OT--Furnace Rant!

Ok, I called to have my furnace inspected since it had been a year, and my Furnace and AC are both toast!

The furnace has parts falling off the primary heat exchange unit making it "unsafe" so the tech had to leave it turned off and write up an unsafe report for the city (license requirement).  However his sales guy is coming in a few hours to price out a new system, and if we buy a new system from them they will amend the unsafe report to state that it is being replaced. 

The AC is also toast.  it is pulling more amps than it needs and is shorting out the compressor. 

Oh, gosh....hope it's not BIG bucks....

Good luck....

Umh--don't just go with the "replace it" approach! I had a company do that to me, wouldn't even CONSIDER fixing it because it was 15 years old--a local smaller company came out and fixed it for $200. So just a word of caution! I hope it's not completely toast!

it is in fact completely toast.  when the sales guy looked at it last night, just looked did not touch we saw (I was with him) 4 random large parts that are supposed to be attached FALL OFF and they knocked 2 other parts off.  He said "oh crap"  If this had been on when these fell off we would have had at least corbon monoxide poisening, if not a fire. and the AC pipes are crumbling to the touch/

New furnance and AC being put in tomorrow and friday, Unfortunatly it snowed last night and is supposed to snow again tonight (And I only have 1 space heater)

oh well at least I have lots of blankets and need to clean the oven (It is self cleaning)

 

Bummer!!  It's hot here---I'll send it your way!  LOL  If it's any consolation I discovered the AC in the car IS toast as well :-(

yike, i had to replace my furnace last november. it was putting off co2, not enough to red flag it but the fact that any was coming out at all was not a good thing.

then a month after that it went out. the brand new unit, yeah for warrenty work, the guy had to come out twice on new years eve to get it working. the vent was creating a vacuum on the roof ( when it sucked in air, and when the wind blows _ the wind always blows here!)

Heat exchangers can have an extended warranty on them like 10-15 years or more. They can be replaced, but another part is going to fail anyway, then another. So better to just bite the bullet and get something that is more efficient.
Would like to know what kind of furnace this is as it is usually hard to see a heat exchanger. The last two furnaces that I had go out, the furnace stopped running when the heat exchanger went (landlord--got the furnace company number memorized).
Don't worry about pipes freezing if you are only without heat 1-2 nights unless it is sub-zero where you are. Here we can go 2-3 days or a week when it is below freezing.
Don't normally hear about electrical problems with the A/C unless ants get in and foul the contactors. Be careful if you use a weed wacker near it, too. Can damage the lines. One friend had the electric line corrode because his dog used it as a comfort station once.
At least you didn't have to manually override a circuit board like I had to do once to start it up. Part was going in the next day, but our tech slipped at another job and ended up with a broken ankle. Part was in his truck at the hospital.
Our guy would red tag it, but not bother to report it to the city unless it didn't get replaced. You need a building permit for the installation, by the way.
You can boil water on the stove. Just don't let it run dry or you can have a fire. You can run the oven.
Remember to change/clean the filter like clockwork.