Velit high altitude furnace install

[hbn7hj]

Working well after a week at 10,300ft. Typically turn it on around 3AM with an OAT around 50F. Maintains a 73F temp till turned off around 8AM when the sun takes over.

Will move to 9600ft next week.

[hbn7hj]

My previous gasoline furnace would be a ball of carbon by now. This one is running perfectly with four weeks to go before we move to lower altitudes. Should be a pretty good test.

No cold days yet. Mainly used as a warmup from a 50F night at 9600ft.

[hbn7hj]

High altitude and low heat output is suicide for most gasoline heaters. So far it has not been a problem with the Velit.

I have not taken it apart looking for carbon deposits and don’t intend to unless it fails. So far it is working as they said it would. Just a status report if anyone cares.

I would like a 40F overcast day to run it 24/7 but so far it isn’t that cold even at 10,000ft.

[hbn7hj]

Not a good sign but still working well.

It should not blow raw carbon.

[hbn7hj]

Furnace failed to light this morning. Will deal with it later and will post results.

We have the propane furnace so can still deal with the 45F nights.

[Bud]

Originally Posted by hbn7hj

Furnace failed to light this morning. Will deal with it later and will post results.

We have the propane furnace so can still deal with the 45F nights.

Thank you for posting. Interesting............

[GeorgeRa]

Originally Posted by hbn7hj

Furnace failed to light this morning. Will deal with it later and will post results.

We have the propane furnace so can still deal with the 45F nights.

One of the key advantages of LPG is that propane is in the gas phase reaching the furnace. Both diesel and gasoline must be transformed from liquid to gas phase to allow mixing with oxygen for combustion to occur. Most of RVs use LPG and they work just fine, some are too loud, cleaning combustion chambers is not nesseccary. My next RV, which is not planned, would very likely be LPG powered with exception of fridge.

[booster]

Originally Posted by GeorgeRa

One of the key advantages of LPG is that propane is in the gas phase reaching the furnace. Both diesel and gasoline must be transformed from liquid to gas phase to allow mixing with oxygen for combustion to occur. Most of RVs use LPG and they work just fine, some are too loud, cleaning combustion chambers is not nesseccary. My next RV, which is not planned, would very likely be LPG powered with exception of fridge.

As much as I had high hopes of a low maintenance, reliable, gasoline powered furnace coming out, I have to agree with you about sticking with propane, at least for us. It would be very nice to have heat that ran off of the fuel tank, but not worth the hassle, I fear.


I doubt we will ever be getting another van in the future, so I guess that all works out for us.

[hbn7hj]

I cut the burner intake pipe to a 3 inch length, removed the exhaust pipe from the muffler. Blowing 80 psi air into the intake no carbon came out the exhaust.

Blowing 80 psi air into the exhaust pipe a lot of carbon came out of the intake. Did this numerous times till no more carbon came out the intake.

Reattached the exhaust pipe to the muffler after blowing it out.

Removed the furnace fuse to reset any lockout issue. Turned on the furnace and it lit. It is producing considerable heat at 9600 ft. All seems normal.

It spent three weeks at 7000ft and two weeks at 10,000 ft before it carboned up and quit. I will be at 9600ft for another week or two. Will let you know the results.

At the moment all is normal with an outside temperature of 57F and inside temperature of 75F.

[MsNomer]

You have a muffler?

[hbn7hj]

Originally Posted by MsNomer

You have a muffler?

Yes, kept the Webasto muffler.

Worked fine last night. Still blowing heat this morning.

How is your furnace working at what altitude?

[hbn7hj]

Furnace working fine. I can live with blowing it out every two weeks but I expected better.

Webasto will last less than a week at 10,000ft. (They say it will fail above 5000ft, and it does)

Watch where your face is positioned when you shoot air up the exhaust. You could be the campground joke in blackface!

[MsNomer]

We heated this morning at 10,000, but we have not run nearly as much as you.

