bulges and "hot spots" inside 20 year old furnace...do I really need new one?

[Noon-Air]

Furnaces are only built to last for 18 - 20 years. The new models use a fraction of the energy to run them. You can keep funneling money into repairs, and giving your money to the utility company if you want. Its been my personal experience that when I install a new comfort system in a customers home, there utility bills drop on the average of 60%, and the new system is so quiet, they are not even aware that its running. Its your choice....Keeping the old furnace will cost you more in the long run, and you'll *STILL* have to replace it...... its not a matter of *IF*, its a matter of *WHEN*

[Malcolm Hoar]

This technician is probably right. You should start planning for a replacement furnace fairly soon. Yes, the existing furnace may last a while longer. But it may fail as soon as the really cold weather sets in and then you'll probably have a very hard time finding anyone to work on it unless you're willing to pay a premium price.

But you'd also be crazy to give the job to the first guy that came along. It's time to get recommendations and prices from several firms and think through exactly what kind of system you're going to want.

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, Have a second opinion and if I were you, I'd plan for a replacement furnace. Sounds like you are trying to get last drop out of 20 year old inefficient furnace on today's standard. Remember Murphy's law. Things like that will fail on coldest day when techs are busiest. You can't even save some money then being in a big rush.

[<kjpro]

Name one cheap $30 detector that protects against low level CO poisoning.

[<kjpro]

exchanger....can a

It may be the heaviest, but it&#39;s not like its a 1/4 inch thick.

[nospamever]

Do bulges or curves in the metal of the heat exchanger mean it is about to crack or not? Yes or no?

J.

[<kjpro]

No

[DerbyDad03]

- It may be the heaviest, but it&#39;s not like its a 1/4 inch thick

Dunno...it was a 1950-ish Perfection gas fired forced air. From exterior of the heat exchanger, it certainly appeared and felt, like the unit was pretty thick.

In an earlier post, someone said (about the 20 YO Carrier) "The burner tubes are inside the heat exchanger". On my perfection, the burner was below the heat exchanger in it&#39;s own compartment. The burner was, I don&#39;t know, about a 9" x 9" plate with over a hundred (?) flames.

The heat exchanger pictured towards the bottom of this site looks like an absolute wimp compared to the rough surfaced, solid looking heat exchanger in my old furnace.

[Bubba]

Usually this is a sympton of your wife about ready to scream out another mans name during sex. Then the house blows up. Bubba

[Bubba]

hehe. 95% of the population (I made that percentage up on guesstimate) doesn&#39;t have a clue that an "average" CO detector might as well just be a dim night light plugged in the wall. At least you can tell when a night light goes bad. Bubba

[DerbyDad03]

-- 95% of the population (I made that percentage up on guesstimate) ...

Did you know that 93.7% off all statistics are made up on the spot?

[-zero]

...

Sounds like a manufacturers conversion from oil to gas.

Sounds Like an oil to gas conversion. Midco burners did quite well through to 60&#39;s-70&#39;s. :-)

In the early 60&#39;s, there were quite a few companies that designed their own conversion burner (or fuel burner of choice) as they we&#39;re sitting on a cargo loads of oil furnace chambers that were not moving anytime soon. As Natural-Gas lines were being run like mad through the big cities, Gas furnace design was changing from gravity units w/ add-on blowers, to the typical 80%&#39;ers of the 1960&#39;s-80&#39;s.

Mind you, back then there were 1,000 times (WAG) the number of furnace and boiler manufacturers in the US. Many were very popular/well known but only encompassing a very small region of the country.

Some of these are still running today, due to the lack of the Planned-Obsolescence concept, and the focus was mostly "Ours is better/stronger/faster than yours".

-zero

[DerbyDad03]

If it was a conversion, it was certainly done by the manufacturer, as you stated. The manual included instructions for the installed gas valve and side mounted blower.

The original gas valve had a flip-up tab so you could manually operate the gas valve during a power outage. The manual listed the duty cycle for operating the unit without a blower. I doubt the comparatively wimpy heat exchangers of today&#39;s furnaces could handle running without a blower.

Wouldn&#39;t you know that early one winter the gas valve started acting up, so I placed a service a call. They had to replace the gas valve, and "No, you can&#39;t have one that can be operated manually. They&#39;re illegal now." So what happens during March of same winter? A major ice storm in upstate NY. We were without power - and now without heat due to the "upgraded" gas valve - for 5 days.

[ftwhd]

I see why you f****ng idiots cross post to alt.hvac. The 20 yo 80% furnace is just as efficient as todays 80% furnace. If the HX has bulges in it its a sigh of over heating and stress. Id look at the return and I would have someone properly size the new one.

Now please quit cross posting your f****ng home owner BS to alt hvac.

[<kjpro]

It should be illegal to sell them without a disclaimer.

[<kjpro]

Natural draft vs induced draft. No way.