Furnace Fire hazard

[charlesdennis01]

I want to make everyone aware of a potential fire hazard I encountered while I was trying to figured out why my furnace (AFMD35121_ _A) made by ATWOOD was smoking, almost killed my family and burned my RV to the ground. After taking the furnace out to find out why it was smoking I found a fault, the sheet metal used to protect the floor(plywood and linoleum)under the furnace is not protecting all the hot surfaces in contact with the floor causing the linoleum to dry up with time and subsequently cause a fire. If you are interested I have pictures and video that I can send. Please get the word out we could safe lives.

[beemerphile1]

My Suburban sits directly on the vinyl, no problems after 10 years of use. I did pull it out a year ago for service, floor underneath looked like new.

[charlesdennis01]

[azrving]

Use this

[charlesdennis01]

time2roll wrote:
Let's see those pictures....

if you can give me a hand on how to post pictures here I will post all the pictures I have, with a detail explanation of what is that you are looking, some folks here are really critical of how things are being said, but is ok it takes all kinds to make this world go around.

[charlesdennis01]

Old-Biscuit wrote:
Once again an RV component is blamed when in fact it is the fault of the RV MFG and their 'piece mill workers' slapping the components in place with no regard to the actual installation instructions that are provided by the component mfg :S

I will have to agree with you, actually I got to talked to a friend in Texas that worked for one of the companies that build RV and told me, companies cutting corners to maximize profit i.e. not installing all the necessary parts or leaving unfinished work because is cheaper for the companies to pay the work done after, normally the person doing the work is either the owner that won't charge the company for the work because he or she is not qualify by the company, or the tech doing the work will charge less than what they actually expend doing the work the first time. It'a all about how much money we can get without expending much.

[time2roll]

Let's see those pictures....

[2oldman]

piecemeal workers.

[Old-Biscuit]

Once again an RV component is blamed when in fact it is the fault of the RV MFG and their 'piece mill workers' slapping the components in place with no regard to the actual installation instructions that are provided by the component mfg :S

[charlesdennis01]

wa8yxm wrote:
Ditto on the improper install.. They are very specific in the installers manual. Someone should have read it.

One of my faults is I read manuals. 🙂

Lol That's so me too and that's how I found that it was a install issue. The manual states and I quote: Always install furnace through an exterior wall
DO NOT install furnace on materials that restricts return air, such as directly on carpet, or soft material (like vinyl). If you must install furnace on carpet or soft material, install furnace on cleats or on a wood or metal panel extending the full width and depth of furnace plus minimum clearance to combustibles

Page 3 of the manual under general furnace location and iinstallation

[wa8yxm]

Ditto on the improper install.. They are very specific in the installers manual. Someone should have read it.

One of my faults is I read manuals. 🙂

[newman_fulltime]

if i am a betting person the lint you blew out some pilled under the furnace the touched the heat exchanger started burning and left a burn mark

[time2roll]

charlesdennis01 wrote:

time2roll wrote:
Mine is mounted direct on the floor direct on the vinyl. The heated air exits the bottom directly into the floor cavity where the duct runs the length of the RV. No burning smells. No burn marks. And yes I have had it out.

May I ask what model furnace you have

I believe it is Suburban SF-35F

[dougrainer]

charlesdennis01 wrote:
almost killed my family and burned my RV to the ground.

charlesdennis01 wrote:

dougrainer wrote:
5 days ago he posted he was a fulltimer and could not move the unit and his furnace did not work and he stated he would have to fix the furnace himself. NOW, he states the furnace worked and burned his RV to the ground. Coincidence? I doubt it. Doug

Well I guess we need to learn to read first and ask more before we come to conclusions. The RV didn't burned :(. Yes the furnace was working after all your guys tips and recommendations thank you for that, but it was just dust, after I blew all the fuzzies away the furnace worked. After that we notice smoke coming from it and decided to take it out to find out what was going on I even took it to a dealer to get it tested in case that was the motor but all was just find. When I was getting ready to install the furnace is when I notice the burned mark on the linoleum and plywood under the furnace and the reason for the smoke. If you have more questions let me know

I READ first. You should have stated "ALMOST killed my family and ALMOST burned my RV to the Ground". The way you stated it, your family got out before harm and then the RV burned to the ground. Doug

[charlesdennis01]

charlesdennis01 wrote:

time2roll wrote:
Mine is mounted direct on the floor direct on the vinyl. The heated air exits the bottom directly into the floor cavity where the duct runs the length of the RV. No burning smells. No burn marks. And yes I have had it out.

May I ask what model furnace you have

Also want to add that we are in Montana so it gets pretty cold here and the furnace stays on MOST of the day but after this it will not stay on during the night lol.

[charlesdennis01]

time2roll wrote:
Mine is mounted direct on the floor direct on the vinyl. The heated air exits the bottom directly into the floor cavity where the duct runs the length of the RV. No burning smells. No burn marks. And yes I have had it out.

May I ask what model furnace you have