Ice castle furnace help

[dew2]

pittman wrote:
It’s a eu2000 finnaly got that running I’ve come to the conclusion the invertor is not charging my battery. Like everything else on an ice castle it is a cheapo and bound to fail. Trip over and ice castle for sale!

Got jumper cables with you? try right from the truck/car battery.if it works it will narrow the problem down.So the ice castle has a inverter? Doesnt the honda 2000 have a 12V outlet?
Does the inverter have a bypass so the shack can run off 120V.Or is that a seperate system?
I also dont believe a inverter charges a battery,it must have a seperate charger? inverter takes 120VAC to 12VDC thats all.Try the jumper or take the battery out and charge the shack battery off the truck/car for your overnight heat.

Of all the things I've ever done,
I aint never had Too much fun.

[dew2]

pittman wrote:
It’s a eu2000 finnaly got that running I’ve come to the conclusion the invertor is not charging my battery. Like everything else on an ice castle it is a cheapo and bound to fail. Trip over and ice castle for sale!

Double posts here..Maybe the eu2000 has a reset button?? Got that manual with?

Of all the things I've ever done,
I aint never had Too much fun.

[pittman]

Do they have the capability of automatically changing charge rates?

[dew2]

pittman wrote:
Do they have the capability of automatically changing charge rates?

Dont follow that> They meaning?? changing charge rates?? If your speaking of the eu2000 I dont know much about that specific gen.But generaters putout whats needed to their max limit.The inverter is about the same they change AC to DC and put out whats needed tilltheir output limit is reached.

Of all the things I've ever done,
I aint never had Too much fun.

[pittman]

I got the gen going. The charging wires for battery come from the 12v panel wich is the same as the 110 panel it’s all one unit.

[dew2]

pittman wrote:
I got the gen going. The charging wires for battery come from the 12v panel wich is the same as the 110 panel it’s all one unit.

Here I go again Manual Manual manual,You have the manual for the 120V, 12V pannel ? Do you have a battery charger with you?
How long you up in the shack for? I ask because it maybe easier to check everything out with proper tools you may have in your garage.Till then if the generater works and it gets the heater working that would be great.If if doesn’t use the generater to charge the batts with a charger if you have one.If that is impossible then charge the batts off the truck/car system.Use the car/truck battery and the shack battery.alternate for consistant 12V for heat.
Hopefully the gen will get you up and running if not you have some troubleshooting to do in a better environment.You sure the battery connections are clean? ans will accept a charge.

Of all the things I've ever done,
I aint never had Too much fun.

[pittman]

Ya I cranked her up and am headn back to the range hopefully get everything straightened out in time to hit upper red by Friday! Sure hope the fishing is better there.

[kroger3]

Does any of the 110 stuff in the house work? If not then check your GFI outlet in your house. Push test then reset. Ice castle generally wires there converters after the GFI and the capacitors in them have so much inrush that it will trip the GFI but the indicator light will not light up.

[dustdevil21]

After the last heater discussion about Ice Castles heaters in the Red Lake forum. I did some testing on mine in the driveway.

I have the hydralice lift version. There are two batteries installed in the house.

One battery is next to the hydraulic pump, it is not hooked into the house wiring at all. It does get charged by the tow vehicle when you have the rv plugged into the hitch plug. Depending on how your vehicle is wired, the charge wire could be hot all of the time or only when the key is on. This battery is not charged by the convertor/charger.

The second battery is back by the convertor. It does not receive a charge from the vehicle. But the convertor/charger does provide a charge when using 110.

I did check to see if the convertor was wired into the system after any of the installed GFI’s and it was not. As long as there was 110 power to the tailer, I had a charge from the convertor. The first 110 breaker (top) in the breaker box controlled output of the charger. I do know that my fridge 110 power is wired after one of the GFI’s in the circuit.

The question I have is do we have a series of bad convertors in these houses, or is there an issue with the 50amp adapters that we are using not providing a good connection?

One problem we could be having with these furnaces too is with the propane tanks. The first thing I did with mine was change the single tank propane regulator over to a dual tank auto-changeover regulator and a tank cover. I was using the heater in mine while in the driveway getting it ready for the trip in some of the colder temps. I went out and checked the empty tank indicator and it showed that it had tripped over to the other tank. I thought I had an empty tank, so I took it and refilled it, it was still half full.

