mobilehomerepair.com

I am a new owner of a 2002 Clayton double wide mobile home and have noticed that I have great air flow in the side that has the furnace, but very little on the other side. I closed all the vents on the good side but still didn't see any improvement on the bad side.

I took a look under (from a distance) and I see that the two sides are connected with large round flexible duct. I am going to crawl under next weekend to investigate but am wondering if this is a known or common problem.

There definitely could be some pressure difference from the furnace side to the other side being fed by flex duct.

The best thing you can do is to make sure the flex duct is installed correctly. No choking or tight turns for starters. This cuts down on the air volume and will cause a large difference in air pressure from side to side.

The next item you may have to have a heating professional do for you. It was discovered a few years ago on a friend of mines double wide that they had a similar problem to what you have. At that time I made a air scoop out of sheet metal and installed it in the beginning of the take off transition. It sticks up into the other duct about 2 inches and force's the air to go into the flex for better air distribution. I could never understand why the factory does not recommend this. It sure helped to balance the system.

Here's a link to an article Mark wrote about what HVAC1000 did:

http://www.mobilehomerepair.com/Fall2002.html#duct


A quick help fix for the cross-over, short of replacing with all metal duct (best choice):

Buy two metal 90* ells, attach one to each main duct collar/connector with L turned toward each other.

Then attach flex duct to one and stretch tight across to other 90* ell.

This stops kinks and sags.

To attach to the collars, use sheetmetal screws and foil tape to wrap seams.

Then start three to four screws into the ell, wrap flex duct coil wire around screw heads and tighten down.

Wrap with foil tape, pull up insulation and vapor barrier, wrap a zip tie around tight and then 4-5 wraps of foil tape over that.

Take care and best wishes,
Robert