Over the years, furnace cabinets and platforms have gotten smaller and smaller. As they got smaller, the furnaces started using coiled pressure switch tubing to protect people from gas leaks or changes in pressure. Unfortunately, round, looped tubing often faced a serious issue: kinking.
Why Pressure Switch Tubes Kink
A lot of times, tubing won’t kink right away. Tubes can get soft over time because of aging and weathering, which will in turn cause them to kink. In other instances, a pressure switch tube will kink because it’s wound up in tight coils to limit material and save space inside the cabinet.
Either way, kinked pressure switch tubes pose all sorts of problems. Not only would the tube that marries up the pressure switch with the draft inducer motor not be able to detect pressure changes and other issues, a kinked connecting body leads to false shutdowns. No heat because of a faulty part is a problem. Fortunately, Timco offers a simple solution for furnace manufacturers looking for kink-free pressure switch tubing.
Square Tubing for Pressure Switches
To start, it’s important to identify the main issue: round tubing can kink with extra measures to prevent that behavior. One way to help prevent kinking in round tubing is to make very broad, long circles. However, this is an unnecessarily wasteful way to prevent kinking. Fortunately, there’s a more efficient method: changing the outer shape of the pressure switch tubing.
While round tubing naturally kinks over time or when coiled too tightly, square tubing resists these issues. These tubes have a round hole to plug into pressure switches and draft inducer motors, but feature a square outer diameter. Expanding the outer diameter to a square adds to the wall thickness and allows you to create much tighter loops without the tube kinking in the process. As such, square pressure switch tubing is a much more durable, efficient material that prevents avoidable shutdowns and other issues.
Pressure Switch Tubing for Your Business
Whether you’re trying to prevent kinks or avoid other issues, Timco can help. As a premier supplier of high-performance rubber parts, our experts can work with you to determine your specific needs and provide the best, most cost-effective solution for your application. Not only can we help you design a part for you exact needs, we can also color your parts and add labels to assist with part identification. In addition, we can also cut your parts to length or provide bulk tubing based on your processes.
Ready to invest in pressure switch tubing that’s made for your specific needs? Give us a call at 800-969-6242 or contact us online today to get a quote for your product needs.
