Eyeball vent melted

[Ksmith]

I’ve searched all the threads and found a lot of mention about changing out the plastic eyeball vents on the heater box.

However, I could not find any pictures or mention of where they could be purchased in aluminum. I would like to find a direct replacement of the same size and hole pattern if anyone has this information, it would be much appreciated.

Yesterday I made a flight for a couple of hours in some pretty challenging condition, where it was quite cold and prone to icing. I had to alternate between using the carburetor heat and my heater. This worked pretty well, except for the fact that the heater vent kept closing, spinning around, due to the melting of the detent adjustments.

 

[JACK]

Aircraft Spruce has both the plastic and metal ($$$) replacements.

 

[bumper]

You might search on the RV site, there are much cheaper sources for non-certified parts that are essentially the same.

 

[groshel]

The heater flow on my old stock 2000 Husky was always so low but I never took the time to modify with Thomas’ suggested changes in the engine compartment.

I did however ditch the eyeball vent in the back seat (didn’t need it heating the base of the control stick) and made a piccolo tube that I clamped under the pilot’s seat. I kept the pilots seat slightly warmer and holes at the end of the tube put heat close to the rear rudder pedals.

it was an 1 1/2” dia tube, about 12” long held in place with hi-temp Adel clamps. I bought a couple of encaps from McMaster and had a local shop weld a short stub onto the tube’s center ( made it a short “t”).

Even with the poor flow, when aggressively leaning the engine the cabin would noticeably war-up on a below freezing day. And if you angled your ankles inward you could touch the tube and be surprised how hot it was…..just not much flow.

You look at old Huskys and they have only one muffler air inlet on the nose bowl and later the second was added and they still didn’t get it right!

I know these threads have beaten this topic to death but this was the worst heating system I ever flew with and going the Powerflow route looked like too much money and complications.

Winter’s almost over!

Chris (nice and toasty in his C180 now)

 

[Ksmith]

I had heated seats in my last Husky, after I fixed the eyeball I think I’m going to install those in this one

 

[Snowbirdxx]

Heated seats are the way to go

 

[Flying Dave]

I’m glad I live in NC. Stock system has plenty of heat for our climate.

 

[bumper]

I had heated seats in my last Husky, after I fixed the eyeball I think I’m going to install those in this one

Or you could buy mine, it has both! It's not listed for sale anywhere yet, but I can't fly.

 

[Snowbirdxx]

Sorry to hear that, Bumper

 

[Ksmith]

Me too, I hope you can get the situation resolved

 

[LOWandSLOW]

I ordered these and they were east swap-outs for the old plastic ones. I then found large rubber o-rings at the hardware store and fitted them to the outside of the outlet so that when you rotateit to turn it off, it doesn't fuse your skin to the 200+ degree aluminum eyeball. My 2009 A1C-180 puts out plenty of heat, and the aluminum rings were too hot to touch with the heat on full in winter.

3275 Large Square Eyeball Vent / Black | Aircraft Spruce

3275 Large Square Eyeball Vent / Black Large square-flange eyeball vent. Made from aircraft-grade 6061-T6 aluminum and hard anodized, it weighs just 5 oz. and mounts in a 2-3/4

www.aircraftspruce.com

 

[Ksmith]

Troy, thanks for the info