Fahrenheit Endurnace 50F Project

I can think of a couple times that I was ready to tie a tow strap around my furnace and drag it out of the basement when I first got it. Lucky for me, DexterDay talked me off the ledge. When I bought my furnace, it had been rode hard and put away wet. Once you get everything dialed in and figured out, you won't have to do much other than feed it and empty the ash pan every couple weeks.

I don't remember if you have an extended hopper or not. Mine came with one, and it had a lot of air leaks. I used foil tape on the inside to cover all the seams and bought some foam gasket material to use as a seal between the top of the furnace and the extended hopper. That took care of my hopper leak issue. There also was a big gap in one of the corners on the seal between the main hopper and top panel of the furnace. I used some black RTV to fill in that gap. It's a bit of a pain to get that top piece off, especially if your ductwork is already connected.

 

I'm usually late to the party, but I figured I'd reply to this in case anyone else with an older furnace comes along and sees this thread. I think myself and ivanhoe are the only ones here that have the "generation 1" unit with the LED control panel.

The older Fahrenheit furnaces have a vacuum switch instead of a sail switch to detect air moving through the unit. The sail switch on the newer units is used to tell the control board that there is air flowing through the furnace. If you take the air intake tube off the back of a "generation 1" unit, you'll see a piece of orange neoprene where the sail switch would be on a newer unit. That flaps down when no air is being pulled through the furnace., presumably to reduce the chances of smoke coming out the air intake during power outage.

 

Yeah I've had thoughts about ripping it out of my house with my truck as well. But I'm pretty sure I can work through the issues between help from guys on here, Matt from Fahrenheit Technologies and my own trouble shooting.

My stove didn't have the hopper extension.

I pulled the stove apart last night and I found a few spots that I think are causing the leak. There are a couple screw holes in the side of the hopper that don't seem to be used for anything to start. I also have the same issue you describe where the top stove cover panel and the top of the hopper. You can see where the front of the gasket is squished down, but it doesn't even look like the back was touching.

I haven't tied it into my ducts yet, as I wasn't going to the trouble until I made sure the unit would work. I think I'm gaining on it, everytime I work on it the burn and heat output get a bit better.

I appreciate your input so please feel free to add anything you can think of.

 

No such thing as late to the party here. I think everyone enjoys the feedback even if it comes at a later date.

I have the LED control panel. But my stove had the sail switch and v3 burn pot. Not sure the exact genneration of the stove though.

So can you put in a sail switch on the generation 1 units? The electrical conection would have to match up with the connections for the vacuum sensor.

 

I did a google search on the sail switch and now I have a better understanding of how it works. No big deal if you have a OAK but if you don't

I hope my hopper has no air leak where you described. If you can take a pic of where exactly you found it, would be another spot not to overlook in troubleshooting air leaks for new Fahrenheit owners like me I had my furnace completely apart before firing it up and I do somewhat remember the furnace guts with no top cover. Now you got me curious so I'm going to take a look...

 

Is yours a Auto start model? If yes, you can exchange for a free LCD panel.

 

I checked to see if I had a picture from when I had the top off and I don't. I'd have to gut the ductwork to take a picture of it, and with cold weather coming I don't think I'll go that far. If you take the top cover off the furnace (don't remember if you have to take the hopper lid off first or if it can stay connected), you'll see a neoprene type gasket around the top of the hopper. On mine, there was about a 1/4" gap on one of the corners. Otherwise, the seal was in good shape.

If you take off the back access panel (same one you'd remove to get to the auger and the rest of the guts) and can get a drop light up near the top of the furnace where the top lid meets the hopper, look inside the hopper and if you see light then you have a leak. That's how I verified mine before I started tearing into things.

 

I don't know if you could retrofit a sail switch or not. I suspect its possible, but the little orange neoprene flap doesn't appear to be an obstacle to airflow. When mine is running, I can look inside the air intake and that orange flap is almost sucked right up to the top of the air intake.

Does your furnace have the same type of control panel that's in my avatar? I didn't know any of those had the newer guts and new style burn pot. Mine is S/N 2349, so it's a pretty old unit.

 

Did my updates with pics. First I had a top burner plate done in Stainless Steel. Turned out the thickness was thicker 3/16 to 1/4. It was a free fabrication so not up to cosmetic approval. Had to make a decision on how to make it work and toke the following course, trim 1/16 off my lower burn pot and remove a 1/16 off the tongue of the new top plate. I needed a 1 inch space between the two tongues for the auto clean sliding arms assembly. Then I upgraded my exhaust motor/impeller to a beefier 1.75 amp motor with the extra big impeller. I also did some modifications on the burn pot assembly. First off, I needed more air for the window air wash system, crossing my fingers on it. The top above the burn pot assembly lies the air wash assembly. What I did is plugged 2 out of 10 holes feeding the above fire air(40%) and it's diverted more to the air wash flow which is combined together. Then I installed a long piece of metal across the outlet of the air wash to shrink the air flow to make it more concentrated to a smaller outlet to add more velocity towards the glass. I did plugged the top two rows on the lower burn pot to increase underneath air. The previous owner broke one of the 4 bolts holding the burn pot assembly to the furnace back wall, only a stub sticking out. I'm trying to figure a way to fix it so I could use the 4 bolts again. It was fine with no movement last winter so no rush for it unless someone comes up with a quick fix solution.

 

Really? Even for Canadians? Do I contact Fahrenheit directly?

I'll add some pictures of what I do to address leaks in my hopper as well.

 

My SN is 2661. Yes I have the same control panel that is in your avatar. What year was your unit made?

I'm wondering if the guy I got my unit from did a burn pot upgrade, but I don't think that he did.

 

Nice! Your burn pot must be a V1 is it? I almost like it better as it is way thicker material than mine. When I welded in a bunch of holes on my burn pot this past weekend, dad and I were talking about having one fabricated out of thicker material. I know enough shops that could make the parts, then I could do my own welding. Even if I had the same cost into it as buying the assembly from Fahrenheit, I'd have a longer lasting burn pot.

 

Yeah, contact Fahrenheit for the update but it better be a Auto Light Model. Mine isn't but it did get a upgraded LED module. If yours has a upgrade LED model, you're SOL! Do you have a extra module sticky taped on the inside side panel near the Main LED panel?

 

Here are the pics of the burn pot mods I did. Let me know what you guys think. Too much, too little?

 

What defines the difference between the two LED modules? Yes mine has auto ignite. But I think the igniter is getting weak. It's pretty slow to fire the pellets.

What does the extra module look like? Are you talking about the relay bank?

 

Here are the pics for the hopper mods I'm making. The first pic shows where I added the white foam tape to seal the top of the hopper to the top panel of the stove. The other pics are of the factory gasket on the top panel. You can see where one area is very crushed and the other area doesn't look like it ever touched the top of the hopper. The last thing I think I am going to do is silicone the inside of the hopper where all the panels meet.

 

I'm not sure if yours would of gotten the extra module which I do think is the relays you're talking about. Ours is sticky taped along the inside panel.

 

Do you have pictures? It's probably the same thing we are talking about. But would be neat to know. I'll try and remember to take pics of mine and post it to do a compare.

 

Some people use foil tape instead of silicone but I didn't find a reason to touch mine.

 

No pic but with the Auto model, yours probably was in the manufacturing process and not retrofitted like ours. I'll take a pic soon enough because I forgot to lube the Auto Clean arm assemblies.