It’s not all amazing adventures and celebrations here in California. I also thought I’d take advantage of the opportunities that civilization has to offer while I’m here. My new glasses are one of them. Another is easy access to big hardware stores.
The outlet duct that came with my diesel heater is only about three feet long. It’s barely long enough to make a 90 degree turn and put the outlet at the foot of the bed. It’s not a great place for it. It’s on the end of the van (though at least the end sleep in), and I have to be careful not to cover it with blankets, which isn’t easy while sleeping. Fortunately, Home Depot carries a 3-inch diameter duct that expands to as long as eight feet, which I thought would give me plenty of space to move the heating vent to the head of the bed, more centrally located in the van and away from dangling blankets.
Although the bed is barely six feet long, even the eight-foot duct wasn’t long enough to work exactly the way I wanted it to. I had to run it diagonally across the bottom of the bed, eliminating some useful storage space. Even then it didn’t go quite as far up as I wanted. But I made it work and zip tied it in place.
I haven’t been living in the van while staying at Carolyn’s, so I haven’t needed to run the heater at all. But while in the shower after installing the new duct, it occurred to me that I should test it anyway, before I move back into the van, just in case there were any problems. It would also be a good idea to make sure the duct itself wasn’t going to get hot enough to create a problem and potential fire risk under the bed. I’ve already survived one fire in my home and have no wish to repeat that experience.
So I returned to the van, turned on the heater, and let it get all the way up to full operating temperature. It worked just fine, but I touched the duct, and found it was way too hot to be safe. I keep spare bedding and other flammable materials under the bed. It could even melt the zip ties themselves. I turned the heater off and monitored its cooling cycle to make sure the new duct also cooled off enough to be safe.
Clearly, I need to insulate the duct. None of the hardware stores near me, even Home Depot, had anything that would work, but Amazon did. As much as I’d like to just buy it locally, I ordered an insulated duct. It’s 16 feet long, twice as long as the current one, so it’ll run exactly where I want it. Ironically, it only cost $16, about the same as I paid for the eight-foot non-insulated duct. It should be here Thursday, so I can install it before I return to Arizona where I’ll actually need to run the heater. It’s too bad I can’t buy it locally and install it right now, especially in a place like Los Angeles that should have everything, but that’s the world we live in these days, unfortunately.
Smokey Da Van 