in it. Looks like I need a RV tech familiar with these things.

[dangnear]

Ice,it was 5 years since I replaced the circeit board in my furnaces. It was about $100.00 I had 2 of these in my boat and they never been lit and they were still bad.They told me that if 12 volt power ever surged or battery hooked up backward would blow circuit board. Good Luck

[ice_it_06]

dangnear:

Thanks again for the insight. I've found a couple great Suburban tech sites that have educated me rather well this afternoon. The boards are still $100 and have the actual owners manuals onsite for all their models along with trouble shooting guides. Seems like the board replacement is misdiagnosed alot for other things as well I see.

These things seem to be "extremely" finical and leave you out in the cold more then not!! I think I have the 12,000 btu unit with such a small house. There should be no "surge" issues seeing the furnace is the only thing drawing. Seems the sail switch is not opening to allow combustion. The motor and fan go like he!! and thermostat works great turning it off & on.

I think with the history I read and the costs to tear out and repair I"ll just get a small Empire put in its place. (next year)

[bbqhead]

if you are close to the cities, i can check it

for you. they are a decent furnaces, they just

dont like to sit idle :]

bbqhead

rv tech

[ice_it_06]

bbqhead:

I certainly appreciate the offer as I'm at a dead end with this thing. Whats your location, maybe I could trailer the thing if not to far. I just bought the house last week and the furnace was running great the day I picked it up. Just towed it home from four hours in to Wisconsin and I cant get it going !!

I work in Burnsville and live south of Lakeville a bit.

I'm thinking it should be cleaned maybe and checked and it dont look tough to tear out as it looks to be a gas line and electrical basicly. The unit is just mounted in between two cabinets which looks like two screws and it pulls straight out. The vents outside I'm guessing need to be pulled as well.

[Crestliner-fever]

ice it I have a suburban furnace in my fish house & I had the same excact problem ---you have a circuit board problem. go to your close's rv dealer & get your self a new circuit board --trouble's gone !! 130.00$ or less depending on where you get it. trust me i went through it, now mine works like a charm.

[bbqhead]

i am in st paul... if you have a 12 volt test light,

check to see if you have 12v to both terminals on the sail

switch and the hi limit switch. with the furnace running,

could be the board but 50%

the time it isnt.

randy aka bbqhead

[ice_it_06]

Randy:

I do have a 12V test light but as far as the furnace goes I have no knowledge or access to test anything without starting a tear down I'm not comfortable with really.

I did find a ID tag on the case and its a NT20 SE which looks to be a 19,000 btu unit. Seems very large for a 5 X 8 but more is better. (if it works)

I don't want to just start throwing $$$$ into parts without having some idea of its operation and such. I think the unit is in lockout as it will not ignite and blower just keeps running unless I turn the stat off. If it is trying (3) times to ignite as the board is said to do, I can tell my hearinging anything except constant running of the blower motor & fan.

[ice_it_06]

Furnace Operational and I thank all who tried to help me out. This forum is always a life saver and full of help and direction.

After thinking the blower should be putting out "more" force I watched the fan wheel shut down and thought the wheel was running backwards or in reverse.

Not knowing that the furnace was hooked up like house current I assumed the (black) lead was negative on a 12v system.

I reversed the black to "hot" and the white to "neg" and we had massive air blowing and ignition to a burn within 8 seconds.

The 5 X 8 house went from 40 degrees to 75 in just 10 minutes so I have tremendous amounts of heat and blower movement.The pink board 1" insulationb I put in it over the weekend really does a job apparently. Count down to six good inches of ice and its on.

Thanks again people

ice_it_06

[bbqhead]

never thought to ask that question! rv s use either

red or black for positive. great to hear you got

it going!

bbqhead

[ice_it_06]

bbqhead:

Thanks for your help and concern.

The builder ( RV Dealer) e-mailed me as soon as he got back from vacation and just after I figured out the problem.

He apologized for not informing me of the wiring set up. He said in the RV business its just so automatic wired black "hot" that it didnt even cross his mind when he sold it to me. I'm just glad I didnt damage anything the three days I was messing with it.

They put out some heat these Suburbans but they sure are loud as well with the blower constantly going. Especially a 20,000 btu in a 5 X 8 space (lol)

[bbqhead]

they do have a blower in them, but will keep you

warm!

bbqhead