Hurricane heater exhaust

[Gary Wolfer]

A couple days ago I heard a screeching sound coming from the hurricane heater so I turned off the remote switch and thermostat and let the heater cool before shutting the switch by the master unit off. I thought I would try it again this morning as it is pretty cold. After I finally got it to light and stay lit I went outside and looked at the hurricane heater box and there was what appeared to be smoke coming from the right side of the box. I run and got a fire extinguisher and while inside I turned off the thermostat and remote switch as I read it was bad to shut off power to main switch until unit has cooled. While it was still smoking I tried to find the source it started coming out below the coach as well as beside the heater box. I saw the smoke was actually exhaust dumping out the header pipe where it is clamped to the bottom of the heater. After the unit purged I shut it off. Has anyone experienced the exhaust plugging up? Is it possible something like creasote could have plugged the exhaust pipe? When I look thru the hole while the burner is lit it looks creasoted up around the burner. I intend to clean it soon, as I am heading for the desert next week. Also can I purchase spare parts from Rixen in Vancouver WA? I am 100 miles south of there but may be worth the side trip. I have his phone number here where I am camping but no phone service. I have to drive 7 miles to town to use verizon.

[David T. Richelderfer]

100 miles south of Vancouver, WA is very close to Eugene, OR.  Eugene has a couple RV repair businesses.  RV Sales of Oregon is on 99 just south of the Beltline.  I know they have a shop.  That is where I purchased mine.  And I have heard there are at least several more RV repair shops between Junction City, Coberg, and Eugene.

[Randy Perry]

About a year ago, I called a mobile RV repair guy to fix my Hurricane. One of the things he said was an issue was my exhuast was plugged up. He took it off and beat on it until he got a fair amount of crap out of it. Worked fine until recently when I took it to a local shop where they charged me $900 to replace the entire exhuast pipe along with another $700 in misc. parts! You can read more of my experience in my thread "Hurrican Issue"

Good Luck!!

[Ron Johnson]

I have 10,000 hrs on my Hurricane. After troubleshooting it 6 months ago to correct black smoke and other issues I ended up replacing the muffler only. After getting the old one off I could see where the crud had closed the flow through to about 1\2 inch! The rest of the exhaust is original. Anyway, the furnace is now running the way it should. I found that having a Dremel is handy for trimming the exhaust and muffler if needed.

[Jerry Parker]

I have 98 Patriot with a Hurricane and had lots of problems right out of the gate when I bought it from Beaver Sales in Bend. They were very good about fixing it. The exhaust pipe had to be replaced with a 90 radius fitting from the burner pipe. The original had a 90 degree elbow which seemed to have more back pressure. After that was done plus a few other things, it worked as it should. Rixen is in Sandy, Or not in Vancouver anymore. He would be a good one to take it to or you can take it to Kevin Lambert who is the current Hurricane sales Rep. I have been told he does good work and is a little more reasonable than Rixen.  His phone # is 360-993-4873.
Good Luck
Jerry Parker
98 Patriot

[Gary Wolfer]

Thank you all. Fortunately I live in Oregon. I have been at my house I just sold in Albany for the month of December and moved back to Waldport yesterday. I am 50 or 60 miles north west of Eugene but I intend to head to the desert (Q) in a couple days. Once I get there where it is dryer I will pull the exhaust off and try to clear it. I am sure it is plugged as it was blowing exhaust at the clamp under the coach just below the hurricane heater. I am sure glad it was exhaust instead of fire. I thought the wires that were tucked in between the heater and front wall were melting. Stuck my hand down between the heater and wall and it was cool. Thats when I looked underneath the coach.

[Keith Moffett Co-Admin]

Gary
We had the Hurricane in our 98 Pat.  We had lots of work done on it and it worked better but the shop said the cause was the exhaust going all the way across to the driver side and so it plugged up.  I finaly took it to Jim Rixon in Sandy.  Most of what the other shop told me was a waste of big bucks.
Jim can make your system work better than new and it will be reliable.
Fix it once and fix it right is my theory and since Jim invented the darn thing it made sense to take it there.

Happy New Year!
Keith

[Gary Wolfer]

Thanks Keith I will do that right now we just left the Oregon Coast for Q and will be in Arizona and NM for 2 months with an infrared electric heater to take the chill off. Shouldn't be too cold down there.  I am sure glad the hurricane heater was working a couple weeks ago when we had 10 days below freezing and down to 6 above. I am going to pull the exhaust loose and run something thru it if I can maybe a snake. Exhaust was coming out between the hurricane exhaust and header pipe. Must have been a chunk of something came loose and plugged it.