Furnace questions

[dennisl]

I have a Mountaineer with a rear kitchen (07 Model 307RKD). The furnace is mounted under the kitchen stove, with 4 floor registers. When the furnace is running, the two registers (one in the kitchen and one in the living room) get a lot of warm air expelled, but the one in the bathroom and one in the bedroom get very little warm air at all. Obviously, the two closest to the furnace fan will distribute more air, but is there any reason why the back ones get almost no flow? Is this normal, or do you have suggestions to improve the air flow to the other areas? I tried temporarily laying a rug over the living room one to see if it would matter, but not much difference. Any info appreciated.

[Cyrus]

My 329RLT Mountaineer seems to have equal flow out of all vents but the furnace is basically in the center under the kitchen sink. That is not much help to your problem but if you block off the rear vents and the flow forward does not increase sounds like something is blocking the main duct line.

Has the unit been this way since it was new or is this a new problem? The duct has to go up to get to the bathroom and bedroom so I would suspect something is wrong at that point. I have not looked at my camper to see how they make that turn to get it the bathroom but if you take the plywood off the pass thru wall you should be able to see and tell if that is where the problem and with the furnace running. If pipe has come loose you will feel it also.

Good luck.

[exav8tr]

I think the problem is trying to send a duck up a duct!!!!

Lordy, I gotta get a life!!!!

Sounds like you have a blocked duct somewhere, maybe a kink??? Would that be a kinky duck? Oh no, I did it again...HELLLLLLLLPPPPPPP!!!!!!

[dennisl]

Phil, you are a sick man! Just kidding, heaven knows we need a little humor nowadays. Anyway, thanks for the replies. I will go crawl in the basement and see what I can find.

[Rondo]

Phil-- I think you inhaled to much JP4 fumes while in the AF!

[exav8tr]

Ya Think???

[sailer]

I think he got tooooooooooo many fumes at the keystone rv site last sept or maybe it was in the coffee sailer

[dennisl]

quote:Originally posted by Cyrus

My 329RLT Mountaineer seems to have equal flow out of all vents but the furnace is basically in the center under the kitchen sink. That is not much help to your problem but if you block off the rear vents and the flow forward does not increase sounds like something is blocking the main duct line.

Has the unit been this way since it was new or is this a new problem? The duct has to go up to get to the bathroom and bedroom so I would suspect something is wrong at that point. I have not looked at my camper to see how they make that turn to get it the bathroom but if you take the plywood off the pass thru wall you should be able to see and tell if that is where the problem and with the furnace running. If pipe has come loose you will feel it also.

Good luck.

Thanks for the suggestion. I just came back from checking this out, and it looks like the problem is just a poor design - cheap materials. When the duct transitions from the lower level to the upper level, it is connected with a flexible, "tin foil" round contraption very similar to a dryer vent. The air has to move up and around a very "bumpy" surface to get to the top duct. This tin foil is very thin and uninsulated also. Looks like the only way to fix it would be to fabricate some sheet metal or aluminum stove-pipe type material to make the transition. Since we don't use it much in very cold weather, this might be a future project. Hope this might help someone else with a similar problem.

[Rondo]

Dennis-- Go to Lowes, Home Depot, Menards or Ace Hardware and pick up a transition joint or elbow. That's what I call them anyway. They are the one that you can manouver into different configurations. They are a lot more rigid and can be set up to make your angle to head up to the bedroom area. When you get the right angle just take or cut the other out and put the new one in and "duct tape" it onto the other pipes or ducts. If needed you could put bubble wrap around it but don't think that would do that much good for you since you are in Georgia. By the way, what part of Georgia are you from. I have a brother-in-law that lives near Montezuma!!

[Cyrus]

I have not looked at mine but are you telling me they went from the rectangular pipe that you see in the floor to round flexible stuff then back to rectangular? I will be looking at mine; maybe I should change or insulate it also.

[dennisl]

quote:Originally posted by Cyrus

I have not looked at mine but are you telling me they went from the rectangular pipe that you see in the floor to round flexible stuff then back to rectangular? I will be looking at mine; maybe I should change or insulate it also.

Yes, it went from regular rectangular ductwork to this round flexible stuff, then back to the upper rectangular duct. Now, I don't know if this is true for all models - mine is a rear kitchen with the furnace mounted under the kitchen stove at the extreme rear of the trailer. That is the reason I said that it seemed to be poorly designed. Looks like this was the absolute cheapest way they could have made the transition from lower to upper. I really don't think there would be a good way to insulate it like it is, the biggest problem is restricted air flow, not heat loss.

[sreigle]

A short term "fix" that might work is to replace the vent covers with the adjustable kind. We did that in ours. Same size you can get at Lowe's and Home Depot. We can then "shut down" or reduce flow in those getting a lot of air, forcing more air to the other vents. If that doesn't give you enough air upstairs, then consider some revamping of the system.

Ours is just the opposite. Too much upstairs. We use the adjustable vents but still got too much hot air in the bedroom. A little foamboard inside the vent covers to block off 2/3 of the vent made a big difference.