Burning smell from new trailer furnace

mileshuff wrote:
We have a new trailer as well and have not used the furnace yet. On our next trip we'll probably need it at night. Should we open the windows and turn it on low while we go out for a few hours? I sure don't want to breathe that smoke while there!

Not sure I'd leave it unattended for hours with the windows open but the general idea is that you will needs lots of venting while it breaks in.

We had the same thing - horrible smell and it set off the smoke detector. I have an autistic kid that does not react well to sudden very loud sounds... So... We ended up sleeping overnight without the heat that night for the sake of domestic tranquility. LOL.. It got down into the lower 40s(F) but we all had sleeping bags and it worked out.

The next morning I pulled the battery out of the smoke detector while I ran it through a few on/off cycles over a couple of hours or so with the doors and a vent open. The next night the smell was almost 100% gone and no more alarms. Thank goodness... Next year I'll know to give it a break in run or two in advance!

If you can just go fire it up now before your trip for a hour or two (let it cycle on and off several times and vent it.) Then you'll have no issue when you get out camping.

Our TT`s (we`ve bought 2 brand new) had the burning smell too. they will need to run for a few hours to burn off the Manufacturing oils. and even after that it will still smell a little bit! I would recommend running it before a trip. better to burn it off in the driveway rather than in the middle of a trip!

We have a new trailer as well and have not used the furnace yet. On our next trip we'll probably need it at night. Should we open the windows and turn it on low while we go out for a few hours? I sure don't want to breathe that smoke while there!

Vegetable oils themselves might not be toxic, but the SMOKE from vegetable oil is as toxic as smoke from a wood fire.

It's not the "one whiff and you're dead" toxic. More like mildly toxic, like if you breathe it for decades you'll end up with lung cancer toxic.

Obviously you won't be breathing the smoke for decades, so it's nothing to worry about.

The oil should have been burned off already if the dealer had done a complete and proper prep. That being said, a neighbor found nuts and acorns on the heat exchanger causing a smell. Turns out mice can enter the trailer thru the duct that is openended in the basement for ank heat.

Had a burning smell from a furnace in a new trailer once. Turned out that the idiots left the paperwork on top of the furnace. I told a fellow camper that had the same model as mine and he found the same thing.

Yep, CO2 wouldn't have gone off.

Moved from TC Forum.

Wayne
Moderator

I thought this was the truck camper forum?

Although I do realize that we are a most resourceful group.

FWIW, it's just vegetable oil so it's non-toxic.