Heater turns on when set to off

03-29-2011, 08:00 PM

The strangest thing happened today, My wife was loading up our 2619 and discovered the heater came on even though it was set to off. We have been experiencing low batteries recently and this may be the problem. I have popped the cover and found that the plastic stop in the thermostat is doing its job separating the contacts. Does anyone have an idea as to what it could be besides the thermostat? I have not tried to disconnect the thermostat altogether yet, and can not reproduce the problem myself.

Thanks for any pointers.

-Gregg

03-29-2011, 08:13 PM

Sounds like it is mis-wired. Or a loose wire is making a contact somewhere. I would pull the stat first and give it a look.

**wbmiller3** · 03-30-2011, 05:12 AM

A short in the wire from the thermostat to the heater could do this. I wonder how it's routed? The shortest way would be under the floor.

03-30-2011, 09:27 AM

Interesting problem. Ours went on while in storage at some point. The front flap which covers the heater vent when the TM is closed was slightly burned. Only happened once that I know of. I changed to a digital thermostat and now always take the batteries out when not in use. Don't know if the problem occurred before or after the switch of thermostats, but it hasn't happened again in probably 2 years. Could be a serious issue as I suspect there is the potential to burn the TM and also the garage.

**Bill** · 03-30-2011, 09:41 AM

As an aside, it seems to me that you should be turning off the propane tanks whenever the TM is in storage, or movin' down the road. It won't fix the bad thermostat, but it will prevent burned parts or a possible fire. For us, it is one more standard step in our open-up and close-down procedure.

Bill

03-30-2011, 12:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bill

As an aside, it seems to me that you should be turning off the propane tanks whenever the TM is in storage, or movin' down the road. It won't fix the bad thermostat, but it will prevent burned parts or a possible fire. For us, it is one more standard step in our open-up and close-down procedure.

Bill

Agreed, and in some states it is illegal to pull through tunnels and in some cases fuel stations with open propane tanks. Many RVs run fridges on propane while underway, and have to be turned off at fuel stops.

03-30-2011, 07:23 PM

I always turn the propane off when not in use, at least I don't have to worry about the fire part

I will try to troubleshoot this weekend along with my fridge. If not I will just disconnect the batteries. I may end up taking it in for service to fix what I cant do this weekend. It seems like everything is breaking down at once. Normally I would do it myself but I don't have the luxury of time.

Thanks everyone.

-Gregg

myersm · 03-30-2011, 08:15 PM

I had the exact same problem with my 3023 heater last year... I troubleshot it to a bad curcuit board on the heater itself. I bought a new circuit board, installed it my self, worked as advertized!

03-31-2011, 07:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MisterP

Agreed, and in some states it is illegal to pull through tunnels and in some cases fuel stations with open propane tanks. Many RVs run fridges on propane while underway, and have to be turned off at fuel stops.

In some states, it is illegal to pull through tunnels with propane tanks period ( on or off).

04-04-2011, 09:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by myersm

I had the exact same problem with my 3023 heater last year... I troubleshot it to a bad curcuit board on the heater itself. I bought a new circuit board, installed it my self, worked as advertized!

What were the steps you used to determine it was the circuit board, and where did you get the replacement? And if you would not mind posting the cost of the board as well that would be a great help.

Thanks.

-Gregg