RHEEM 80%(Plexvent) to 95% American Standard

I remember back when this new HVAC product(Hart & Cooley plexvent) came on the market back in the early to mid 90’s, this product allowed the venting of 80% gas furnaces to go out side wall of the home or business. Now customers where not forced to purchase a more expensive 90% gas furnace. Keep in mind 90% furnaces where a lot more expensive than 80% ‘s and natural gas was still fairly cheap.

Hart & Cooley Plastic Vent. Plexvent

Hart & Cooley Plastic Vent. Plexvent

In the picture above you can see the Hart & Cooley plexvent, if you own a furnace with this type of venting being used I strongly recommend you have it inspected ASAP. If my memory serves me right Hart & Cooley was not the only manufacture who produced this type of venting, there was also a clear type of vent as well.

Older RHEEM with PLEXVENT

Older RHEEM with PLEXVENT

The older RHEEM 80% furnace vented in plastic vent, the owner completely unaware of the dangers of this type of venting. Fortunately for him American Standard makes a standard 95% gas furnace that I can install at a reasonable price. My biggest challenge was removing the older plastic vent and installing a PVC vent system in the same space.

New American Standard 95% Standard Gas Furnace

New American Standard 95% Standard Gas Furnace

There was plenty of space to work and the duct connections where fairly easy, the only ducting was an extension of the existing return. I also added a condensate pump to remove condensation. Now my customer has not only a more efficient gas furnace but a properly installed one.

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.

Payne Day And Night to American Standard

Once again we run across the same old crack in the same old model of furnace. This model is prone to heat exchanger cracks in the exact same place.

Payne Day And Night

Payne Day And Night

Unfortunately they do not make the same size furnace in the same size footprint any longer, so I made a simple base can transition. This is not uncommon to do but you have to keep in mind your raising the furnace and then you need to make a return transition back to the original size.

New American Standard 80%

New American Standard 80%

As you can see above the transition under the American Standard 80% furnace and the transition above the furnace. Because there is plenty of room above the furnace this was fairly simple to do.

Filter Access Door.

Filter Access Door.

One of the biggest problems home owners have to face is changing there filters when there is no access (except through the furnace) to the filters. So I added a simple filter access door to the return duct and now our customer has easy access to their filters.

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.

Another RHEEM to the scrap yard.

If you actually have read any of my blog you will notice I have a dislike for RHEEM furnaces. I actually dislike a lot of brands of equipment but because of the sure numbers installed in this area I get to pick on RHEEM the most.

This customer had some major issues going on in their home, the huge $350 Nat gas heating bill got my attention as well as the customer thinking it simply might be the older 90% RHEEM furnace.

Older RHEEM furnace

Older RHEEM furnace

After talking alittle with the customer about the history of the heating system and the recent repairs done by another company we both concluded there must be some damaged ducting that got overlooked in the last repair.

Supply Plenum

Supply Plenum

After removing the RHEEM 90% I sealed up the take offs from inside the plenum, at this time I had no idea the extend of damage I was to encounter.

New American Standard 95% Furnace

New American Standard 95% Furnace

As you can see the new American Standard 95% furnace slipped right into place. I recommended the standard 95% because of the past ducting issues. If you have a poor duct system out side of the heated space including improperly insulated or sealed you should stay away from a multi stage piece of equipment. A multi-stage could actually make your bills go up not down.

Now that the new American Standard 95% gas furnace was installed I moved on to the ducting. Because of the length of this entry I decided to break it up in to 2. You will have to read the next entry. “Animal Damaged Ducting.”

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.

Animal Damaged Ducting.

In all the years I have been in this trade I have never experienced the amount of damaged caused by animals to a heating system like I encountered on this last system. In fact if it wasn’t for the amount of frustration the customer had from dealing with another heating company I may have turned this job down. When you have a customer with a home under 2000 sq ft and a heating bill (Nat gas) of $350 a month you have a serious problem.

Damaged Ducting

Damaged Ducting

The picture above is of the 3 main trunks coming off the supply plenum, the reason for 3 mains instead of 1 is because of clearance issues, there simply wasn’t room. These 3 main ducts where covered in small prey remains and from the looks of it the bedding area for what ever lived here.

Damaged Ducting

Damaged Ducting

Here I took a picture from inside the plenum looking down one of the mains, all 3 main ducts had similar openings. At a recent coarse I took on duct sealing I was told that a opening of 1 sq inch in a heating duct is equivalent to a 2′ sq opening in a wall. All together I encountered 5 serious openings such as this 1 and 3 minor openings, this is following another heating contractor who was here less than a year ago!

So even though you see what kind of damage can occur with flexible ducting I am still a big fan of its use, but when you have openings into your crawl space you will eventually have duct damage. So either use hard metal ducting or protect your crawl space and do annual inspections.

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.

Quatro to American Standard 95%

I can remember when Quatro furnaces hit the market. I believe they where one of the first 80% universal furnaces, meaning they could be installed in any direction and they where very compact and inexpensive. The problem was they where cheaply made and soon went out of business because of lawsuits.

Older Quatro Furnace.

Older Quatro Furnace.

The new American Standard 95% Variable Speed 2 stage Furnace had to be adapted to the existing base can, as well as a small transition for the return. New PVC venting installed as well as a drain system.

New American Standard 95% Variable Speed 2 Stage

New American Standard 95% Variable Speed 2 Stage

Thanks to American Standards 95% furnace my customer is going to enjoy energy savings and a more comfortable home.

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.

30 Year Old Replacement

At first I thought this job was not going to go very smooth, the existing flex connector did not want to flex, the carpet was cut around the furnace making it difficult to move and the 30 year old duct tape was like cement.

Existing gas furnace

Existing gas furnace

But after removing all the screws and the 30 year old duct tape that was suppose to fail years ago but yet somehow ignored the laws of physics that duct tape fails and should no longer be used (according to WSU) we where able to remove the furnace and get the new one installed.

New American Standard 80% Gas Furnace

New American Standard 80% Gas Furnace

The new American Standard 80% Furnace slipped right into place, now the customer can once again start heating her home, and even though this was only an 80% furnace she will surely enjoy some cost savings over that older 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.

(2) American Standard 80%

This customer had remodeled his commercial property and turned 2 zones into 3. Obviously there is going to be issues with the heating system. We ended up deviding the largest zone and replacing the fuel eating inline duct heater with 2 American Standard 80% Gas Furnaces.

Heating Location 1

Heating Location 1

The picture above shows where I believe 1 of the American Standard furnaces would be located.

American Standard 80%

American Standard 80%

We build sleepers under the unit to raise it up for easier servicing and added a Honeywell 4″ pleated filter into the return system.

Heating Location 2

Heating Location 2

The 2nd location for a furnace was within the same mechanical room, besides adding sleepers we had to add a new return air duct into the space with a Honeywell 4″ pleated filter system.

American Standard 80% Furnace

American Standard 80% Furnace

The Existing supply ducting was turned and tied into the new American Standard 80% furnace.

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.

New Product EMME

I was recently introduced to a product that I think will be very useful to my customers, especially my customers that want to monitor not only their heat/cooling system but also every appliance in their home from anywhere … ANYWHERE. This product is very easy to use and for what it does fairly inexpensive. EMME is not just a fancy thermostat… you need to check out their web site.

emme

emme

I’m dieing to install this product in someones home or business, for a limited time I will install this product virtually at my cost just to see how it works and get feed back and I am willing to give a 30 day trial. If you do not like the product I will give your money back.

Give me a call if interested.

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.