Baby, it’s collllllllld outside! No, really, it’s cold! (Well, lots of places, anyway.) When using your propane furnace, how quickly (or not) does it heat your RV?
Does it heat your RV very fast? Slowly, but works well? Slowly and doesn’t work well? Is the whole darn thing just worthless? Please tell us in the poll below. Thanks, and stay warm!
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I stopped using the furnace years ago in favor of a catalytic heater. It’s not super fast but works well and uses way less propane and zero electricity.
Enjoying our Aqua Hot diesel heater! Keeps the RV nice and cozy warm, not that blast of cold air and noise the propane heaters do.
Same here!
The heating system in my 2017 Tiffin open road is one of the major disappointments, it has 1 furnace to heat the entire 36′
My previous RV was a 2000 Georgie boy cruise master which had 2 furnaces,
Depends on how cold it is outside.
One advantage of having a small (by todays standards) travel trailer is it’s easy to heat and cool. Our daughter and SIL had a 42’ 5th wheel and on chilly mornings they would visit us until their furnace had time enough to remove the chill.
No propane on our motorhome, which uses an Oasis for domestic hot water and heat, and burns diesel fuel from the engine’s fuel tank. Provides plenty of heat below 40 degrees outside. At 40 and above the heat is provided through the two rooftop heat pumps, which also work quite well. The New Aire also has heated ceramic floors which supplement both of the above. Often we only need the heated floors to stay warm, unless it’s really cold outside.
The two travel trailers I owned both had great heat. My class A Georgetown is a real disappointment. Very little heat comes out the floor vents. Ran a camera through them and found no restrictions but very bad duct design. Maybe I can find the time to add a second unit in the rear.
The argument FOR using the furnace instead of the efficient and silent catalytic heaters is the under floor heating of the tanks (and hopefully some of the pipes).
Propane heater is adequate to heat our 30′ Class C. But, we really use an electric one.
Our furnace warms up nicely but once the chill is gone we revert to the electric heater. More efficient, heats better and removes any possibility for Carbon Monoxide.
Never really had to use it often since we have a ceramic heater and a small fan to help circulate the heat into the bedroom area .
I do test the propane furnace every spring to make sure it’s working and it does a good job. Only once did I have to use it along with the ceramic heater when the temp dropped drastically overnight and we didn’t have the electric heater turned on.
During the recent freezing weather here in Florida the heat pump/air conditioner on the roof was efficient down to 32°. After that, the furnace kicked on automatically and kept the motorhome toasty warm. I also used to radiant electric heaters. It’s important to run the furnace in freezing weather as it also heats up the storage bays where the pipes and tanks are located. I’ve been in 10° weather in Colorado and the furnace kept the motorhome very comfortable.
Had to vote “other”. It heats up just fine. Not slow, and not real fast. Where is the category “works as it should”?
Not slow but not fast but it warms it in a reasonable amount of time.
We have an all electric coach – no propane furnace.
Aquahot furnace.
There are sooo many variables to answering. RVs by nature are 3 season toys for most, mine rarely needs the heater (it’s put away long before snow flies). I did winter 1 year on West Coast (Washington on the Ocean), the furnace ran almost 24/7 & I wasn’t warm!
Evenly distributed heat gets a higher score from me than whether the RV heats up in 10 minutes or 30. Many RVs seem to have very different temps from high to low or certain spots in them.
36′ Cougar 5er, combo of furnace and oil filled space heater does a great job. Recently had 18 deg overnite temps and stayed warm with both working. Ducted heat from furnace for basement floor heat important
In the 2 winters we’ve camped in AZ we haven’t used the propane furnace at all. The fireplace and a small heater keeps our Micro Lite 25FKBS toasty.
I voted other. I have an aqua hot system and it does work fairly fast depending on the outside temperatures. Taking into account the polar vortex that just went through the nation, I doubt anything worked fast and more than likely there were some units that never shut off.
If we come home in 40°+/- weather – Heat pumps warm up in 20 min; propane in 10 min. Use 1500 watt elect heaters front and rear to maintain during the day. When traveling in freezing temps I put a 200 watt elect in the wet bay, and one in the storage bay for overnight safety. When stationary I put a series of 40 watt incandescent bulbs in strategic areas. I prefer not to leave with rotating devices running.
I also added a duct from the rear furnace to the basement for the wet and storage bays. Unfortunately the rear furnace hardly runs due to the rear of coach being the bedroom/bath and almost void of windows, which retains a lot of heat. Where the front is all windows. I apply bubble wrap to front glass.
I also added appropriate circuits to run the heaters separate from the coach wiring, although I did run heaters on original circuits for a few years, until I had done enough general repairs to be familiar with their methods/equipment. Then I built my own.
40′ DP; 16yrs FT.
it seems to work as it should, but we also run an electric space heater when plugged to shore power and we only camp in March when we need heat and down south, so don’t need heat much. I do cover the windows as needed as well to hold heat.
We have never even tried to light it. When it gets that cold we hibernate until Phil the groundhog lets us know it is safe to come out..
We use CHEAP HEAT. It is an electric furnace that is connected to the rear of a propane furnace. You can switch between sources with the flick of a switch. It uses the existing blower and duct work. 8 years and still going. We have used it down to 19 degrees F. Only used propane when power is not available.
Currently not at all. I cannot get the panel off to find the reset button!
Our propane furnace, in our 34′ motorhome is very efficient in fuel consumption and depending on the ambient air temp. is relatively fast. It is ducted in the floor from bedroom to cockpit so well distributed. My problem is more with the thermostat as setting it to 72f the furnace will just about melt down window glass before it shuts off – then the cool down begins immediately and the furnace won’t start again until it reaches well below the 72 setting. So, for balance, I supplement the furnace heat with an electric space heater. I don’t use the motorhome below 50 degs. outside temp..
I haven’t had an RV with a gas furnace since 2017. That being said, my two gas furnaces in that one heated pretty quickly as long as we were above 20°F.
My present motorhome has Aqua Hot and there’s not much comparison.
Rarely use the LP furnace.
We’re all electric. No propane.
we rarely used it. propane is a consumable that we saved for when we had no electric hookup or just a 30-amp connection. we carried two, small portable electric space heaters + the heat-throwing electric fireplace.
We get more heat from the main engine heater than the propane, but it keeps things from freezing up, though it drains our house batteries quickly. We usually have hook-ups, so our oil-filled heaters keep our rig nice and warm.
We disconnected propane and use a box heater that runs on electric. Most places we stay include electric and they are very efficient
Our small camper (21′) can heat in about 10-15 minutes on the furnace. But honestly we have a couple small electric space heaters (about 1,000 watts between the two units) that can heat almost as fast.
Our 34′ RV trailer takes between 15-20 minutes to come up to temp from a cold start. Sometimes we also turn on the ‘fireplace’ (glorified electric space heater) to shorten the warm up time.
When it was 20 degrees out the furnace seemed to take forever to get to heat. Actually about 20 minutes to get to heat. At 45-50 degrees it takes a few minutes to knock the chill off and up to heat in 10 minutes or so.
Don’t know, never used it. If it’s that cold, I’m in the wrong part of the country.
I seldom use the propane furnace. I tend to use supplemental heaters, unless it is going to be so cold that I need to keep the water lines from freezing. When it is that cold, I am using supplemental heat, also.
“Other,” as in no propane, our DP is an all-electric unit.