Atwood Furnace Door
Good afternoon everyone. If you have an Atwood Furnace and are having problems with your furnace not starting, this is what I have done to correct ours! We have a 2017 3791RD Montana 5th Wheel. Every time it would rain and we then attempted to run the furnace to take the dampness off inside, the furnace would flutter and then shut off. I took the outer door (Plastic) and the exhaust off to find that there was water inside in the igniting chamber, preventing it from starting. If I played with it about 15 minutes or so, it would finally start. Upon removing the door and finding water inside, I called Atwood/Dometic as Atwood was bought out by Dometic regarding the problem. At this point they said I needed a Safety Relocation Kit installed on the furnace to prevent the mother board from getting wet. I said the water was getting in around the door to the furnace and asked if there was a gasket for the door, as the rubber backing on the door was all wet from water getting into the furnace area. I was informed no, there was no seal for the door. I put electrical around the door until I could find out what to do. It rained several times and no water had gotten into the furnace when it rained. I then started to look for a rubber seal I could use around the plastic furnace door. I went to Lowes and found a five foot rubber seal with fold over edge that is used when installing house windows, which seals the window from around the jam. I cut off the rounded over edge and then trimmed it to equal sizes on both sides. I then started at the bottom center of the door and pushed it over the edge, all around the door, completing it at the bottom. It was tight enough that no glue was needed. I put the door and exhaust pipe back which fitted snuggly and had no play in it as it had before. It has rained several times, with once getting three inches of rain in two days. There was no water leak, and nothing got into the furnace area effecting the furnace. Why can't Atwood make a regular gasket that goes around the furnace door to solve this problem? Hopefully if someone else has this problem, the same will work for them.
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