Country Coach Owners Forum

Country Coach Restoration, Repair & Parts Forums => Country Coach Archive => Topic started by: Earl on November 14, 2007, 12:05:27 pm

Title: Hurricane Heater Flame Out
Post by: Earl on November 14, 2007, 12:05:27 pm
Yahoo Message Number: 35449 (http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Country-Coach-Owners/conversations/messages/35449)
I have a Hurricane Heater in my 2003 Country Coach Intrigue. This past weekend I experienced some rather strange problems with the heater. We had limited power available (20 Amp) so I had to do some energy management. Whenever I used the Microwave or any other power hungry appliance I would always put the refrigerator on Propane, than shift back to electric when I was through. I noticed that whenever I used a resistive load (coffee pot, electric kettle, etc.) I would get flame outs on the Hurricane. At first I thought it was just a coincidence, but it did it every time I used the coffee pot. Once I unplugged the coffee pot I could reset the system and it worked great until the next time. This was most puzzling, because, the system was not affected by the refrigerator, and that is a resistive load.
After thinking about this for a while, I realized that the refrigerator was not connected to an outlet from the Inverter, but the outlet I plugged the coffee pot into was. The coach has a 2000- Watt Xantrex Inverter.

Have any of you run across this type of problem before? Is it possible the resistive load is causing the inverter to introduce some noise on the 12 VDC line, causing the Hurricane to shut down? If you have what did you do to correct it? De-coupling capacitors across the DC output of the inverter?

Earl Densten

03 Intrigue 11554
Title: Re: Hurricane Heater Flame Out
Post by: Larry F on November 14, 2007, 12:48:01 pm
Yahoo Message Number: 35454 (http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Country-Coach-Owners/conversations/messages/35454)
Not sure about that, but they did have an upgraded electric board for that unit. Has your's been updated? Cleaning the nozzle fixed my Hurrican flamout problem

Larry Feather 03 Allure 30856

Quote from: Earl
I have a Hurricane Heater in my 2003 Country Coach Intrigue. This > past weekend I experienced some rather strange problems with the > heater. We had limited power available (20 Amp) so I had to do

some

Quote
energy management. Whenever I used the Microwave or any other

power

Quote
hungry appliance I would always put the refrigerator on Propane,

than

Quote
shift back to electric when I was through. I noticed that whenever

I

Quote
used a resistive load (coffee pot, electric kettle, etc.) I would

get

Quote
flame outs on the Hurricane. At first I thought it was just a > coincidence, but it did it every time I used the coffee pot. Once

I

Quote
unplugged the coffee pot I could reset the system and it worked

great

Quote
until the next time. This was most puzzling, because, the system

was

Quote
not affected by the refrigerator, and that is a resistive load.
After thinking about this for a while, I realized that the > refrigerator was not connected to an outlet from the Inverter, but > the outlet I plugged the coffee pot into was. The coach has a 2000- > Watt Xantrex Inverter.

Have any of you run across this type of problem before? Is it > possible the resistive load is causing the inverter to introduce

some

Quote
noise on the 12 VDC line, causing the Hurricane to shut down? If

you
Title: Re: Hurricane Heater Flame Out
Post by: Earl on November 14, 2007, 01:03:38 pm
Yahoo Message Number: 35455 (http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Country-Coach-Owners/conversations/messages/35455)
Hi Larry, yes mine has the updated Printed Circuit Board and the new design fuel pump. Whats perplexing is that this problem is repeatable. I sent an email to ITR 2 days ago and have not heard anything as of yet. In the manual it talks about electrical noise, but it does not say how to get rid of it. If I had an O-Scope I would look at the inverter output to see if there is any noise riding on the DC.

Earl Densten

03 Intrigue 11554

Quote from: Larry Feather
>

Not sure about that, but they did have an upgraded electric board

for

Quote
that unit. Has your's been updated? Cleaning the nozzle fixed my > Hurrican flamout problem

Larry Feather 03 Allure 30856

[quote author=Earl"

>

> I have a Hurricane Heater in my 2003 Country Coach Intrigue.

This

Quote
past weekend I experienced some rather strange problems with the > > heater. We had limited power available (20 Amp) so I had to do > some

> energy management. Whenever I used the Microwave or any other > power

> hungry appliance I would always put the refrigerator on Propane, > than

> shift back to electric when I was through. I noticed that

whenever

Quote
I

> used a resistive load (coffee pot, electric kettle, etc.) I would > get

> flame outs on the Hurricane. At first I thought it was just a > > coincidence, but it did it every time I used the coffee pot.

