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
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
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.
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
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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
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
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
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.
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
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
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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
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
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
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.
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
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
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
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.
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
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%
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.
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.
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
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
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
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.