Future American Standard Heat Pump.

Every time I’m around an oil furnace it brings back memories of my dad, why he liked working on oil furnaces beats the hell out of me, but he did and he was very good at it. And even though I would go with him call after call learning what I could I never fell in love with it. I just don’t understand why someone could look past the oil smell that stayed on you all day, the stained clothes or the soot that gets everywhere including in your lungs.

Existing Oil Furnace

Existing Oil Furnace

This oil furnace was doomed the minute the new owner of this home took over, it was just a matter of time. She knew she wanted it gone but what to replace it with? She ended up deciding on installing an American Standard air handler with a heat pump coil. This will eliminate being slaved to a oil tank and get her one step closer to a American Standard Heat Pump.

New American Standard Air Handler

New American Standard Air Handler

With a few duct changes the new American Standard air handler slipped right in to place. I also added a Honeywell F100 filter system that will make it easier to change the filter. In the future when my customer is ready she can add the Heat Pump and really start saving money.

Heating And Cooling Skagit County

Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler or Tankless Water Heater? We install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.

Arcoaire to American Standard 95%

I’m not a big fan of Arcoaire furnaces, I use to be a dealer back in 1992 and quickly drop them because I felt the quality just wasn’t there. That being said this one was installed in 1990 and on this last maintenance call my technician found a hairline crack on the heat exchanger. This is enough to label the furnace as a health issue.

Arcoaire Furnace

Arcoaire Furnace

As you can see the older Arcoaire 80% furnace vented out with metal, sharing a vent with the existing hot water tank. So when quoting an 80% to 95% furnace you have to consider new PVC venting and condensate, everything else like the gas, electrical and ducting should be present and re-usable with slight modifications.

New 95% American Standard

New 95% American Standard

My customer elected to go with an American Standard 95% single stage furnace. This is a good solid piece of equipment that still meets the 95% federal tax credit but without the 2 stage or variable speed blower. In some cases this is what I recommend.

Heating And Cooling Skagit County

Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler or Tankless Water Heater? We install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.

Cracked 80% to American Standard 95% 2 Stage Variable

For this customer the furnace repair bills where getting to high and they wanted to take advantage of the tax credits. It wasn’t until we got the furnace changed out that we noticed the huge crack in the heat exchanger. Its not uncommon for us to find cracks later on after we are able to look from a different angle, but this crack was at least 6 inches long.

Crack in heat exchanger

Crack in heat exchanger

The crack runs vertically and starts pretty much in the center of the screen and goes down. Cracks like this one really open up after the furnace is warmed up and that is when it can do the most damage.

Older 80% Gas Furnace

Older 80% Gas Furnace

If you have a furnace that still has a standing pilot light like this one you should really think about replacing it. You got your life out of the furnace and safety is becoming a factor!

New 2 Stage Variable 95% American Standard.

New 2 Stage Variable 95% American Standard.

The new American Standard 95% 2 Stage Variable fit right into place, I had to make a simple transition for the return air and then add a filter access door so the customer can actually change the filters without cutting themselves. The venting went up through the existing chimney and we ran the condensate drain to the existing drain line under the home.

I must have said this a hundred times, the American Standard 2 Stage Variable is my favorite furnace to install, and so far I have had zero issues with this model!

Heating And Cooling Skagit County

Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler or Tankless Water Heater? We install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.

80% Junk to American Standard 80%

Normally when I come across a situation like this one I try to turn and walk away, let me explain … the existing furnace is installed in a living room in the center of the home, the homeowner is used to the noise this furnace makes and how it heats the home. The newer furnaces have inducers and a direct drive blower motors, meaning different sounds and harder blowing. Also anyone who visits will see the furnace in their living room, not a big fan.

Older Furnace

Older Furnace

According to the home owner there was once a free standing wood stove some 30 years ago in the same place, they replaced it with this furnace. Now keep this in mind, when replacing a wood stove with a gas appliance please have your chimney at least inspected if not lined and or cleaned.

Debris From Chimney

Debris From Chimney

My service technician had to red tag this furnace due to the large amount of Carbon Monoxide levels found in the home. This was due to the debris found blocking the chimney as shown in the picture above. Honestly Id say she is lucky to be alive.

New American Standard 80% Gas Furnace

New American Standard 80% Gas Furnace

The American Standard 80% gas furnace was actually a smaller width, so they could box it in at a later date. I add a return air filter grille on the bottom of the furnace, this will help with noise and make it easier for her to change her filter. I added (2) double deflection grilles so the heat will actually blow down instead of across the ceiling. Then I direct connected the ducting to the floor grille to the 2nd floor, this should help with her bed room.