1. We haven’t needed as much heat as in years past. We wake up to mid-50’s, heat on high to 70°, turn off. Nothing needed at night so far, even at 10,000.

2. Still having teething problems.

A. Two filters have broken, the third we will pick up Monday. Do I recall correctly that you did not install one at all? MrNomer will make some changes to how it is mounted. Broken filters, and thus fuel line open to contamination, without our knowing it may have been why we had to replace the pump.

B. Apparently, our ECU was in an early batch of quirky ones—replacement also arriving Monday. Intermittently, it will just quit. Fortunately, so far it gets the van to 70° before it quits. (I was Order No. 11.)

I know this sounds bad, and it has been a hassle, but I am still confident we will get the kinks worked out and the heater will operate as advertised. VeLit has been super cooperative.

One thing Will told me may help your carbon problem. It should be in the manual. He said that above 8,000, we should run either Power Level 5 or Temperature mode, which is essentially short runs on high.

Questions for you—I don’t know if this is normal behavior or the quirky ECU:

Does yours run just the fan, then quit, then start the pump?

How often do you start first try?

[hbn7hj]

Originally Posted by MsNomer

We heated this morning at 10,000, but we have not run nearly as much as you.

1. We haven’t needed as much heat as in years past. We wake up to mid-50’s, heat on high to 70°, turn off. Nothing needed at night so far, even at 10,000.

2. Still having teething problems.

A. Two filters have broken, the third we will pick up Monday. Do I recall correctly that you did not install one at all? MrNomer will make some changes to how it is mounted. Broken filters, and thus fuel line open to contamination, without our knowing it may have been why we had to replace the pump.

B. Apparently, our ECU was in an early batch of quirky ones—replacement also arriving Monday. Intermittently, it will just quit. Fortunately, so far it gets the van to 70° before it quits. (I was Order No. 11.)

I know this sounds bad, and it has been a hassle, but I am still confident we will get the kinks worked out and the heater will operate as advertised. VeLit has been super cooperative.

One thing Will told me may help your carbon problem. It should be in the manual. He said that above 8,000, we should run either Power Level 5 or Temperature mode, which is essentially short runs on high.

Questions for you—I don’t know if this is normal behavior or the quirky ECU:

Does yours run just the fan, then quit, then start the pump?

How often do you start first try?

No filter installed.

Runs just the fan on high, quits, then lights.

Always lights first time unless it is so carboned up it fails. At present it is carboned up. Will blow it out and see if I can get it to run again.

At present it doesn’t appear it will be a viable furnace at 10,000ft. It deposits large quantities of carbon. I don’t want to but it appears I will have to take it apart to clean the burner thoroughly and start over. It is a four hour job to R+R the furnace. Probably doesn’t take much to take it apart and clean it.

It has been run in the temperature mode.

[hbn7hj]

Either my furnace is an anomaly or they never tested it for four weeks straight at 10,000ft.

Considering the large quantity of carbon it can create my bet is they didn’t test it properly.

I would like to hear from someone that has had one running for four weeks at 10,000ft and still fully functional. That would be a good data point.

[MsNomer]

Considering the amount of heat this thing puts out, that wouldn’t be til winter unless you want roasted camper for dinner. .

[hbn7hj]

Originally Posted by MsNomer

Considering the amount of heat this thing puts out, that wouldn’t be til winter unless you want roasted camper for dinner. .

Four weeks, mornings only, was the intention.

Let us know if you do that.

It should be able to handle four weeks in freezing conditions. How did they get through a test at 16,000ft?

[hbn7hj]

I want this to work as much or more than anyone as I have a use for it.

Turn it on at 5AM. Turn it off or it turns itself off in temp mode at 8AM. Two weeks of that at 10,000ft and there are major carbon deposits to the point it won’t light.

Is this the best it can do or is it faulty? Need more user reports to know.

[MsNomer]

Contact VeLit.

[hbn7hj]

Maybe take the muffler off. Doubt that is the issue but I’d like to make it work.