Atwood forced air furnace

[norm25]

Anyone have one? How do they work? How much juice do they require from the battery? In general what do you think.

Looking at buying one from fish house supply and trying to talk myself into it.

Thanks

[TravP]

My Dads got one in his wheelhouse. Seems decent but whenever the heat shuts off the fan keeps going and its not because of the setting on the thermostat. We have to unhook and hookup the battery everytime you need to turn the heat on.... Anybody got any ideas.

Thanks

[boxcar46]

go with the suburban furnace. you can buy those through fish house supply also. I have the 16,000 in my shack and haven't had any problems.

[dewey1980]

I have it in my wheel house,its great drys the floor in a hour,and heat is equal through out the house.

[hovermn]

My Dads got one in his wheelhouse. Seems decent but whenever the heat shuts off the fan keeps going and its not because of the setting on the thermostat. We have to unhook and hookup the battery everytime you need to turn the heat on.... Anybody got any ideas.

Thanks

Like your furnace at home, the fan will run for a set period of time after the burner shuts down to blow what's left of the heat into the room. Mine will run for about 30-45 seconds after the burners shut down.

As far as the unit its self, I've had mine for 5 trouble free years. It's just now starting to develope a small bearing squeek occationally, but that's after many many hours of opporation.

As far as power usage, it pulls 3.4 amps. I believe that the suburbans are pulling more than that, if battery life is a concern of yours.

[bassislife]

The suburbans only have a 2.8 amp draw.

[bbqhead]

Being a RV tech, i like the suburban a little better. I have

found the suburban to be a little more reliable.

randy

[Big Buck Buster]

A neighbor of mine has a 34,000 btu version. It sounds like a jet engine when the burners start. The heat is great, and heats the house evenly throughout. I don't know if the small cabinet that he put it in has anything to do with the excess noise or not. Maybe if he would have insulated the walls of the cabinet, it would get rid of some of the noise.

All in all, he is very happy with the performance of it, and likes the amount of ducts you can use with it.

[TravP]

The fan never shuts off, just keeps running

[dairyman]

some thermostats have a "continual" fan setting on them ---make sure your setting is on the "auto" position other wise the fan will run when it shuts down after reaching temperature

[TravP]

The thermostat has those settings and it is in the auto position

[tonkapat]

I am not sold on forced air furnaces. No power=no heat. Empire makes a direct vent with a t-stat that requires no power. If you would like more even heat get the blower kit and run it when desired. I like to leave the heat on in my house. I don't see any way to do that with a forced air except for lots of batteries. If you do get one make sure you have a generator with all the time. If not get the empire.

[SomethingFishy*]

I have the suburban in my house and it is great, it keeps an 8x20+ V front evenly heated. It does however require a battery which lasts about 4 hours, plenty of time if my generator runs out of fuel in the wee hours of the morning.

[boxcar46]

Like I said I have the Suburban NT 16000 in my shack (6 1/2 X 12) and run it on 2 - 6 volt batteries hooked together to make 12 volt. I can run Friday through late Sunday without a problem.

[hovermn]

I just got back from a trip that took me to Mille Lacs, Vermillion, Burntside and back to Mille Lacs. Wed-Mon. With the Atwood 16K force air going, along with the 4 speaker stereo, lights and LCD/DVD player, I was self sustained using 2 large deep cycles wired in parallel. I got back with 11.75 v read at the batteries. They probably would have lasted another day, maybe 1.5

My point is, having a forced air doesn't mean you're limited to short times on the ice, or buying an expensive generator. Because my fish house is the winter cabin Fri-Sun, I bought a vented furnace for added safety. Just my $0.02

Back to the point. I think that any unit you buy will work well in the fish house, as long as the BTU's are matched to the size of the house.

[daylate$short]

Check [YouNeedAuthorization] for new atwood furnaces. Save some $ for a couple of high quality batteries. The key is amp hours. running 2 12 v in parallel as hovermn said is the way to go.

[norm25]

Do you mean the E on the Bay

[norm25]

As far as the atwood over the suburban is it really worth the extra $115?

[hawkeye43]

Just want to put a tip we have tried in a couple of houses now. If take a wall thermostat that you would use to turn the heater on and off and place it in the area of the top bunks and hook a couple of computer fans to it you can set the temp. to how you want it. This has made the hot spots in the top bunks very comforable. We did this to a house that had upper bunks on both ends of the house using 1 thermostat and had very good results. Its just something we did.

[SapperACE]

I had a Suburban FAF in my house I just sold, and loved the thing. In addition to the comfort level, it seemed like the holes NEVER froze over... even on the coldest of nights. And as far as the battery consumption goes, I was amazed how long that thing would run on a battery charge.

[bmc2b]

Does anyone run their generator/charger on their battery while hooked up to the furnace? My suburban warns against it because of the difference in voltage. Wondering if anyone had their circuit board go from it. I like my suburban otherwise.

[hovermn]

The best way to run everything off of a generator is through the batteries. Run a converter between the generator and batteries, and that'll take away any spike that may happen.

[Ice-King]

forced air furnaces are junk in my opinion unless you are going to constantly use a generator or plan on lugging batteries around all of the time. In the middle of the night if your battery dies and you have no generator you might as well pack up and go home. Buy an empire direct vent

[iceman1212]

dont buy a forced air, drains your battery and if the fan stops then your [badWordUsage]!! get a empire direct vent!!!

[TWISTERSOCK]

forced air furnaces are junk in my opinion unless you are going to constantly use a generator or plan on lugging batteries around all of the time. In the middle of the night if your battery dies and you have no generator you might as well pack up and go home. Buy an empire direct vent

I agree with this. The empires are a little more expensive but there is no need to have a battery and it has a wall thermo. I recommend if you have 2x2 walls to buy the extra fresh air extension tho because the draft might cause the pilot to go out otherwise.