Hello everybody,
With the cold temps up north this year our furnace had to run quite a bit over the last few night out camping for the first time with a camper. I know camper furnaces are loud but how much noise should it make?
I understand that the blower makes noise but when the fan kicks in, there is a tinging sound until the fan gets up to speed. Again when the fan starts to shut down and is almost stopped we get the ting, ting, ting sound again. Any ideas?
I would like to take the housing off but don't want to open a can of worms. Can I safely take off the housing and take a look or could that mess things up?
I know pretty soon we won't be needing it any longer but it is enough to wake us up when it kicks in.
I betcha you have a Suburban furnace. They LOVE to be fixed, and when you get them to reliably kick on and shut down, they start with the frigin noise. In my case, it took half a winter to get it to run right, then the noise started. So, I pulled it out AGAIN, threw 12V onto the blower, and located the noise issuing forth from the left side of the blower. Seems the squirel cage was intermittantly hitting something - if I remember correctly, it was the high voltage wire bracket, or something close. It was obvious. By now, I have pulled it out often enough to have weakened the copper LPG feedpipe, and also the flare supply fitting has developed a crack, so as of this weekend, I have the feed line stopped off with a flare plug. I'm sure, after I have a licensed plumber buddy re-plumb it with new fitttings and an in-line shutoff, it'll be peaceful till next winter. Suburban - phhhhttttt!!
Joe
I "had" a noisy Atwood furnace until I removed the blower cover and discovered the squirrel cages (one on each end of the motor) were too close to the frame and the exhaust extension had worked loose. Although they had a keeper on them, a little effort with my hands moved the cages on the shaft enough to stop the noise. The exhaust extension only needed the wing nut tightened some. While you have the blower covered off, if you have any electric contact cleaner, service the sail switch as well.
When you remove the housing, keep track of the wire locations and you should be fine. Everything else was pretty straightforward.
BTW, it was whisper quiet until I attached the cover... but still not quite as bad as it was, lol.
FWIW, I added some more gasket material to the cover to improve the seal on the return air chamber. Mine was pulling in a lot of outside air, and it did make the heater more efficient in my opinion.
Good luck..
Michael, Kay, Hans (our Mini-Schnauzer co-pilot) and Prissy (Hans' Malti-Poo co-pilot)
'05 Coachmen SportsCoach SE 372DS a.k.a. "Mana's Cabana"
Thanks everybody for the replies. I took off the end cap of the furnace housing. There are a couple of screws right at the end going into the floor.(It is a Suburban by the way.) As far as I can tell those are the only exposed screws. If I take those out, will the furnace just pull away from the wall or is there more to it that I'm not seeing?
Also when I looked inside with a light from the end there was a regular fan at the opposite end. Would mine be set up differently or is that not the blower fan?
Mos - there are actually two sections on that blower. The larger one, generally to the left, moves the air out into the living area and sucks the cooler air back. (Don't get me started on the return ducting) The smaller blower/fan on the right is the one that supplies air for the furnace flame, more commonly called combustion air.
As far as the screws, yes, they are commonly the two that hold the furnace to the coach. BUT - BEWARE - somewhere there is a small diameter pipe, likely copper, that feeds LPG to the unit. (commonly on the left side) Hooefully, you will likely not need to pull the furnace out more than a few inches to find the problem, so the gas fitting should not be a factor. But, should you need to totally yank out the furnace, that pipe needs to be removed first. If you pull too much, you might kink that supply line or compromise the connection fitting. Got to be a bit careful here.
When you can get to the blower, remove the plug from the circuit board (controller) and put 12VDC directly to the blower wire. I bet the noise source will be obvious. Before re-installing the plug, you might wipe the board contacts down with alcohol, then dry them off, just as a precautionary measure.
Joe
My furnace is so loud that I never use it. I compare it to a jet taking off it's so noisy. I use electric portable usually.
Retired Anesthetist. Pilot with mechanic/inspection ratings.1996 Jayco C 22 foot with 460/Banks Powerpak/Bilsteins.Wife and daughter. Two cats which control my life. 1975 Ford F-250, 84 Coupe Deville, Thorp T18, tons of tools and tons of junk.
Welcome to RV'ing, and lousey RV Furance Noises. We also never use our RV Furance at all. We use a Wave #6 Propane Heater instead. And if we need more heat then that, we also have a Mr Heater. We have found that between these two heaters, we can handle any temps we want to. Our Fresh Water Tank is on the insdie of our 5er, so we don't have to worry about any freezing issues. Our 5er is not an all-Season 5er, but it does have extra insulation that most non-all season 5er's don't have. And of coarse, do to our 5er's size, it is very easy to keep warm. RV Furances are just to darn noisey, and sucks way to much propane, and also does nothing but drain your RV's battries down. By using alternitive Heating, we can stay much longer Dry-Camping, and also use the generator a lot less often. Our Wave #6 Heater, and the Mr heater, have been one of the best investments we have made to our 5er. They sure make our twin 30 lb propane tanks last so much longer. Plus we really enjoy the peace and quite. I also got rid of every noise maker in our 5er. No more noisey Bathroom Fan anymore, and no more over the Hood Range Noisey Fan either. I installed Three Shurflo Comfort Fans in our 5er. One Silver Series for the Bathroom, and Two Gold Series Fans, one in the rear Kitchen, and one right over the bed in the Loft. A huge plus, as we can run our fans with the lid closed, and use them just like regular Ceiling Fans. And run our fan or fans on the intake, and force all the rising heat back down where it is really needed. Good Luck. Happy Camping, Dan & Jill
1997 Ford F-250, H.D. Extended-Cab, Short Bed, 7.3 PSD, K&N Air Filter, 5000 lbs air bags w/on board compressor w/guage, SuperChips Tuner/Programer. 1996 Nash 24fter 5er, 15K "Lil" Rocker Hitch w/BedSaver, Twin EU2000i Gen's W/Kit. Nam-Vet, 33 Months.
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