Quieting a Suburban Furnace

[DonDeutsch]

It shouldn't depend much on the temperaure or w2hat temperature you want the camper to be. It is mostly how many hours the battery can power the fan. What does change based on temperature, is how many hours you run the furnace as designed. I am considering mostly off grid operation so probably won't be a good idea for me if it draws significant power.

[Terry G]

From what I've seen, my Suburban furnace uses about 3 amps when the fan is on. That means that if you ran the fan continuously for 8 hours, you would have used about 24 amp hours. Then you can figure that a lot of our batteries are rated 90 or 100 amp hours, but we never want to get them below 50% of their capacity. So the most you could do this is 2 nights without recharging your battery. It just doesn't seem like a good idea to me.

My advice is to buy a catalytic heater like a Wave 3 and leave a window cracked.

[DonDeutsch]

Thanks Terry.

[Oliver P]

Originally Posted by DonDeutsch

It shouldn't depend much on the temperaure or w2hat temperature you want the camper to be. It is mostly how many hours the battery can power the fan. What does change based on temperature, is how many hours you run the furnace as designed. I am considering mostly off grid operation so probably won't be a good idea for me if it draws significant power.

Don - the point I was trying to make was that if the outside temperature was very cold and you were trying to maintain a relatively high internal temperature and your trailer is not well insulated that the Suburban heater would be running most of the time anyway. To make the fan run all of the time in this situation your power usage would not be that much greater.

If i am in the bush with no hookup I just take a thicker sleeping bag.

[Russell A]

Originally Posted by Oliver P

Don - the point I was trying to make was that if the outside temperature was very cold and you were trying to maintain a relatively high internal temperature and your trailer is not well insulated that the Suburban heater would be running most of the time anyway. To make the fan run all of the time in this situation your power usage would not be that much greater.

If i am in the bush with no hookup I just take a thicker sleeping bag.

I am currently on Tear Drop Trailers and they have a topic on Cargo Trailers and I have converted one into a camper but just after my wife passed away in 2007 I sold my place and went full time into the 6x10. The reason I am on this FGRV forum is that I got a lot of my ideas from here. Thank You all!

Anyway I had a blue flame heater and just changed over to an 18,000 BTU Atwood furnace due to too much condensation in the trailer. Next year I am going to tear it all out and insulate the trailer with 1 inch foam. However I was up this morning and the temps were in the teens. Actually the night before I just installed the new furnace I got up early in the am and took a shower and came back out to the trailer at which point I turned on the blue flame heater but during my stay in the house shower I had used the electric heater and closed the top vent. Again when I came back into the trailer I turned on the blue flame (shutting off the electric heater) and spent a little time on the forum and began to get sleepy when I then just fell asleep. 2.5 hours later I woke up cold and the blue flame heater was in the on position but the flame was out. I thought the propane was out but found out that the oxygen sensor shut the blue flame heater off. It saved my life as I forgot to open the top vent. I actually like the sound. Isn't it great how some things annoy some while it is soothing to others.

Anyway This was my findings on how long a furnace runs inside an uninsulated trailer. I hope my experiences help

Because I had nothing better to do then listen to the new furnace I installed yesterday, I decided to take a one hour + study and count how many times the furnace kicked on and stayed on and then how long it stayed off in an hour + time

Here are the stats if it will help you. Honestly though I could only do it for the length of time noted as the wait was putting me back to sleep so Please appreciate my study.

Thanks
Russ

It goes from the top line to the bottom then back up to the top and back to the bottom then Well you get it.

I know you all or at least some might say I don't have a FG trailer but You help me and I just hope this helps you.


Kick on time 3:11, 3:35, 4:04
Kick off time 3:23, 3:48, 4:17

Time on 12 min, 13 min, 13 min =38 on Average about 30 on 30 off.
Time off 12 min, 16 min,

[Gerry]

Originally Posted by Gina D.

I forgot to mention that the furnace will try to fire 3 times then give up. If your fan isn't up to speed by the end of that sequence, it will never fire.

Your right Gina, and if you ever do fall asleep, due to exhaution, from not sleeping due to the noisy furnace, You will wake up to just the fan running blowing cold, cold, COLD wind through the camper.

This will also happen if you run out of propane.

[Borden]

We just fixed our stock trailer furnace. Durring the day could not hear it but feel the heat. At night might be different. Is your furnace the original unit?

[Gerry]

Originally Posted by Borden

We just fixed our stock trailer furnace. Durring the day could not hear it but feel the heat. At night might be different. Is your furnace the original unit?

I have a 79 Boler 13 footer and when I got it 7 years ago it had a Duo-Therm, standing pilot model, that was possesed. It would work fine when tested before a trip then after going down the road about 40 miles to camp it wouldn't or visa-versa.
I finally got an older suburban heater, of the same design and demensions out of an older junk pop-up with a triangular heat chamber.
These have the fan on the back that blows (hopefully warmed air) out the front of the tunnel.
I see no way to cover the noise without cutting out the heat so I live with it.
The other night with temps in the single digits F. I lay in bed counting seconds of on-off cycles and with it set at 70 on thermostate it was on for 63 seconds (fire only, not fan as it turns on prior and of later) and 140 seconds of total quiet.
Not quite enough time to fall asleep.<_<Gerry

[Flygal]

earplugs...much cheaper

[shawn bertagnole]

Has anyone looked at the Espar marine heaters? Seemingly very quiet and super heaters, though a little diesel fuel and tank are needed. They work very well in Semi truck cabs and small sailboats, why not a 13' scamp? Well they do cost around $1200 but they draw far less amps and can run a long time with almost zero noise via several blower and heat output settings. Here is a link:
Espar Heater Systems | A World of Comfort | Air Heaters

Check out all parts of the site, including the video that shows how they work. http://espar.com/html/videos/vid_airheater.html Then look into Ebay, new and used there. I was thinking the small airtronic 2, or 4. In place of suburban or maybe locate under seat? Love to hear some others chime in. -Shawn