suburban furnace air mixture control?

[thatscool]

I am trying to find the air mixture for my furnace. Iam geting soot on the outside and fumes on the inside. sure I have too much yellow flame but cant seem to find the adjustment....anyone?

[Inland RV Center, In]

Originally Posted by thatscool

I am trying to find the air mixture for my furnace. Iam geting soot on the outside and fumes on the inside. sure I have too much yellow flame but cant seem to find the adjustment....anyone?

If you have soot on the outside, you will also have soot on the inside of the combustion chamber.

Remove the furnace, take the burner log out, and clean the inside of the combustion chamber.

Once you have the burner log out, you will easily see how you adjust the air mixture.

Be prepared to replace all the gaskets.

If you do not remove the furnace and clean the soot, dust and dirt, as well as the rust from the inside of the combustion chamber, your furnace will never operate correctly, until you do.

If your not sure "how to," then purchase a "service manual" for your year trailer. That manual is very informative on many subjects that a DIY needs to know.

Andy

[thatscool]

Thanks for the reply, I have no experience with furnaces, but willing to learn. I will be calling you soon to order the gaskets. here goes....

[Excella CM]

Inspect the outside air intake and exhaust. Something may have set up housekeeping in the intake.

[thatscool]

Like I said, I have no experience with furnaces, I feel this is a dumb question, but where is the intake located?.

[azflycaster]

On the outside of the trailer, looks like this:

[thatscool]

Thanks for the picture. I will revisit this furnace problem later. for now I am going to focus of refurbishing the exterior.

[Inland RV Center, In]

Originally Posted by thatscool

Thanks for the picture. I will revisit this furnace problem later. for now I am going to focus of refurbishing the exterior.

Are you upgrading the exterior lights to LED's?

After you make you basic exterior upgrade decisions, make sure you check all the exterior gaskets, especially the sewer vent pipe cover gaskets.

Andy

[thatscool]

I bought a 31 foot land yaght last summer, I will be slowly compunding it throughout the winter until I achieve a high polish. I am probably going to paint the roof white, and will be replacing all the blue trim and pinstriping and gaskets as needed.
When I get further into this I am sure I will be ordering alot of stuff from Inland RV.
I went camping and got the "there goes the neighborood" look from the lady at the gate.
I am looking to get a compounder and begin the process. I am not sure what a compounder is exactly. angle grinder? where do I get nuvite? and wool bonnets?

[Mexray]

BTW...the burner air adjustment on your furnace can be acessed by removing the small oval plate with two screws that's just below the ignition probes, in the lower left side, after you've removed the main large cover acess plate.

Here's how the installation manual explains it:

"Burner Adjustment,
To adjust pirmary air to the main burner, the small sheet metal cover found just below and to the right of the lighter opening must be removed. Behind the cover is a slotted screw head. With a screwdriver, turn the screwhead CCW for less primary, and CW for more primary air.

A symptom of too much primary air will be a howling or screeching noise when the burner is on (reduce air to correct).

A symptom of too little primary air will be sooting of the exterior vent and a distinct yellow and floating flame (increase air to correct).

A hard blue flame is the sign of correct adjustment."

[Inland RV Center, In]

Originally Posted by Mexray

BTW...the burner air adjustment on your furnace can be acessed by removing the small oval plate with two screws that's just below the ignition probes, in the lower left side, after you've removed the main large cover acess plate.

Here's how the installation manual explains it:

"Burner Adjustment,
To adjust pirmary air to the main burner, the small sheet metal cover found just below and to the right of the lighter opening must be removed. Behind the cover is a slotted screw head. With a screwdriver, turn the screwhead CCW for less primary, and CW for more primary air.

A symptom of too much primary air will be a howling or screeching noise when the burner is on (reduce air to correct).

A symptom of too little primary air will be sooting of the exterior vent and a distinct yellow and floating flame (increase air to correct).

A hard blue flame is the sign of correct adjustment."

All the above is as true today as it ever was.

But, every furnace collects gobs of dirt and bugs as well, within the combustion chamber.

Therefore it is "very wise" to pull the furnace, disassemble it on a bench, and get all the dirt and juck out.

We do that for our customers, while the are standing there watch, whenever we can.

It's interesting how many jaws drop to the floor when we dump the dirt and rust out on a paper sheet.

The typical comment is "I would have never believed it."

Be safe. Clean the furnace internally every 5 years.

CAUTION. Blowing air through the inlet or outlet, is a waste of time, and DOES NOT properly clean the furnace.

Also, for those owners with older coaches, gaskets do go bad, more often than you think. Having the furnace on the bench, allows visiual inspection, which is superior to "I think they are ok."

Be safe, not sorry.

Andy

[HiHoAgRV]

If your '77 furnace is like mine, the main burner is cast iron and the flame shoots from slots cut in the burner, unlike the holes in the latter stamped units. These slots rust up, reducing the flow and messing up the mixture causing soot to form. There is an air mixture adjustment but it has no effect on one thats in need of major maintance. By removing the furnace, pulling the burner and cleaning the slots you will get the performance back to a point where the mixture adjuster will allow tweeking of the flame color.

While it's out CAREFULLY inspect the stamped combustion chamber for holes/weak areas, these are the failure points that cause headline news and horror stories of furnace deaths.

My combustion chamber looked great so I have no issue with using a 32 year old furnace (with the addition of a CO Monitor...)