Janitrol user manual
 

good afternoon fellas, does anyone here have or knows where can i find the user manual for the janitrol 37d77 that the piper aztec turbo uses?

Thanks in advance!

Why would you need a manual for something that never works?

Come on, Janitrols despite their silly name are the best thing among light twin cabin heaters. If you doubt it, fly a Seneca I during a northeast US winter. There is ducted exhaust heat from a mile out on each wing, and cabin temps never get over 60. Janitrol had a solid design that outlasted the airframe it was or is attached to.

I have to admit, most of the Janis I've used worked. The only issue I have had is with the temp regulator. Either it's too hot or too cold in the cockpit. Also, two had cracked combustion chambers so carbon monoxide we entering the cabin. But we're talking about 5 plus years of usage.

A bit of rambling on a Sunday night- useful rambling I hope. 6 years ago I obtained a job as a newhire aerospace parts engineer for a large company that had a veteran design engineer brought over from the former Janitrol firm. R-D as I shall call him, had attempted to retire at age 65 and found that retirement was not for him. A massively experienced aerospace engineer he was, loving person, and role model to me. R-D used to give me math problems to do to test my acumen, this from a retired man well past age 70. While working at the aerospace parts company I often found Janitrol drawings with R-D's signature on them as the principal engineer, going back to the early 1960s! RD was so humble that he never mentioned such things, I discovered it by chance. I owe R-D a debt of gratitude for being a model engineer, citizen, and someone who had such soul and integrity. I aspire to be his kind of engineer and pilot.

Haha,remember using one on a cold morning and noting after a few min that there was no heat. Looked to my right and noticed it was pouring fuel all over the ramp out the exhaust. I think I got lucky on that one, if it ignited it would have been messy. Otherwise, they usually work damn well and it's nearly instant heat. I think we used similar ones in the army running off of jp5 or something, THOSE never worked, but the aviation ones I've used have worked well.

Janitrols are located in the nose and I doubt that one could light off without at least one engine running. But it is an excellent systems question for an exam and I'll check on it. They also have thermocouples to prevent fuel flow to the unit in the absence of exhaust heat.

The only problem I ever had was the reset switch in the Twin Beech was in the belly of the plane, meaning if you overtemped it you had no heat till you landed. Flew around in a bunny suit in the winter.

Dart Convairs had a nuclear Janitrol (365,000 BTU) in each wing for wing anti-ice.

Strange, it was definitely flowing fuel onto the ramp instead of providing heat, but I can't exactly remember the particulars or if it was contained in the heater or outside. Anyways thanks.

I know the Janitrol in the C-411 would operate without an engine online (at least until you depleted the battery) and I thought the one in the Aztec would too, but I'm not certain of that one.

Also, it's been many years since I used one, but without fuel to burn to create heat, how could a thermocouple in the exhaust ever sense heat to permit fuel flow? This seems sort of circular (in the chicken or the egg first sense), but I may well be missing something (like I said, it's been a long time). I did think they had an airflow switch which wouldn't permit fuel to be introduced without proper airflow in unit.