Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2003 07:31:40 -0600
Reply-To: John Rodgers <jh_rodgers@BELLSOUTH.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: John Rodgers <jh_rodgers@BELLSOUTH.NET>
Subject: Re: Suburban Heater
In-Reply-To: <AFEKIPJMNALLHBPFACMOAEFICDAA.skip@skipemmert.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
You have one of the best of heaters from my point of view. I had one of
these in my 68' Loaf and it was terrific. I lived in Alaska at the time,
and that heater performed great!! Mine was mounted on the floor bhind
the back seat directly against the left sidewall. It had a "Zero"
pressure inlet/outlet combustion air intake and exhaust. I had it wired
to a thermostat on the door post just behind the driver seat so it could
be easily reached. The thermostat was one of the types that had an "OFF"
position on it, so I could shut down the heater when I wanted. It had an
electronic ignition instead of a pilot light. I much preferred this
system to the pilot light arrangement that was in the Suburban heater in
my motor home. In my van I put a timer on the system so that the heater
would light off 1/2 hour before I got off work or would go to work. On
cold and snowy days, it was great. heater came out of a motor home that
burned.. It really put out a lot of heat. As I recall it was 30-40,000
btu output. The thing would melt the snow off the van before I would get
off work!!!
It has been a log time since I worked with a subsurban, and don't
remember some of the specifics about the heaters, but the manual start
unit in my motor home, as I recall, was a piezio-electric start type. I
think it had a pilot valve that had to be opened and a button had to be
depressed to open the valve to provide gas flow while the piezo-electric
button was being depressed. Once my Piezo stopped working, but I was
able to light the pilot flame with a fireplace match.
The Suburban I had in the van was the electric ignition type. If the
switch was in the "ON" position, and current provided, the electronic
ignition would begin firing, a valve would open to provide gas, and the
flame would ignite. Once the flame came on, heat triggered a shutoff of
the ignition circuit. The process was almost instantaneous. The
electronic Surburban often would lose its fire when I would hit a bump,
and the ignition would automatically kick in to relight the furnace. A
very nice arrangement.
I really liked having a heat source in the van separate from the
vehicles standard heating, in this case the heat from the air-cooled
engine of the '68 Loaf. My next vehicle in Alaska was my 85 GL Vanagon,
and the heater was not as necessary for it as it was for the air-cooled
vehicle, but I had come to a point where I was getting ready to put in a
new suburban. That separate heater is so great for activities outdoors
when the vehicle is parked. Makes a great warm-up when on ski trips, etc.
Wish you success in getting this unit running. They are great!!
Regards,
John Rodgers
88 GL Driver
Skip Emmert-Keaton wrote:
>Does anyone know anything about Suburban heaters? I have a NT12LEC unit
>installed in the Westy. It's thermostatically controlled and electronically
>ignited. The blower is 12v and the fuel is from the central LP tank. When
>the thermostat kicks on, the blower will start and run continuously, but no
>heat. I do hear one click, but nothing that sounds like gas igniting.
>There's a red push button behind the grill, but I'm not sure what it's
>supposed to do (see red arrow in pic below). I gather the heater has not
>been used in the last year. I do have gas in the tank and I'm reasonably
>certain that there is not a gas cutoff in the line somewhere, so I'm
>confident that it is getting gas. Any idea how I can test the ignition
>unit? Any thoughts on what the big red button does?
>
>http://www.skipemmert.com/vanquestions/heater.jpg
>
>
>Thanks for any help,
>
>Skip Emmert-Keaton
>1980 Westy <Ziegelstein>
>
>
>
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