Fireplaces, Heating Stoves, Flues and Chimneys - Direct Vent Wall Furnace
Doityourself.com community forum was created to provide answers to all questions related to home improvement and home repair. Doityourself community can help you find information about how-to topics on small fixes to large remodeling projects. With comprehensive how-to content and expertly moderated community forums DoItYourself.com makes it easy to tackle even the most complex home improvement projects.View Full Version : Direct Vent Wall Furnace
Gwenavier
07-10-07, 05:09 AM
I have a small Direct Vent Wall furnace in my garage. I use this furnace occasionally between December and March. In the summer months can I shut the propane off to the unit? I heard you should leave the pilot light lit all year long or rust could cause damage.
Second question: The pilot light seems to be putting out more heat that I thought would be nornal. And the Exterior Vent outside the wall is pretty warm also. Do I need to put in for a service call?
Unit is 4 years old and maybe used 200 hours per year.
Second question: The pilot light seems to be putting out more heat that I thought would be nornal. And the Exterior Vent outside the wall is pretty warm also. Do I need to put in for a service call?
Unit is 4 years old and maybe used 200 hours per year.
SeattlePioneer
07-26-07, 10:54 PM
Wall furnaces, Williams being one good brand, are often great little heating packages.
The gas utility I used to work for found that furnaces in crawl spaces tended to have rust problems when pilot lights were eleiminated. Sealed combustion systems pretty much eliminated that problem by eliminating cool, moist air from being able to infiltrate into the heat exchangers and condension on cold steel parts.
It's unlikely you'd have condensation problems in your wall furnace during the summer time. There's not much air circulating through direct vent units, and the air is going to be too warm to condense.
So I'm go ahead and turn off the pilot, especially if you are familiar with relighting it.
Pilot lights put out a fair amount of heat. It's unlikely that a pilot light is significantly overfired, or overfired enough to cause a problem, but anything IS possible.
I would say you are do for a service call to clean and inspect the unit. Direct vent unit are susceptible to infestations of insects that can crawl in the vent and like to best in the equipment ---- keeping insects out might be more of a problem if you turn the pilot off than rusting out the heat exchanger or other parts!
Seattle Pioneer
The gas utility I used to work for found that furnaces in crawl spaces tended to have rust problems when pilot lights were eleiminated. Sealed combustion systems pretty much eliminated that problem by eliminating cool, moist air from being able to infiltrate into the heat exchangers and condension on cold steel parts.
It's unlikely you'd have condensation problems in your wall furnace during the summer time. There's not much air circulating through direct vent units, and the air is going to be too warm to condense.
So I'm go ahead and turn off the pilot, especially if you are familiar with relighting it.
Pilot lights put out a fair amount of heat. It's unlikely that a pilot light is significantly overfired, or overfired enough to cause a problem, but anything IS possible.
I would say you are do for a service call to clean and inspect the unit. Direct vent unit are susceptible to infestations of insects that can crawl in the vent and like to best in the equipment ---- keeping insects out might be more of a problem if you turn the pilot off than rusting out the heat exchanger or other parts!
Seattle Pioneer