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BurbMan's avatar
BurbMan
Explorer II
Oct 20, 2020

Atwood Furnace - no air thru ducts

I have an older Atwood furnace in my 2002 Lance 811 truck camper. Looks like this:



It works great and boy does it put out the heat from the main grill like you see in the picture.

The issue is there are also 4 connected ducts: one for the holding tanks, one in the bathroom, one in the bedroom, and one by the floor under the sink. Very little if any air comes out of these ducts. The ductwork appears to be connected and not crushed or obstructed, so I don't see any obvious reason why there is no airflow.

Anybody familiar with this model that can give me some pointers on where to look?
  • Terryallan's avatar
    Terryallan
    Explorer II
    Oct 20, 2020
    Mine does the same thing. I don't know why. But it gets hot, really hot
  • dougrainer's avatar
    dougrainer
    Nomad
    Oct 20, 2020
    Because this design is to blow out HOT air thru the front grill. It is rare for any of the round ducts to be used when this type model is used. BUT, when you do connect the 4 inch or 1.5 inch flexible ducts, that is to just get a small amount of heat to the connected hoses and areas. I have never had this complaint, but I have never seen the duct hoses utilized. You would have to block off the the detachable front grill where the hot air comes out to force the air thru the duct hoses. Doug
  • BurbMan's avatar
    BurbMan
    Explorer II
    Oct 20, 2020
    I was thinking there might be a damper or something inside the unit that would enable you to set how much air goes thru the ducts vs the main grille. I wonder if a piece of sheet metal blocking a portion of the main grille would serve that function and force more air thru the ducts? Or would the unit just overheat and shut down....

    The t-stat is on the wall directly across from the unit, so when it comes on it quickly heats up the immediate area and shuts off. After a few minutes of natural convection with the hot air going up into the cabover area and the cold air flowing down, the heater lights again. So the result is a lot of short cycling. It got down to about 39* up in the PA mountains last weekend and it seemed like the furnace was only off for 2-3 mins before it would start up again.

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