fireplace Question

[HarryB]

Has anyone ever taken out the fireplace and saw what's behind it? Our fireplace was making a noise and I thought it just needed a good cleaning, so I pulled it out. What I saw was a metal box that covers the grate below the unit. The box does not have anything in it, just screwed down, not movable. I also found a rather large hole where the wires feed through from under the floor. Looking down into the hole I see the silver insulating underbelly covering.

Now I wonder about air flow. The only place the fireplace fan can pull air from is the underbelly, which would be cold outside air. My thought's are that I should cover that hole and remove the metal box so air can circulate from inside the camper.

I'm looking for other's thoughts.

[kb0zke]

Since the "fireplace" in an RV is actually just an electric heater with a display, it should be pulling air from inside the trailer, passing it over the heating element, and blowing the warmed air back into the trailer.

[pappcam]

I'm pretty sure these fireplaces pull air in from the front. If I'm wrong you can just plug that hole.