Furnace Maintenance

[gator67]

I read an article recently that said the furnace should have maintenance done periodically... i.e. taken apart an cleaned out. Has anyone had any maintenance done? Anyone know what the recommendations are? We've had the coach for 5 1/2 years and never had anything done, but it seems to be working fine.

[SteveS]

I have never done anything to mine other than start it up once in awhile. Never did anything to my previous coach either.

[takepride]

I've opened mine up while investigating for a filter, quite clean inside. I checked the intake and exhaust tubes, clear. If you live in an area where rodents or insect might try to get inside, I'd check seasonally. Spiders and mud daubers are attracted to the natural gas, so do a visual when you wash. Shine a light up the tubes.

[justimagination]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SteveS I have never done anything to mine other than start it up once in awhile. Never did anything to my previous coach either.

Same here........I do take the compressor and blow them out really good twice a year. No problems, good service.
David G.

[Old Rv'er]

The recommendations above are mostly what needs to be done. Take the outer cover off, blow out any acumlated dirt, and make sure bees and spiders have not nested in those out/in blower vents. If the furnace has been replaced and under warranty, make sure you take off the little screens you might have installed over the incoming/outgoing vent holes, as Suburban and Attwood will void the warranty if they authorized tech find them on the units. Their belief is it disrupts the airflow to the furnace and could cause exhaust gas to be taken into the combustion side of the unit. What my suggestion is, leave them one when the unit is not being used, and before you take it out, remove those covers as one of the pre deaprture things we all do.

About every three years it's a good idea to have the gas pressure checked at the regulator. It should be done with a digital manometer. Now with that said, since our coach only has one propane device, i.e., the cook stove, I have not done that. However, with coaches, that have the standard type water heater, cook stove and standard furnace (not hydro hot), it's a good idea to think about having that done about every 3-5 years, as the rubber and springs inside the two stage regulator get old and might weaken over time. A simple adjustment can then be done to the regulator to put its output back to the specified requirement. I have special tools I use to do this service. If you are at Quartzsite, we can discuss it, and I can demonstrate how it's done at that time. However, many so called techs will take a cook stove burner, remove it and use that port to see what the gas level is-WRONG, WRONG and wrong. The better way is the way we were taught in class, and I have the specific tools to do it correctly.