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Furnace Question

BossHog | Posted in Energy, Heating & Insulation on February 27, 2006 09:50am

I got a call from my furnace guy a today. The furnace at our rental house has been working intermittently. It’s a “Trane” brand natural gas unit, installed in 1995.

Turns out the heat exchanger is cracked, and that’s making some sensor or another kick out. It had a 10 year warranty on it, which is just now out of date.

He figured it would cost about $1,000 to replace the heat exchanger, and he could put in a new furnace for about $2,000.

I thought that was a bit odd – Taking $1,000 to replace a heat exchanger. But I really don’t know much about furnaces, so I’m curious.

Any thoughts are appreciated…

Male menopause is a lot more fun than female menopause. With female menopause, you gain weight and get hot flashes.
With male menopause, you get to date young girls and drive motorcycles.

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  1. Tim | Feb 27, 2006 10:03pm | #1

    The heat exchanger itself has a contractor cost of less than $200. The swap is a two to four hour job by a competent contractor.

    I think his estimate is very conservative, however, Trane parts might be as overpriced as their equipment.

    1. User avater
      BossHog | Feb 27, 2006 10:38pm | #2

      Thanks for the post. I kind of got the impression he didn't really want to mess with changing it. Maybe that's why he exaggerated the price.
      I'd rather laugh with the sinners, but I wanna do business with the saints. They seem like they'd be easy to screw over. [John Dobbin]

  2. pickings | Feb 27, 2006 11:54pm | #3

    Hi Boss

    Bite the bullet and go w/ the new furnace.

    Heat exchange is a major part, but not the only "expensive" one in a furnace.

    Start all new w/ a new warrenty. Good Luck.

    1. User avater
      BossHog | Feb 28, 2006 12:06am | #4

      Whether to replace the furnace or not really wasn't the question - I was just wondering about how hard it was to replace the heat exchanger.
      Mary had a little lamb, her father shot it dead.
      So now it goes to school with her between two hunks of bread.

      1. DanH | Feb 28, 2006 12:21am | #5

        Replacing the heat exchanger requires a fairly complete disassembly of the unit, likely including some of the ductwork above. If space is cramped it can require essentially uninstalling the entire unit. And on modern furnaces there's a lot of wiring and switches and controls that need to be removed/reinstalled. It's comparable in a lot of ways to replacing an engine (or maybe a short block) in a car.
        If ignorance is bliss why aren't more people

        happy?

        1. User avater
          BossHog | Feb 28, 2006 02:20am | #7

          Thanks, Dan. Forgot to mention that the unit is in an easily accessable basement. Accessable except for all the stuff the tenant has in the basement, that is. (-:
          I love playing cards with children. They can't tell you're dealing off the bottom of the deck.

      2. Tim | Feb 28, 2006 04:53pm | #8

        "I was just wondering about how hard it was to replace the heat exchanger."

        Boss, I'm going to disagree with the previous posters on this, because I believe they are guessing and have never replaced a heat exchanger in a modern (yours i.e. circa 1995 vintage) furnace. No duct work has to be removed or disturbed unless the insatllation is a serious hackjob.

        The procedure is relatively straight forward. For a condensing furnace, this is what is required:

        Shut off power and gas, break the gas supply at the union and disconnect from the gas valve. Remove the gas valve and burner manifold. Sketch or photograph (digital cameras are especially wonderful in this instance) the control wiring for the safety switches, inducer and gas valve, and disconnect. Remove the drains. Cut or break the exhaust pipe, if necessary. Remove the inducer, the high temp limit switch, the rollout switch, the flame sensor, the hot surface ignitor and the pressure switches. Remove the front cover. (The safeties and the front cover can be left on if clearance allows, and removed for transfer to the new HX once out of the furncae) Remove the burner bracket if necessary. Now the HX is ready to be removed. Typically a dozen or so sheet metal screws around the front face is all that holds them in. If the above steps takes a competent mechanic more than two hours, they're milking it, or they are unusually challenged.

        Installation of the new HX is simply the reverse of removal. Standing pilot units and other variations could add some time to the process, but it should be a one man in less than a day job.

        I recently removed a heat exchanger that someone had "sooted up" by installing a NG furnace in an LP house without proper conversion and setup. Including cleanup of everyting, took about 12 hours, 6 of which was cleanup.

  3. frenchy | Feb 28, 2006 01:16am | #6

    My heat exchanger cracked as well this year.. it too was just out of warrantee.

     It took one guy three hours to get it ready to remove,&  two guys four hours to replace it.  plus he spent another hour tuning and setting everything..

     It definately is a two man job and while both men weren't real busy doing it, there were several points where just one person couldn't have handled it..

     basically you're just about totally taking the furnace apart and putting it back together..

     

    1. Tim | Feb 28, 2006 04:59pm | #9

      "It took one guy three hours to get it ready to remove,&  two guys four hours to replace it.  plus he spent another hour tuning and setting everything.. "

      Frenchy, I believe you were victimized by an incompetent and/or unscroupulous "service provider".

      In a warranty replacement, the parts are covered, but you (or the manufacturer) pays the service company for the labor. Some milk it for all its worth, as in your example. A good company looks at a warranty replacement as a way to establish a good reputation and take care of their customer, others look at it as way make a quick buck.

      1. frenchy | Feb 28, 2006 07:22pm | #10

        Tim,

          Actually the heat exchanger was the only thing I paid for.  the labor was provided by the Gas company. I signed up for a full service agreement and for a nominal fee they cover all the maintinace and repair of my major appliances.

            The only hassle is I need to be here when they get here which means a window of about 4 hours..  other than that everything is covered.

         

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