Last night I spent a lovely evening visiting my daughter, with my motorhome parked in her driveway. When I went out to my motorhome to go to bed, it had gotten quite chilly so I turned on the furnace.
NOTHING HAPPENED!
In the past, lack of ignition has been fixed by various actions:
- Turning it off and trying again in five minutes.
- Pushing a reset button on the furnace.
- Removing the defective thermostat and connecting the wires.
- Replacing the thermocouple.
- Replacing the circuit board.
The first 3 of these I can do myself with no problem, so I set about troubleshooting. It was cold out, so I decided to skip the reset button and go directly to investigating the thermostat. With the cover off, I operated the lever and found the problem.
During the day, a moth had crawled up into the thermostat and was blocking the contacts. I guess moth corpses don't conduct current very well!
I removed the moth, slid the levers, listened to the satisfying sound of propane ignition, replaced the cover, and went on with my life. Grateful for solutions I can handle.
The moral of the story: before you call a repairman, check out what you can check out yourself.
