Narrowing Down the Problem

2RT Blog Post #2
Date: 4.21.2020

 Living in an RV fulltime and having your backyard and your picture window anywhere you want it to be has some beautiful benefits. As we share on social media mostly through our Instagram and Facebook posts people always look at the beautiful pictures and comment on history or architecture. We tend to put the things out there that people would be happiest about.

Well... there are tons of bad. When you drive your house down the road it's like having an earthquake every time you move. Travel days are fun. I love to drive. Especially when the picture window is so large. The views can be amazing. But we are only one quick stop away from having the cupboard pop open or one rattle in the cupboard away from driving you crazy.  Believe me, when you can't find that rattle or clicking glass, it can be stressful. Michelle does an amazing job in wrapping the glasses or putting the plastic between so that there is little movement, breakage and clinking.

One stressful event came when we were in New Mexico in February and we woke in the middle of the night in freezing temperatures to no heat. The electric fireplace wasn't cutting it and the scrabble for extra blankets in the middle of the night was on. I fiddled with the thermostat, which I just replaced in the fall seemed to be working well and calling for heat but the heater won't stay lit.

Now what? We have to find out what the problem is. The small Suburban heater is under our refrigerator. Now mind you. I'm not great at these things but I can pull it out, clean everything, dust everything off, use the internet and YouTube for possible solutions, etc.

That's what I did. Pulled out the heater, hoping that I can get it back together and praying that Michelle doesn't figure out that I am kind of worried that I may not. And then what?

There doesn't seem to be anything wrong. Everything checks out. So I thought maybe it was just a fluke... Put everything back together and guess what? It worked. We were able to use the heat and it ran all day perfectly.

That night, feeling very proud and comfortable, we put away the extra blankets and fell quickly asleep only to wake at 4 in the morning to freezing cold temperatures. UGH! What did I miss? What could it be?

Take the unit back out, tear it down a bit more and find nothing wrong. Maybe this is a computer issue and we need a new board. We would have to wait to see if I can just order parts until we finally get it working. I put it back together and everything worked great! Until the middle of the night when the temperatures fell below 40ºf.

Ok... It has to be something else. I made a run into town and purchased a work light. Do you know how hard it is to find an incandescent light bulb that will heat up? It was indeed quite difficult. But I found one as the store was closing, drove all the way back and put the light directly under the regulator on the propane tank. Guess what? That worked! There is NOTHING wrong with the heater.

I had a new regulator sent ahead to our next spot. (Another subject for a blog post - How does one gete mail or packages while being on the road fulltime) We lived with the light under the regulator for a few more days. (Wouldn't you know it? It started to warm up and we didn't need it as much.) We got to our next spot and I changed out the regulator. See the photo? The flow was quite restricted!

Here to narrowing down the problem, problem solving and a little bit of mechanical ability. Guess what? It's warm. We haven't used the heat at all since I put the new regulator in.