Furnace heat exchanger problems - previously (mistakenly) posted to alt.HVAC

louie · 2005-11-30T20:25:10+00:00

I recently bought a house with an older gas furnace (probably 15 yearsold, nameplates have been mostly painted over). Recently discoveredthat the blower will no longer start up on its own, and have had thecapacitor tested - it tested ok. So... I happen to have a homewarranty left over from the purchase and I called to have the furnacerepaired (it is covered under the warranty). Unfortunately, I have nosay in the technician/company who services my furnace - it is chosen bythe warranty company for me. The guy comes out, my wife is there tolet him in, I showed up from work about 10 minutes later. When I gotthere, he was in the process of trying a new capacitor (didn't work)and then decided that the blower motor needs replacement. I took theopportunity to mention that I had seen a lot of LARGE rust flakes piledon top of the burners (almost to the point of completely coveringseveral of the burners). I asked did he check the heat exchanger forholes? He replied that he hadn't seen any holes in it but that hewould check for CO coming from the upstairs registers once the newblower motor was installed. He also mentioned that the burner chamberneeded to be cleaned out and that wasn't covered by the warranty,nor was it included in his or his company's job duties. I later askedmy wife how he inspected the heat exchanger (ie. did he use a camera,mirror, what?). She replied that he didn't do anything more than whatI had seen him do when I got there (nothing). We will be called oncethemotor is ordered and received to schedule the next appointment. Thisisnot an emergency for us, since we're currently living elsewhere whilewedo some rennovating.So, I'm thinking, though I don't have any inspection mirrors orcameras, those large (when I say large, I'm thinking they look to be afew inches across and about 1/8" or thicker) flakes of rust coupledwith the fact that someone has done a less-than-classy installation ofan A/C coil in the plenum above the furnace means I have...

Nov 30, 2005 24 Replies

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m Ransley 20 years ago

Call the gas company out to confirm the condeming

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CBHVAC 20 years ago

LOL...yea..sure..

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louie 20 years ago

I'm not an HVAC expert, but there's not much question about it. The slightest disturbance to the furnace causes LARGE flakes of rust to rain down inside the heat exchanger despite repeated cleaning. One burner is missing about 3 inches at the tip from corrosion, another is falling apart in the same manner though not quite as bad. When running the blower, I can feel air moving through the heat exchanger (with the burners removed). The blower motor has a bad starter winding. The laundry list is pretty high on this furnace. I'm not sure that the gas utility does the inspections, though it sounded like a good idea at first.

Thanks again to everyone who posted with suggestions and ideas. I guess whether the warranty company honors this claim or not, I'll have to replace the furnace. It's not all bad, it gives me a chance to put something better than this oversized, inefficient, unfiltered unit in there.

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m Ransley 20 years ago

I hope you have a good Co alarm

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louie 20 years ago

I do, but the house is also unoccupied at the moment as we do some fairly extensive rennovations, gas and power to the furnace are shut off.

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