Need CFM for Brundage Fan

My home furnace has a Fan with a sticker from Brundage, Kalamazoo, MI and a type-in (serial/part?) number 26-13391.

I had died and we replaced the capacitor and it now works fine. But there are no markings for CFM in case we need to replace the (1964) fan for our central HVAC system. Apparently it has two sets of coils to turn the fan and the capacitor is used to alernate the two coils.

DOes anyone have a clue? I googled it and all I got was Linkedin ids for folks with that name in that town.

- = - Vasos Panagiotopoulos, Columbia'81+, Reagan, Mozart, Pindus, BioStrategist

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---{Nothing herein constitutes advice. Everything fully disclaimed.}--- [Homeland Security means private firearms not lazy obstructive guards] [Urb sprawl confounds terror] [Phooey on GUI: Windows for subprime Bimbos]

Reply to
vjp2.at
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You poor fellow, what did you die from. Been there done that. ^_^

TDD

Reply to
The Daring Dufas

Yeah, how was it on the other side? Hot?

Jamie

Reply to
Maynard A. Philbrook Jr.

Usually you don't swap out the entire blower assembly. If the motor goes bad, it can be replaced with another motor of the same size and rating. Local HVAC shops have the motors, brackets, etc in stock. If the belt, pulleys, or fan bearings (if equipped) go bad, they can also usually be replaced with standard parts of the same size - try the HVAC shop or hardware store. If the fan blade/blower wheel goes bad, it can be replaced with one of a similar size, rotation, and maximum RPM; if it is the same size, shape, and has pretty close to the same number of vanes/blades, it will move about the same CFM. (HVAC shop again.) You have already discovered that the capacitor can be replaced with standard parts.

It probably has a "start" winding and a "run" winding. The run winding is energized the entire time the motor is running. The start winding is energized for only a few seconds when the motor first starts, through the capacitor.

If the run winding quits, it might spin for a few seconds when it starts and then stop, or it may just sit there and buzz for a few seconds. If the start winding quits, it may spin up to speed very, very slowly, or again, just sit there and buzz.

Out of curiosity, what kind of furnace is it? Gas, oil, electric? Also, where in the world is it? If it's gas, and not in the far southern US, a 49 year old furnace is probably pretty close to being done. An oil furnace that old and not down south is probably close to done too. The main problem is that the heat exchanger rusts out; the furnace still appears to work, but exhaust gas gets blown into your house.

The new furnace "should" be sized by analyzing the house: how many windows does it have, how much insulation does it have, how exposed is it in each direction, etc. What usually happens is they don't analyze anything and put in the same size furnace that it had before, or *maybe* one size smaller or bigger. If the furnace is gas and you get a new one, even a cheap new one will be more efficient than the old one, which will save money on the gas bill.

Suggestion: if you don't already have one, get a carbon monoxide alarm and install it (they are like smoke detectors). If it goes off, call the furnace guy today. If it doesn't go off, save some money while you wait for spring, and then call the furnace guy.

Matt Roberds

Reply to
mroberds

I was turned away as being unacceptable and told to leave. I was told to go back to where I came from. That's the story of my life, err, death. Dang it, I can't win. ^_^

TDD

Reply to
The Daring Dufas

Sounds like it's purgatory for you! ;-)

Reply to
krw

That's where Sister Godzilla told us little kids we would wind up when we were imprisoned at the Catholic Parochial Gulag. There, the behavior of children was controlled by the use of sheer terror. That's why I have absolutely no fear of terrorists, I used up all my fear when I was a small boy and nothing really scares me except penguins for some odd reason. ^_^

TDD

Reply to
The Daring Dufas
*+-I had died

It had died.. oops

- = - Vasos Panagiotopoulos, Columbia'81+, Reagan, Mozart, Pindus, BioStrategist

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---{Nothing herein constitutes advice. Everything fully disclaimed.}--- [Homeland Security means private firearms not lazy obstructive guards] [Urb sprawl confounds terror] [Phooey on GUI: Windows for subprime Bimbos]

Reply to
vjp2.at
*+-If the run winding quits, it might spin for a few seconds when it starts *+-and then stop, or it may just sit there and buzz for a few seconds. If *+-the start winding quits, it may spin up to speed very, very slowly, or *+-again, just sit there and buzz.

Exactly!!!

