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Old 04-24-2003, 04:41 PM   #1
Wrench
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Default Heater Tweaks

We got back from a week in Yosemite recently. Before the trip, I checked out the Suburban forced air heater and found that after operating it for a while, the kitchen cabinet it is mounted in and the countertop became pretty warm. I knew this wasn't right and investigated. What I found is a simple to fix manufacturing issue that I thought I'd pass along. Read on...

The front grill of the heater is separated into three distinct areas. First is the center part where the heated air is  blown out into the room. The perimeter of the grill is the cold air return portion, and the small rectangular part on the lower right is an isolated cold air intake to cool thegas valve, regulator and circuit board.

Consider that the TM kitchen cabinet is quite a bit deeper than the heater body.The heater body stops well short of the front of the cabinet. By removing the two screws that hold the grill to the front of the cabinet and pulling out the drawer above it, I found the the TM folks fashioned a rectangular sheet metal "duct" to extend the front of the heater unit out to meet the grill. Herein lies the first of two problems. The sheet metal duct is fastened to the heater body with duct tape. The duct had been somewhat carelessly installed and ended about an inch short of the grill. So when the heater operates, some of the heated air meant for the room, is sucked back into the kitchen cabinet (cold air return) to be heated again and exhausted again. A clear waste of heat, and possibly a fire hazard.

To fix this, I removed the duct, old tape, cleaned the duct and repositioned it so it extended 1 3/8" past the face of the cabinet, and checked that it met squarely with the grill when I held it in position. I used a screw to stabilize the duct to the cabinet and sealed the duct to the heater body with fresh duct tape.

I then realized that TM had not extended the chamber the regulator and circuit board are housed in so it too would meet the intake at the lower right portion of the grill. The result is that this area gets heated (it shouldn't). If you can't envision what I'm talking about, it will be obvious once you remove the grill from the front of the unit. I fashioned a piece of roof flashing I found in garage to solve this problem. After taking dimensions, I bent the flashing at a right angle and used duct tape to fasten it to the sides of the ducting, effectively extending the chamber to meet the intake vents on the grill. Simple and effective.

The heater now blows more heated air into the room and the cabinet stays cool. The heater performed flawlessly on our rainy & snowy trip.

So, next time you use your heater, feel the cabinetry and see if it is warm. If so, think about doing this modification.

Happy TrailManoring...


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Old 04-25-2003, 02:22 AM   #2
arknoah
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Default Re: Heater Tweaks

Thanks for the advice.  There's one more thing to look into this weekend!
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