Do we have a furnace issue?

[DonandBonnie]

Last fall we replaced our floor heat registers with those decorative ones from Lowes. The part that fits into the floor with the adjustable louvers is made of plastic. The two in the living room/kitchen area are perfect, however the one in the bedroom gets hot. Over the winter the plastic parts all warped out of shape from the heat and the part that sits on the carpet gets hot enough that its uncomfortable to walk on with bare feet. Before anyone gets worried, it does not get so hot that there is a fire threat. We keep the thermostat on 71 degrees for heat. Do we have an issue?

[jcurtis934]

The outlet of the furnace is close to the bedroom heat vent and will get the hottest. I have a metal adjustable vent in mine and when closed, it does get warm...but not to flameable temps. You should never have more than one of the three closed or reduced as this would restrict the furnace. John

[DQDick]

Actually, the furnace manufacturer when asked at a national Rally said that you shouldn't ever have any of them closed and shouldn't run the furnace with the slides in if any of the vents are even partially closed. I know they're just covering their behinds, and I have metal closing registers, but I always make sure they are all open when the furnace is running.

[DonandBonnie]

This is good to know. The registers in the living area are never closed. We would prefer a cooler bedroom at night, but we haven't closed that register for fear that the heat would be too great.

[richfaa]

The one by the bed is a foot burner .I keep it closed and covered. It is placed in exactly the right spot to toast my feet.

[Irlpguy]

If you were to open up the wall in your basement you would see the back of the furnace, in most instances there is a vent that runs from the wall at the steps to the front of the basement, this is fed from the furnace by a 4" hose directly off the back of the furnace, the only register in this vent is the one in the bedroom. It is close to the furnace and receives the hottest of air from the furnace. There are two smaller 2" hoses that run (1) to the bathroom register if you want to call that thing a register and (2) another that dangles down into the void above the enclosed frame, this is your main source of heat to prevent the tanks etc from freezing. You can see this in the following picture.



The bedroom register gets very hot, too hot to stand on and very little heat into the shower area. I used light aluminum and closed off 3/4 of the bedroom vent, I then (after measuring several times) cut a hole in the floor beside the shower and added another register, this is fed by the same vent as the bedroom and heats the shower area nicely and reduces the amount of air going to the register in the bedroom. Solved two issues at one time, cooler bedroom and warmer shower area.

There is no need to worry about a fire danger from the hot air coming from the furnace, the register will be "very" warm but not a danger. The following picture shows the new register installed in the shower area. One of the better mods I have done on my 3402RL.