So, maybe an issue is with the colder temps the single tank regulators are freezing up, not allowing enough gas pressure to maintain the proper temp in the combustion chamber to keep the gas flow going. Combine that with a low battery, and you get head scratching problems.

[icecastle]

i have a 2011trophy ice castle and i installed a on board charger so whenever my gen. a honda 2000 is running it is always chargeing my batt. i also had furnace trouble last year on winnie , there was a tiny bit of snow in the exahast port on the outside of the house , there is a very small hole in the center of that exhast , it needs to be open and clear of ice and snow or your furnace will not work

[Rywheat]

FYI if you run the auto changeover regulator off of both tanks it will only draw the propane down to 25-40% best to run it off one tank is empty than flip over to other tank that way you know to refill your tank I learned the hardway and took 2 30# tanks to get filled and was charged by the pound and guy said I had 2 tanks at 35% full so from than on I ran 1 tank at a time. Sorry off topic just a lesson learned

Its not what you know but who you know

[pittman]

All the 110 stuff works fine and I’m pretty sure the regulator is not frozen because the stove produces a nice flame yet. I am pretty sure the battery is just not getting a charge from the converter and if it is its minimal I just got home and plugged it into the garage I’m gonna take to it with a volt meter tomorrow and try and get to the bottom of this so I can see if there is more action on red than there was on low! Ps the converter is a wfco ultra III power center

[LostConcept]

dustdevil21 wrote:
I did check to see if the convertor was wired into the system after any of the installed GFI’s and it was not. As long as there was 110 power to the tailer, I had a charge from the convertor. The first 110 breaker (top) in the breaker box controlled output of the charger. I do know that my fridge 110 power is wired after one of the GFI’s in the circuit.

The question I have is do we have a series of bad convertors in these houses, or is there an issue with the 50amp adapters that we are using not providing a good connection?

One problem with the converters could possibly be that they do not have enough power to charge the house while also powering it. I used to have a wake-boarding boat with a monster stereo (5 batteries) and at the end of the day they would all be tanked. After doing some homework I found the only way to get them back up to where they needed to be was to have a 5 bank on-board charger. Not a cheapo, but something that put up big amps. So I am thinking that the issue may be that the converter cannot do it all because it doesn’t produce enough amps.

Another thing people forget is that just because your house came with one battery does not mean that it will keep up. I specifically got my house with no batteries installed. First thing I did was ditch the group 24 battery boxes (one for the house and one for the hydro frame). I put a group 27 on the frame and linked three group 27s to run the house. Also, most dealers are installing the cheapest batteries they can to save a buck. I run all AC Delco Voyageur batteries and I maintain them constantly. Doing this makes these batteries last for years and it really gives me a piece of mind.

So I am not sure if it is a converter issue or not, but I do feel like these bigger houses need more power behind them.

I will be testing my theory in the driveway on the next cold snap. If it powers down I am going to drop a minn-kota three bank charger in and see is that makes the difference. I will also check voltage/amperage and will let you all know what I figure out.

One other thing that Dust noticed on his first trip was that his group 24 iced up and shut down. Luckily Dust had an extra group 27 with him. I am going to look at installing a fan that will blow some warm air into the battery area.

[pittman]

The battery is in the house when the gen is running I use mostly 110 lights and I m not positive but I can’t imagine the furnace blower sucks that much juice but could be wrong snd I think I will be puting in a second battery for piece of mind if nothing else.

[dustdevil21]

pittman wrote:
The battery is in the house when the gen is running I use mostly 110 lights and I m not positive but I can’t imagine the furnace blower sucks that much juice but could be wrong snd I think I will be puting in a second battery for piece of mind if nothing else.

Your battery is in the box right? If it is, it is vented through the floor in the bottom box and then the top box is vented through the side. So even with the battery being inside it isn’t being heated.

One of the options I am thinking about right know is is to ditch the group 27 12volt for two 6 volt golf cart batteries. These batteries are made for a constant drain and then recharge. I have found a sealed box that they will fit into. Sam’s club has the batteries for just under $100. These batteries are listed at 225 amps compared to the 90 amps for the best group 27 you can get. Hook the two 6 volts in series to get the 12volts.

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