3 replies to this topic

[rafael]

My repairman horror story revolves around my disfunctional gas forced air furnace. When I bought my house the furnace didn't run. i managed to get it going, but it had a weird sympton: It would heat up quickly then shutdown the burners while the exchanger cooled. I pulled off the covers and found that the little sensor in the exchanger would rise quicly up to the point where it shut the burners off, then gradualy go down.

So, I calls a local heater repair outfit with a large yellow pages ad, and they send two guys over. They both look at my heater for a while, then instead of telling me I need this or that, retire to their van out front for about fifteen minutes.

When they return, they tell me they need to sell me a $300 maintenance contract before they can fix my furnace!

I sent them packing, but my furnace still doesn't work right. I figure I'll replace it as it is from the late 70's.

[nickfixit]

You may have a plugged or cracked heat exchanger. They may have wanted to sell the contract because they knew it would cost many hundreds of dollars to fix it. Or perhaps they were morons and wanted to "shotgun" it with parts. If it's from the 70's it's time to shop. A new one will be safer and far more fuel efficient.

Nick

[rafael]

They wanted to $$$ before they would even diagnose. I think they were in the business of selling service contracts to suckers.

BTW cracked exchanger=bad but: how does one determine if exchanger is clogged? Thnx in advance.

[libertyjones]

Cracked heat exchangers sometimes blow the gas flame in strange patterns. Too much blowing and you can start your house on fire or on older furnaces suck carbon dioxide/carbon monoxide into the house.

Clogged burner passages sometimes can be cleaned by a long brush but you need to correct the combustion problems causing excess soot first.

A mirror on a stick is the most useful tool for heater work followed by a flashlight.