Proper Furnace & Stove Cabinet Venting

[Ronsay]

I have a new 16' house with a combination 3 burner stove and 18,000 btu furnace sharing the same cabinet.

I lit the stove burners and when the furnace kicked on, it tried to suck the burner flames downward. When I opened the cabinet door, the blower motor quit laboring and the stove burners were burning normal.

I picked up 2 14x6 inch vent grills at fleet and installed one on each end of the cabinet, at floor level and this solved the problem. When your sitting at the dinette table now and the furnace kicks on you can feel the circulation, and hear the blower motor working properly.

This may be an oversight on some of the manufactures, but I would advise everyone to check and make sure there is enough venting in there cabinet systems for the furnace blower to work properly.

[Sasquatch]

Would suggest that you also add some small vents close to the ceiling, will get some circulation & avoid having a dead space where foul air can accumulate. It did a lot of good with my house.

[Ronsay]

I seem to be getting good circulation after putting the vents in the cabinet. I have the vents just touching the carpet on the bottom side, so they are pulling the cold air off the floor and circulating it through the furnace blower, it has made a tremendous difference in the way the house heats up.

I believe these cabinets are pretty standard in all the new houses being sold, mine has the 3 burner stove top with an oven and an Atwood 18,000 BTU furnace below the oven blowing out the front of the cabinet. The furnace does pull in fresh air from outside, but not enough to satisfy the blower system.

I purchased my unit late last winter and was able to make 1 trip to Red before the season ended, it came with the 16,000 btu furnace that never shut off, I thought the furnace was to small and complained to the manufacturer and they replaced it with the 18,000, also house wrapped it and redid the insulation which they said was a poor job of installation, this all cost me an extra $150.00, a very honest company which stands behind it's houses. (American Surplus)

I now believe that if they would of vented the cabinet properly, the 16,000 furnace may have been adaquit.