Lack of Heating

We just got back from a 2 week trip to Yellowstone. With lows in the upper 40's to lower 50's at night we had to use the furnace. Plenty of air flow from the registers except for the bathroom and front bedroom. What do I need to look for?

Try to see if there is anything obstructing the air flow. You'll probably have to remove the vents. Use a small mirror (tape it to a ruler to make it reach down far enough), to get a good look. Our trailer has a small round vent in the cabinet under the bathroom sink - it blows into the bedroom. I don't know if Wildcat is still installing those or if they are in all models. Someone removed the vent and installed a small fan inside the duct. I believe that helped draw warm air into the room. If you find an easy solution, pics please.

Tater

A simple solution is to get magnetic register covers and decide which registers stay open and which don't. By obstructing one register, you increase the flow to the others. I have covered the ductwork opening into the basement. Doing that by itself forced more heat up into the bedroom.

A slightly more expensive but just as effective way is to fit your ductwork with registers that open and shut like those in your house.

TC

TC wrote:A simple solution is to get magnetic register covers and decide which registers stay open and which don't. By obstructing one register, you increase the flow to the others. I have covered the ductwork opening into the basement. Doing that by itself forced more heat up into the bedroom.

A slightly more expensive but just as effective way is to fit your ductwork with registers that open and shut like those in your house.

TC

Is that the pass thru TC.

We have the vents TC metioned that open and close. Found the exact size and color at one of our local building supply stores. They DO make a difference.

Tater

I just have 1 of the floor vents in the main area, and the front has 2, 1 for the bath and 1 for the front bedroom. The rest of the vents are the 4" round ones. I found this company that has the 4" round vents with dampners.

Round Vents

HookMeUp wrote:I just have 1 of the floor vents in the main area, and the front has 2, 1 for the bath and 1 for the front bedroom. The rest of the vents are the 4" round ones. I found this company that has the 4" round vents with dampners.

Round Vents

If you're talking about the vents on the ceiling, those are AC only. But swapping those out would be worth considering too, as you'll end up having the same issue when the AC is running. The ones you can close completely are going to be the best as with the furnace registers.

TC

Nope they are heating vents.

Portagie1968 wrote:

TC wrote:A simple solution is to get magnetic register covers and decide which registers stay open and which don't. By obstructing one register, you increase the flow to the others. I have covered the ductwork opening into the basement. Doing that by itself forced more heat up into the bedroom.

A slightly more expensive but just as effective way is to fit your ductwork with registers that open and shut like those in your house.

TC

Is that the pass thru TC.

Yepper. I closed off most of the holes on the vertical duct. The forced air blowing out from the furnace continues to go straight through those holes into the pass-thru/basement by sheer force. The air can't re-direct up into the bedroom unless you block the path of least resistance.

TC

TC, I will have to give that a try. Kind of seems an oxymoron to run the heat with the heat wave we are having.

We have three floor vents in the living area. One near the entrance, one in front of the sink and one in front of the pantry. The WC has none and the bedroom has one floor register in front of the WC door and a small circular one built into the side of the vanity (this one is useless).

Problem with the bedroom register is that the duct work leading up to it has a grid of 1/2" holes that pour some of the heat in to the basement area. That's why the bedroom usually is a little colder than the rest of the trailer.

One way to solve that is to get an electric heater for the bedroom.

Mike,

Ditto on the electric heater. We have 2, one in each 5th wheel. We also have vents that close in both 5th wheels. We use the electric heater, both 5th wheelers fail miserably at producing heat upstairs. Different makes, models, years, and furnace manufacturers. Besides, electricity is really much cheaper than propane. Especially if you're at a place with full hookups and on a less than monthly rate (where the meter starts running usually).

We have an electric heater that we use downstairs. We don't have one in the bedroom. We're concerned that in the small space up there, we might knock a heater over or trip over it in the dark.

I've come to the conclusion that we really don't mind a cold bedroom. We dress quickly, that's for sure, and dry off quickly after our showers, too. We have the electric mattress pad which we turn on about half an hour before we go to bed. That makes the bed nice and toasty when we get in it.

Tater

Amen to the electric mattress pad Tater. It is the best thing ever invented. We have one at home also. Problem is that when we turn it on to "preheat" all the cats think it is for them.

TC wrote:

Portagie1968 wrote:

TC wrote:A simple solution is to get magnetic register covers and decide which registers stay open and which don't. By obstructing one register, you increase the flow to the others. I have covered the ductwork opening into the basement. Doing that by itself forced more heat up into the bedroom.

A slightly more expensive but just as effective way is to fit your ductwork with registers that open and shut like those in your house.

TC

Is that the pass thru TC.

Yepper. I closed off most of the holes on the vertical duct. The forced air blowing out from the furnace continues to go straight through those holes into the pass-thru/basement by sheer force. The air can't re-direct up into the bedroom unless you block the path of least resistance.

TC

So the first thing I will close is why pass thru vent. Then someday I may close the one into the belly of the beast.

Just be sure you don't close off all of the heat to the basement - unless you only camp in warm weather - or have an auxiliary source of heat down there.

Robert,
We had one at home before we got the one for the trailer. We were thinking of toting it back and forth, but nixed that idea real quick. When we doggersit, we don't need a heated mattress pad - those two pups are like little ovens.

Tater

After insulating all the doors to the basement, we hung two 60W lights (in reflectors) in the basement. They kept the basement at 45*F even in the coldest weather in the NC mountains (4*F).

schrowang wrote:After insulating all the doors to the basement, we hung two 60W lights (in reflectors) in the basement. They kept the basement at 45*F even in the coldest weather in the NC mountains (4*F).

Is is possible to

schrowang wrote:After insulating all the doors to the basement, we hung two 60W lights (in reflectors) in the basement. They kept the basement at 45*F even in the coldest weather in the NC mountains (4*F).

I have one heat bulb in a reflector. But my primary goal is to keep the pump from freezing when it dips below 32 F. I have mine on a timer so it'll go on and off in 1/2 hr intervals as needed (a dry camping thing). At one time, I was going to put a thermometer in the basement to keep track, but never did since I wasn't trying to heat the whole thing.

Folks on here have glued reflectix to the inside of their basement doors with good results also. Glad yours is working for you.

TC

We use a small electric heater as necessary.