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Old 12-03-2012, 10:46 PM   #1
Mike L123
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Really Loud Furnace

Hello Everyone!

In our 2011 318SAB The furnace noise from the air intake grate (under the fridge unit) has always been, since new, very loud. By noise I mean only the sound of air intake - no other mechanical or otherwise egregious noises are heard - just really loud whooshing of air. Several of our guests have commented that they have never heard such a loud furnace and of late, yes my hearing is getting worse, we have had to turn the volume up on the TV a few notches to compensate for the furnace noise. From the outside our furnace sounds pretty much like all of the other furnaces we hear running here in the CG. When we visit friends in other RV's their furnaces are incredibly quiet inside the RV when running compared to ours.

For those of you other Cougar owners and other interested parties out there in Keystone Land, any complaints or comments about how loud your furnace noises are?

I took the intake grate off and peeked at the furnace tonight. It is pretty grotty, dusty and dirty in there and other than that I haven't got much of a clue. I can only see 1 piece of flex hose exiting the furnace on the RH side and I have no idea where it goes to (I'm thinking bathroom and bedroom). There is no ducting off of the left hand side of the furnace, the front two holes are closed off, as are the LH side ones. The only other vents are under the furnace and there is no duct hose, just ducts that I assume lead to the underbelly enclosures, the basement and the channel that feed the kitchen and living room heater ducts.

The furnace is a Suburban SF 30F if that is important. Thanks for reading!

Cheers!

Mike
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Old 12-04-2012, 05:32 AM   #2
JRTJH
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Mike,

Suburban furnaces don't use a filter, and the air inlets are the cutout areas at the sides and top of the furnace closest to the trailer sidewall. It is very possible that one side or the top of the inlet air ducts is covered with trash or otherwise blocked. The increased rush of air through the remaining return air openings would cause a lot of noise. If you're seeing a "mess of dust and stuff" in that area, you may well have dirt and debris on the wheel of the fan. That would definitely cause noise. As for only seeing one flexible duct coming out of the furnace, there may be one or two on the bottom of the furnace cabinet that go directly to the heating ducts in the "sub basement" and then along the floor of the coach. The front panel comes off and you can get to most of the electronics, etc, but the fan and distribution system are behind all that and a little harder to access. It's not impossible, just difficult working in that small area. getting a flexible vaccuum hose into the trailer cabinet and cleaning alongside the furnace might help a lot. My bet would be that there is dirt and blockage either to the return air vents in the furnace housing or on the fan wheel.

Here is the link to Suburban's Furnace Manual:

http://bryantrv.com/docs2/docs/subntnew.pdf

In the last couple of pages, they discuss warranty. Your furnace is probably out of warranty, but in that area, they list times for repair. Replacement of the fan wheel is a 0.5 hr setup and a 0.4 hour repair. That's about an hour for an "experienced" RV mechanic to remove and replace the fan wheel. You should be able to remove and clean your wheel (and the inside of the furnace around the wheel) in somewhere near that or close to that time frame. If you do decide to take the "front" off your furnace and look inside, you'll see a host of electronics and gas lines, look past them and you'll see the wheel there, "ripe for the cleaning"
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Old 12-04-2012, 07:41 AM   #3
raytronx
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I have a similar setup in my Cougar Fifth wheel and its been loud since new. There is no dust in there. I usually have to turn the TV up a bit when it's running and my hearing is good. The noise I hear is less a rushing air sound and more the fan. I don't believe the furnace is faulty though, I think that's just the way it is.

Ray
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Old 12-04-2012, 09:43 AM   #4
hankaye
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Mike L123, Howdy;

Quote:
Originally Posted by raytronx View Post
I have a similar setup in my Cougar Fifth wheel and its been loud since new. There is no dust in there. I usually have to turn the TV up a bit when it's running and my hearing is good. The noise I hear is less a rushing air sound and more the fan. I don't believe the furnace is faulty though, I think that's just the way it is.

Ray
Same for me, barely hear it in the bedroom area.

hankaye
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Old 12-04-2012, 09:21 PM   #5
Mike L123
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Hi All!

Thank you for your input on this post. It is good to read that I am not the only one with a loud furnace in a 318SAB. I cleaned the furnace area out tonight and took some images for you to have a look at if you have some time. Thank you also to JRTJH for the link to the Suburban web page - lots of good information in your reply and thanks for your time and effort!

The main reason that I felt compelled to post this query was that I have been in several different RV's in the CG here helping the campers skirt their rigs and resolve problems with their computers and connectivity. I have heard all kinds of furnaces in the rigs and have never encountered one as loud as ours.

Here is the photobucket link to the images that I took. I hope that the link works for you. If not please let me know and I will fix it up.

http://s173.beta.photobucket.com/use...ace%20Pictures

Cheers!

Mike and Carol
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Acquired 2017/05/05 - 2012 F350 Lariat CC SRW,
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Carol, My wonderful wife of 41 years
Kenzie Schweenie Tod, our furry faced Shih 't n Dash
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Old 12-05-2012, 05:56 PM   #6
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Mine is also quite loud compared to my last two 5'rs. It works well, so I guess I can live with it. I mostly just use the elect. fire place on cool nights.
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