Atwood 7916 II Furnace

[Davereilly]

We are on our shakedown cruise on our new, to us, 2008 22' Hi Lo. We are at Nehalem Bay State Park in Oregon and it has rained for three days. Having a problem with the furnace. Initially it fired up and ran through several cycles successfully. On the morning of our second day it wouldn't ignite and run. I noticed the flashing red light fault indicator. After accessing several web sites I learned that one flash followed by a 3 second pause, followed by another flash (which is what our furnace was doing) meant there was a air flow constriction or possibly a problem with the upper level sensor switch. I also noticed the manual reset switch on the furnace unit. I reset the switch and the furnace fired up and ran successfully through several cycles when it failed to ignite again. We have repeated that pattern several times. We also purchased an electric space heater which is working fine. Now, my questions. First, any ideas about why the furnace is behaving the way it does? Finally, am I doing any damage to the furnace by using the reset switch to restart the furnace?

 

[JackandJanet]

Sorry to hear you're having problems, but, you seem to be dealing with them fine.

I would not worry about using the Reset switch. If it could cause damage, it wouldn't have been installed. Gas appliances are tricky. I think there's something called a "sail" switch in your furnace that tells it when the furnace is working properly. If it malfunctions, it cuts the gas off I think. There have been other posts in this forum on this device, so you should be able to find them with a search.

Gas devices are also subject to infestation by spiders, who build webs in the small ducts that interfere with gas or airflow. It can be difficult to locate and fix these problems. I doubt this is the cause of your troubles, but it's something to keep in mind.

- Jack