Duct cleaning, any ideas?

westend wrote:

LarryJM wrote:

westend wrote:
I wonder how a leaf blower and a furnace filter to catch the debris would work?

I know you and a couple of others are actually trying to help and offer solutions, but I think if you found what I did and saw how flimsy and fragile this ducting might be I would again caution one NOT to attempt anything that might put undo stress on this ducting. I for one sure would not be trying to pressurize or attempt to use something like a leaf blower in fear of "blowing" any duct connections apart (I had a couple because of the long runs of close to 20' for one duct) or even blowing a hole in the ducting itself. I think the ducting might be paper thin because that provides better heat into the enclosed underbelly by simple radiation so it's now one of these "TWO SIDED SWORD" things where a singular purpose trumps all other considerations. In general if you have an enclosed underbelly with the ducting in there it's not generally easy to get access to major areas of the underbelly to inspect or fix things and you might only know you have created a big issue is when you are freezing on that first cold day 6 mo from now because something is now wrong with your hidden and fairly inaccessible heat system ducting.

Just due to the "NATURE OF THE BEAST" some of these RV systems are very atypical of what we think of based on our normal experiences and we need to be every mindful of that when we start "MUCKING" around with them.

Larry

Cautions noted.

If the duct that is normally used is that fragile, I'd pull it all and replace it. I know that's just me, though, and beyond what most would do.

Insulated duct would be my choice of replacement and if under floor heating is needed, I'd install separate registers.

That's definitely one way to go and I have considered using the insulated ducting, but after a lot of noodling I decided against it.
This decision was based on many factors such as I would have to add mods to replace the heat I might loose and I didn't know how to do that and not loose what I already had. I have mounted a remote temp sensor in my underbelly in the general location of all the main water lines and where they go across the trailer from side to side and there is a lot of general radiate heat that gets into the underbelly area just from the heat soaking of the floor in the trailer and when you use the furnace the temp shoots up really fast. Thus I decided to just put some extra insulation in the underbelly when I did my major upgrade to that portion of the trailer. Details can be found in THIS ALBUM. At some point if I ever have the opportunity I might install some of the insulated type ducting in the front portion of the longest duct run mainly to try and get better heat back to the furtherist register.

Larry