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Furnace inspection
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It was that time of the year again, furnace inspection. No one wants to have his furnace failed in the middle of winter. The inspection and cleaning cost anywhere between 70 to 120 dollar. So shop around if you want to save a few bucks and I believe inspection pays off in the long run.
I had mine done a few days ago and this is the story. This time, I decided to watch what the inspector was doing carefully so I can do the inspection and cleaning myself next time. In this tough economic time, you want to do almost any DIY (do-it-yourself) job. The inspector turned the breaker off at the pannel and closed the gas valve. That was something I could do for sure. Then he started taking apart the front part of the furnace to the bones and I got lost even before he finished the front part. So if you are like me, forget DIY inspection.
He finished the front part and move to the back pannel. With grunts and a few 'f' words, heat exchanger at the back of the furnace was finally exposed. To have a better look, he shed light on the heat exchanger. After a few moments of silence, he turned around and announced that I need a brand new furnace as soon as possible. He said there is a hair-like crack in the heat exchanger and that can leak harmful gases including CO to the room. You know what CO does when you sleep. It can make you sleep forever and never wake up in the next morning. He added that he would have red-tagged the furnace if it was severe than that. My furnace is a little more than 20 years old, approaching its life time if there is anything like that. After 20 years, the heat exchanger is now tired. You know people in the material science call it 'fatigued'. The inspector gave me a good analogy. He said it is like keep bending a wire on and off over the past 20 years. I am no where near engineering but I can understand that.
He left with me price ranges of modern fuel-efficient furnace, 5 or 7 grands, and a hydro phone number in case I wanted to have second opinion. Who can come up with that kind of money in a few days period? So I began searching around the internet to see if it is possible to weld or replace the heat exchanger only. After about an hour of googling, I found welding is not an option and replacing the part cost as much as new unit. I called the hydro to have 'second' opinion. Luckily, the hydro provide this service for free even on weekends! I hope the inspector was mistaken and the furnce runs another five years so that I can save up the money. But I don't have good feeling about it. I may have bad dream tonight about the hydro guy red taping the furnce around and around and around...all night long.
Have yours inspected and sleep in peace.
I had mine done a few days ago and this is the story. This time, I decided to watch what the inspector was doing carefully so I can do the inspection and cleaning myself next time. In this tough economic time, you want to do almost any DIY (do-it-yourself) job. The inspector turned the breaker off at the pannel and closed the gas valve. That was something I could do for sure. Then he started taking apart the front part of the furnace to the bones and I got lost even before he finished the front part. So if you are like me, forget DIY inspection.
He finished the front part and move to the back pannel. With grunts and a few 'f' words, heat exchanger at the back of the furnace was finally exposed. To have a better look, he shed light on the heat exchanger. After a few moments of silence, he turned around and announced that I need a brand new furnace as soon as possible. He said there is a hair-like crack in the heat exchanger and that can leak harmful gases including CO to the room. You know what CO does when you sleep. It can make you sleep forever and never wake up in the next morning. He added that he would have red-tagged the furnace if it was severe than that. My furnace is a little more than 20 years old, approaching its life time if there is anything like that. After 20 years, the heat exchanger is now tired. You know people in the material science call it 'fatigued'. The inspector gave me a good analogy. He said it is like keep bending a wire on and off over the past 20 years. I am no where near engineering but I can understand that.
He left with me price ranges of modern fuel-efficient furnace, 5 or 7 grands, and a hydro phone number in case I wanted to have second opinion. Who can come up with that kind of money in a few days period? So I began searching around the internet to see if it is possible to weld or replace the heat exchanger only. After about an hour of googling, I found welding is not an option and replacing the part cost as much as new unit. I called the hydro to have 'second' opinion. Luckily, the hydro provide this service for free even on weekends! I hope the inspector was mistaken and the furnce runs another five years so that I can save up the money. But I don't have good feeling about it. I may have bad dream tonight about the hydro guy red taping the furnce around and around and around...all night long.
Have yours inspected and sleep in peace.
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하하- 재미있게 글을 잘 읽었습니다. poly님은 유머감각이 정말 풍부한 분 같습니다. 영어를 쓰시는 것이 꼭 한국분이 아닌 것 같이 느껴집니다. 혹 캐나디언?
꿈속에서 발생할 그런 상황이 현실에선 발생하지 않기를 바랍니다. 준비 잘 하셔서 따뜻한 겨울을 나세요.