Once

Quote
I

> unplugged the coffee pot I could reset the system and it worked > great

> until the next time. This was most puzzling, because, the system > was

> not affected by the refrigerator, and that is a resistive load.
> After thinking about this for a while, I realized that the > > refrigerator was not connected to an outlet from the Inverter,

but

Quote
the outlet I plugged the coffee pot into was. The coach has a

2000-

Quote
Watt Xantrex Inverter.
>

> Have any of you run across this type of problem before? Is it > > possible the resistive load is causing the inverter to introduce > some

> noise on the 12 VDC line, causing the Hurricane to shut down? If > you

> have what did you do to correct it? De-coupling capacitors

across
Title: Re: Hurricane Heater Flame Out
Post by: William Faver on November 14, 2007, 04:52:29 pm
Yahoo Message Number: 35461 (http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Country-Coach-Owners/conversations/messages/35461)

Earl, I have a Hurricane Heater in my 03 Allure, Had a lot of problems the first year(03) I had a new board installed. Still had problems until they said I needed a new pump, that seems to have solved the problems. I did turn off the two Elect. breakers in the bed room. The system is designed to run on 12 votes. I have not turned the breakers for several years and the system is working very good. I will keep my fingers crossed that it keeps working. Hope this information helps in some way. Good luck! William Faver
03 Allure

Fort Worth Tx.

Title: Re: Hurricane Heater Flame Out
Post by: Earl on November 15, 2007, 10:01:39 am
Yahoo Message Number: 35467 (http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Country-Coach-Owners/conversations/messages/35467)
Thanks for the response William. I presume the breakers your talking about are for the inverter. I have had flame outs in the past, but I was never able to pin-point the exact cause. This time it's quite apparent that when I plug in a resistive load I can cause the system to fail. I have sent ITR several emails and have yet to get a response from them, I guess it's time to give them a phone call.

Earl Densten

03 Intrigue 11554

Quote from: william faver\[br\
] >

Earl, I have a Hurricane Heater in my 03 Allure, Had a lot of
problems the first year(03) I had a new board installed. Still had problems until they said I needed a new pump, that seems to have solved the problems. I did turn off the two Elect. breakers in the bed room. The system is designed to run on 12 votes. I have not turned the breakers for several years and the system is working very good. I will keep my fingers crossed that it keeps working. Hope this information helps in some way. Good luck!

Quote
William Faver
03 Allure

Fort Worth Tx.
Title: Re: Hurricane Heater Flame Out
Post by: William Faver on November 15, 2007, 11:32:00 am
Yahoo Message Number: 35470 (http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Country-Coach-Owners/conversations/messages/35470)

I would call ITR and get their take on the problem. The breakers that I turned off were in the bed room and labeled Hurricane. They draw about 25 amps, so I could not use 30 amp service. After I turned them off no problem.
Good luck
William
03 Allure

Ft. Worth, Tx.

Title: Re: Hurricane Heater Flame Out
Post by: Richard Barlow on November 16, 2007, 11:06:59 am
Yahoo Message Number: 35485 (http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Country-Coach-Owners/conversations/messages/35485)
Earl, take a look inside at your pump. If it is a cylindrical shape, you need a new updated pump. These pumps are known to fail causing all kinds of problems. The new ones are rectangular and work great. About $120 from ITR.

Rich

2002 Magna 6148
Title: Re: Hurricane Heater Flame Out
Post by: Earl on November 16, 2007, 05:33:36 pm
Yahoo Message Number: 35493 (http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Country-Coach-Owners/conversations/messages/35493)
Hi Rich, I do have the new design pump installed. Received a call from ITR yesterday and the man I talked to thought it was the batteries. I explained that I had 7 month old Trojan T105's (4 in series/parallel), but he said when I plugged in the coffee pot the DC voltage dropped. I don't know how since I was plugged in and was not using the inverter. Any way I will check to see if the voltage drops when I use the coffee pot. Just got the coach back from Cummins Atlantic this afternoon. I am still getting diesel fuel in the crank case, this time they replaced the Injector Pump Accumulator and all the Injector O-Rings.

Earl Densten

03 Intrigue 11554

Quote from: RICHARD BARLOW
>

Earl, take a look inside at your pump. If it is a cylindrical
shape, you need a new updated pump. These pumps are known to fail causing all kinds of problems. The new ones are rectangular and work great. About $120 from ITR.
Title: Re: Hurricane Heater Flame Out
Post by: Richard Barlow on November 17, 2007, 12:26:26 pm
Yahoo Message Number: 35512 (http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Country-Coach-Owners/conversations/messages/35512)
Earl, you voltage would have to drop below 10.5 for that to stop your Hurricane. Measure the voltage at the Hurricane when the problem occurs. If it is above 10.5 this is not the problem regardless of coffee pot. If it is below 10.5 you have some very serious problem with batteries or something.

Rich
Title: Re: Hurricane Heater Flame Out
Post by: Earl on November 17, 2007, 01:23:11 pm
Yahoo Message Number: 35515 (http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Country-Coach-Owners/conversations/messages/35515)
I agree Rich, I'm still convinced that there is some type of noise riding on the DC voltage generated by the inverter. I'll keep looking.

Earl Densten

03 Intrigue 11554

Quote from: RICHARD BARLOW
> > Earl, you voltage would have to drop below 10.5 for that to stop your
Hurricane. Measure the voltage at the Hurricane when the problem occurs. If it is above 10.5 this is not the problem regardless of coffee pot. If it is below 10.5 you have some very serious problem with batteries or something.