What can I safely cover my ugly wall furnace with?
January 25, 2014 2:05 PM   Subscribe

My "Williams 30,000 BTU Natural Gas Direct-Vent Wall Furnace" is an eyesore and I'd love to build my own custom cover for it, but is that safe? Can I only use metal or can I use wood? I'd have a friend build it since I don't know much about it, but I'm wondering what I can do to hide or replace it. BTW I rent my apartment, so any changes I make should technically be reversible. Link for reference.
posted by qzar to Home & Garden (5 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Here is the manual, page six talks about necessary clearances....
posted by HuronBob at 3:14 PM on January 25, 2014


I'd love to build my own custom cover for it, but is that safe?

I hope you just mean something to cover it in the off season. You certainly can't add any sort of close-fitting cover while it's in use.
posted by jon1270 at 6:52 PM on January 25, 2014


I have radiators with covers. There might be some a radiator cover somewhere as an idea for a design. But I should mention that my radiators provide less heat when covered.
posted by MeiraV at 7:32 PM on January 25, 2014


Response by poster: Checked the manual, it doesn't mention anything about replacing or covering the cabinet. I'm essentially trying to replace the existing cabinet with a new cabinet, or cover the existing cabinet, but I need to know what materials a furnace style radiator can be covered by..
posted by qzar at 7:11 AM on January 26, 2014


but I need to know what materials a furnace style radiator can be covered by..

Pretty much nothing. A direct-vent wall furnace is not a radiator and does not behave like one. Unlike a radiator cover, the design of the cabinet of a wall furnace is functionally important. It has intake and exhaust openings, and directs air flow over the heat exchanger. You could conceivably build a replacement cabinet out of sheet metal, and so long as it had intake and exhaust openings in pretty much the same places and sizes as the original it would probably work well enough. But enclosing the whole thing in an additional layer of anything, especially something combustible like wood, is a really bad idea.
posted by jon1270 at 9:06 PM on January 28, 2014


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