*+-Out of curiosity, what kind of furnace is it? Gas, oil, electric? Also, *+-where in the world is it?

New York City. 1964 York/BorgWarner. Gas.

My nabe was built from land cleared for parking from the 1963 World's Fair.

Am I right in thinking that new oil furnaces are more likely to produce big gains in efficiency than a gas one?

*+-The new furnace "should" be sized by analyzing the house: how many

I know. I'm a chemical engineer who is considering doing HVAC to get my PE. (My EIT is from 1981). So I took an HVAC course a year ago. I also know that since we have plenty rooms, it may take a while to do the caclulations.

I found a web site for Brooklyn Fans who claim to sell Brundage fans. I emailed them. Also I found an HVAC shop (on THomas Register) in Kalamazoo which is named Brundage. Is it possible York had them make them? They seem to only have fifty employees.

I can't believe there are no markings with CFM on the fan. Home Depot sells the fans by CFM. Maybe the sticker fell off long ago. Still, we're the original owners, so I doubt it. (My folks died. But my uncle lives in the other apartment, and he's an 80yo Electrical Engineer who spent ten years as a submarine officer. He found the bad capacitor.)

Right now I'm hoping everything works fine. Fingers crossed. It's 25F outside. WHich is why I thought of preparing.. just in case.

- = - Vasos Panagiotopoulos, Columbia'81+, Reagan, Mozart, Pindus, BioStrategist

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---{Nothing herein constitutes advice. Everything fully disclaimed.}--- [Homeland Security means private firearms not lazy obstructive guards] [Urb sprawl confounds terror] [Phooey on GUI: Windows for subprime Bimbos]

Reply to
vjp2.at

In my opinion, 49 years is plenty long enough for a gas furnace to last. In Missouri and Oklahoma, I know of gas furnaces from the mid to late

1960s, for single-family homes of 1400 square feet or so, that were replaced at about 30 years, 27 years, and 40 years. The 40-year-old one had a damaged heat exchanger and was leaking combustion gases into the house. The 30-year-old one was OK, as far as I know, but the home owner was concerned about it failing in the future, and also wanted a more efficient model. The 27-year-old one was replaced by the previous owner of the house, so I don't know why they did it.

You may have already seen it, but this guy scanned the official guide to the World's Fair:

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I am pretty sure a new gas furnace will be more efficient than a 1964 model. I don't know much about oil furnaces; they aren't used much around here (Missouri/Kansas/Oklahoma/Texas) and I don't do HVAC for a living. I assume a 2013 oil furnace would be at least a little more efficient than a 1964 oil furnace, but I don't know how that compares to gas furnaces.

If you switch to oil, you do have the one-time cost of an oil tank and some plumbing. If you stick with gas, there's a 95+% chance that the existing gas plumbing can be reused.

As you are probably aware :) , you have to mix fuel with air to burn it. Gas is, uh, not a solid or a liquid, and the gas company puts some pressure behind it for you, so basically you just let it escape through a known-sized hole and it mixes with air by itself. Oil has to get persuaded to mix with air by pumps and nozzles, which you get to buy and maintain as part of the furnace.

Personally, I also like the idea that the gas is always there; just open up the valve and get warm. I don't have to remember to get the tank filled, or hope the oil truck can make it through the snow, etc.

On the other hand, if you work for an oil company, maybe you get a company discount. :)

You can get a spreadsheet to help for free, but you also apparently need a copy of the not-free book to go with it. Or maybe go to the library.

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Maybe, but it may just be an unrelated HVAC service/install shop run by someone with the same name.

I Googled "brundage fans" and found

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, which seems more likely.

Why not? The engineers at York obviously had a target CFM in mind when they chose the blower, but they also expected that people would either buy replacements from York (using the York part number) or from their local HVAC shop (using generic parts), so there wasn't a need to print the CFM on the blower itself.

I looked at the installation and service manual for my 2009 Trane forced air gas furnace, and it doesn't have just a single number for the blower CFM; it depends on the static pressure of the ducting. (It also has a variable-speed blower, so it depends on which speed it selects.)

If his apartment has its own furnace, and it's the same as yours, and something craps out in the middle of January, make one good one out of the parts of both of them and sleep in one apartment for a few days. The HVAC salesman's eyes light up when somebody walks in with icicles in their hair. :)

Matt Roberds

Reply to
mroberds

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