Re: [GMCnet] Sol - Aire is crap [message #363289 is a reply to message #363278] |
Tue, 06 April 2021 22:03 |
Rick Staples
Messages: 126 Registered: May 2014 Location: Johnstown, Colorado, USA
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Dean,
Not sure why you want to relocate the exhaust/intake for your Sol-Aire. The outside air intake is for combustion air ONLY. It is totally separate from the interior air that is heated and circulated by the furnace. In fact, the intake and exhaust ports are actually further apart than those on other furnaces like the Colemans. If you're getting CO or fumes inside your coach, you may have the leaking (rusted out) heat exchanger everyone talks about around here. OTOH, I just had my functioning Sol-Aire out and partially apart (shortened the plenum 3/4" to make room for a catalytic heater, a "PLatinum Cat", the one that's vented, in front of the Sol-Aire.). I can say the old Sol-Aire is solid and well-made, and the heat exchanger is made of fairly heavy-gauge steel. That said, I can't understand why they made the plenum chamber out of beautiful stainless steel, and the heat exchanger out of plain steel. And yes, I do have a working CO detector.
I did have a problem with the exhaust port however. Seems the previous owner (before I bought it in 1996) of my coach used it for skiing in Jackson Hole, and it must have been cold. Looks like he had the old Sol-Aire cranking full blast 24/7, as it actually melted about 1/8"-1/4" of the fiberglass right around the exhaust port. Of course this might have been due to mud-dauber wasp nests too. Anyhow, I removed the flue adaptors, cleaned them up and lined the exhaust area (on the outside of the body and within the louver) with aluminum, formed to fit snugly into the adaptor and sealed to it with hi-temp (700 degree) Permatex. Incidentally, the exhaust flue pipe is supposed to have air drawn in over it from the cabin by the circulating fan, but it must be positioned properly vis-a-vis its flue adaptor.
My 2ยข, HTH
Rick Staples
Rick Staples, '75 Eleganza, Johnstown, CO
"Advice is a dangerous gift, even from the Wise to the Wise, and all paths may run ill." -Tolkien
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