thefatguy
11-03-2006, 01:12 PM
Dear members of this Learned Craft,
I have an "ARCOAIRE" downdraft furnace with its tradnamed "RPG" heat exchanger.
BACKGROUND: It has been off for 6 months until the recent cold snap. Well, I turned it on two weeks ago & I could smell natural gas outside. I didnt think much of it - I figured it was a wierd downdraft from the flu-pipe since I live near a tree line. A week later my CO detectors started going off - this all coincided with poor heating performance - this furnace used to drive you out of the house with heat. I swapped the CO detectors around, but in area of the house, near/adjacent to the furnace INLET they all went off.
I took the cover off & fired up the furnace again,#1) the filters were plugged - I cleaned them, #2) I noticed that two of the three - burner tubes inside the heat exchanger, were not alight all the way. One tube was fully lit & it had the parade of blue cones comming off it. However, the other two burner tubes were not lit 3/4 of total length, maybe 2-3 inches of jets were lit. But, the unlit tubes were engulfed in a random blue flame. I looked at all the tubes closer with a flash light & the area underneath all the burner tubes was a pile of black particulate debris. THe tubes with the problems had a noticeably larger piles. THerefore, all I can fugure is it is the heat exchanger rusting away & fowling the burner tubes. MY QUESTION - What should I do. Is it a forgone conclusion that my furnace is toast ? OR ShoudlI have a furnace guy come out & clean & inspect it ? The furnace is exactly 16 years old. It is a 90% efficiency model with electric igniter. My question concerns value - rather than wasting a service call on a guy telling me my furnace is shot ( which I strongly suspect ) - should I just get on with replacing it ? THe reason for this question is because of the CO in the house - is it a forgone conclusion that if CO is in the house - the heat exchanger is shot - or - ( I know there is CO because of the incomplete combustion ) - because the filter were plugged, it was able to suck in CO from the unit because of the vacuum caused by the plugged filters. ? I dont want to throw good money after bad..Since this is a 90% model, Im not as motivated by fuel prices to replace it because of the payback. Please advise - thanks !
I have an "ARCOAIRE" downdraft furnace with its tradnamed "RPG" heat exchanger.
BACKGROUND: It has been off for 6 months until the recent cold snap. Well, I turned it on two weeks ago & I could smell natural gas outside. I didnt think much of it - I figured it was a wierd downdraft from the flu-pipe since I live near a tree line. A week later my CO detectors started going off - this all coincided with poor heating performance - this furnace used to drive you out of the house with heat. I swapped the CO detectors around, but in area of the house, near/adjacent to the furnace INLET they all went off.
I took the cover off & fired up the furnace again,#1) the filters were plugged - I cleaned them, #2) I noticed that two of the three - burner tubes inside the heat exchanger, were not alight all the way. One tube was fully lit & it had the parade of blue cones comming off it. However, the other two burner tubes were not lit 3/4 of total length, maybe 2-3 inches of jets were lit. But, the unlit tubes were engulfed in a random blue flame. I looked at all the tubes closer with a flash light & the area underneath all the burner tubes was a pile of black particulate debris. THe tubes with the problems had a noticeably larger piles. THerefore, all I can fugure is it is the heat exchanger rusting away & fowling the burner tubes. MY QUESTION - What should I do. Is it a forgone conclusion that my furnace is toast ? OR ShoudlI have a furnace guy come out & clean & inspect it ? The furnace is exactly 16 years old. It is a 90% efficiency model with electric igniter. My question concerns value - rather than wasting a service call on a guy telling me my furnace is shot ( which I strongly suspect ) - should I just get on with replacing it ? THe reason for this question is because of the CO in the house - is it a forgone conclusion that if CO is in the house - the heat exchanger is shot - or - ( I know there is CO because of the incomplete combustion ) - because the filter were plugged, it was able to suck in CO from the unit because of the vacuum caused by the plugged filters. ? I dont want to throw good money after bad..Since this is a 90% model, Im not as motivated by fuel prices to replace it because of the payback. Please advise - thanks !