Propane furnace maintenance

[Daniel V.]

We have an old Duo-Therm furnace (65211-2) in our 74 Trillium which works nicely and keeps us warm. However, I would bet that no particular maintenance has been done on it for many years, and I was wondering if any preventive measures should be taken on these types of furnaces, other than vacuuming the cobwebs out every once in a while and checking for gas leaks, such as cleaning out nozzles or other inside parts.

[Carol Ann in TO]

I'm not going to pretend that I know what to look for with respect to the actual working parts but I do know that when we had ours professionally inspected it was discovered that the heavy steel vent tube at the back had totally rusted out. Essentially, it was no longer able to totally send the gasses out the back but was allowing some leakage into the compartment. It didn't surprise us that it might occur after 35 years but I don't think we would have noticed that ourselves...

[Chester Taje]

In my older units which i have owned i had them checked by a RV teck. One of the big problems other than a good cleaning was cracked propane lines which had to be replaced.

[Mike Taylor]

I have an old Dou-Therm in my 1973 Compact II. You might want to carry a spare thermo-coupler for the pilot light. Mine started having trouble lighting the pilot until I replaced it.

[Joe Loiacono]

We have an old Duo-Therm furnace (65211-2) in our 74 Trillium which works nicely and keeps us warm. However, I would bet that no particular maintenance has been done on it for many years, and I was wondering if any preventive measures should be taken on these types of furnaces, other than vacuuming the cobwebs out every once in a while and checking for gas leaks, such as cleaning out nozzles or other inside parts.

I have a 1970 Trillium 4500 and the furnace seemed to be in good shape but when I tried to light it would not. There were spider webs in the pilot tube. You should check this out because you will never get the pilot lit without the proper flow of gas. This is a common problem with all the gas systems on the trailer.