davidmurphy02
Senior Member
I'm still grasping at straws trying to solve my intermittent furnace problem, but a number of others have mentioned problems with restricted airflow and it being sensitive to that. Two years ago I added a screen filter behind the air intake vent to protect the sail switch from cat hair. I have removed that, and in an effort to maximize air flow in case that will help I eliminated both the flexible dryer duct and the front grill.
The dryer duct was both corrugated and curved to allow for an offset between the output opening on the furnace and the round output louver on the grill. Using thin aluminum flashing and dryer vent tape I made a smooth straight vent tube. It fits snugly on the 5" output flange of the furnace, and I added a small block of wood at the same height and used one screw in the bottom at the front end to fasten it in place. Then I took a piece of 1/2" welded wire hardware cloth, painted it black, and hot glued it to the recessed lip on the back side of the wood frame that the original grill was attached to.
It's not quite as attractive as the original furnace grate, but will allow for much more air flow both in and out so I can live with that. Even if this doesn't cure my furnace issue it won't hurt - and I could always go back to the original setup at some point if I wanted to. Ordinarily it would bug me a little to see the output duct off center in the opening, but in this case I think I can live with it.
I'm back home in Texas now so I won't really know until next winter when we are in really cold weather, probably at altitude, whether this will be the magic fix...and I'll probably continue to try some other things in the meantime.
The dryer duct was both corrugated and curved to allow for an offset between the output opening on the furnace and the round output louver on the grill. Using thin aluminum flashing and dryer vent tape I made a smooth straight vent tube. It fits snugly on the 5" output flange of the furnace, and I added a small block of wood at the same height and used one screw in the bottom at the front end to fasten it in place. Then I took a piece of 1/2" welded wire hardware cloth, painted it black, and hot glued it to the recessed lip on the back side of the wood frame that the original grill was attached to.
It's not quite as attractive as the original furnace grate, but will allow for much more air flow both in and out so I can live with that. Even if this doesn't cure my furnace issue it won't hurt - and I could always go back to the original setup at some point if I wanted to. Ordinarily it would bug me a little to see the output duct off center in the opening, but in this case I think I can live with it.
I'm back home in Texas now so I won't really know until next winter when we are in really cold weather, probably at altitude, whether this will be the magic fix...and I'll probably continue to try some other things in the meantime.