Over all I am pleased with the installation and so is my customer, but I still do not like the furnace on display in a living room.

Heating And Cooling Skagit County

Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler or Tankless Water Heater? We install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.

My First Triangle Tube Boiler

Triangle Tube was not my first pick for a boiler for this project, but I had to look at all the requirements. The boiler had to be high efficient, I had to get it vented out with PVC, I had to separate the combustion air from the exhaust venting and I had to do all this in a very confined place. Triangle Tube met all the above.

Older American Standard Boiler

Older American Standard Boiler

The American Standard boiler had failed, there where several minor issues that could have been resolved but our customer wanted an upgrade. The house was built in the late 30’s and even though the customer feels that this boiler was original I’m thinking its was put in a few decades later.

New Triangle Tube Boiler

New Triangle Tube Boiler

The triangle Tube boiler fit like a glove, in fact I was within inches of making this a unsuccessful install. I forgot who told me this great advice … “a tape measure never lies” you have to read into it to understand why its called advice.

The boiler comes with its own primary pump but lacks a external pump control, besides the obvious hydronic devices I had to ad a transformer and a relay to make a complete system. The boiler mounts on the wall similar to the Navien tankless. Overall I’m really happy I got to install one of these boilers.

Heating And Cooling Skagit County

Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler or Tankless Water Heater? We install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.

Kenmore To American Standard 95%

For some reason I kinda chuckle when I see a sears furnace, I know they are out there and they seemed to hold up pretty well, but for some reason it just seems weird. At any rate our customer was done putting money into their Kenmore furnace and wanted something more efficient and a tax credit.

Older Kenmore Furnace

Older Kenmore Furnace

As you can see by the PVC venting that this furnace was at least 90% efficient, and by the ducting you can tell this was not the first furnace in this home. If you look real close you will see the 5 gal bucket next to the furnace, this was their condensate drain bucket. I imagine they had to empty this several times a week in the winter time or face water in their garage.

New American Standard 95% Furnace.

New American Standard 95% Furnace.

Above is the new American Standard 95% 2 stage variable speed furnace, notice there is no more bucket drain system? It took only a few minutes to run the drain out to the sidewall of the home, but by doing so we saved them from a possible flood in their garage.

Filter Access Door

Filter Access Door

One of the easiest things to do is cut in a filter access door into the existing return plenum, as long as the ducting is straight and tall enough.

Heating And Cooling Skagit County

Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler or Tankless Water Heater? We install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.

American Standard 80% Raised Base

Its unreal how many times I have pulled a furnace off its existing base can to find out how poorly the equipment was installed. In this case you can see how blocked off the furnace was and how close the heat exchangers where to the blanked off base can. Keep in mind there is wood behind this metal.

Existing Base Can

Existing Base Can

What really bothers me is it appears this was the 2nd furnace installed on this base can in this manner. I decided to make a quick trip back to the shop and fabricate a raised base can. By installing a raised base can we will get better air flow and keep the heat exchangers away from combustible material.

Older RHEEM 80% Furnace

Older RHEEM 80% Furnace

Above you can see the older RHEEM furnace that was installed on that base can, the plastic bowl on top of the furnace was to control the water leak coming down the rusted vent pipe.

New American Standard 80% Gas Furnace

New American Standard 80% Gas Furnace

The new American Standard 80% and raised base can installed correctly, notice the new filter access door I installed on the return above the furnace and you can see I replaced the existing venting.

Heating And Cooling Skagit County

Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler or Tankless Water Heater? We install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.

LG Ductless MiniSplit

Every ductless mini-split manufacture has its own models that have very unique features …. Here we installed some LG Art Cool Mirror indoor wall units and heat pump, and its because of the dark mirrors on the faces of these units that help sell the project.

My customer had a underground duct system that supplied heat to both his indoor pool area as well as 1000 sq ft of their home. The system was poorly installed and recently collapsed because of a pump failure that caused underground duct flooding.

New LG Mini Split Heat Pump

New LG Mini Split Heat Pump

Above you see the new outdoor LG heat Pump installed on a flat roof, we ran 2 line sets from the outdoor Heat Pump to the indoor air handlers. I’m always surprised how quiet these units are.

New Indoor Air Handler

New Indoor Air Handler

The down stairs LG air handler was installed just above the existing windows, this was obviously the best location for performance and aesthetics. I have to admit these mirror finished units are truly stunning.

New LG upstairs unit

New LG upstairs unit

The upstairs LG unit serves the master bedroom, fortunately not only are these units very good looking they are very quiet as well. The only complaint my customer had about these units was the bright display light … and of coarse those are adjustable. 🙂

Heating And Cooling Skagit County

Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler or Tankless Water Heater? We install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.