Compare furnace efficiency and replacement options

Why you would have that rust is we're going to look at something like a compensating issue and when we pulled this all the way apart, you can really see what happened here is this actual this is a cold header and this is where all the moisture collects and then it drains out in front.

What we have right here is an 80% downflow. That 80% actually stands for the efficiency of the unit. So you can always think of that as if you spend a dollar for gas, you're going to get 80 cents worth of heat out of this unit. [Music]

this is actually what we call kind of a clam shell style heat exchanger as you can see it's two pieces of metal that are clammed together uh lot of them you'll see are actually um what I call a tube heat exchanger I I prefer the tube heat exchangers over the clam I've had more problems with clam shells than I have tubes heat exchangers can vary on on life expectancy usually you're going to see them last 20 years definitely want to get it inspected because you can see them last 20 years and up that's fine but if you have something obviously this one lasted more than 20 years but you have something like this where you're not getting enough air flow through there we can have problems so that's something you definitely want to have checked regularly for pricing on a heat exchanger is going to vary anything like this I would definitely have it checked out yearly don't go over 5 years if you've been over 5 years I would highly suggest you calling any professional in your area to come and look at it and make sure that it's safe for you and your family that's what I got to say about this heavy thing

This one on my left is a 90% upflow furnace. And for every dollar you spend, you're going to get 90 cents worth of heat out of it. So that's a good point of how the efficiency works on these. Like I said before, this one is a upflow, meaning that the air is it's actually made to go in upflow position. It can also go horizontal. And this one is a downflow. And what that means is the air flow is going down flow.

90 plus furnace they are a condensating furnace so they do have moisture that comes in with this if you started seeing rust that would be a good indication to start looking other places of why you have rust we should not have any kind of rust forming on these these should be in dry areas

can a heat pump heat a whole house yes that we can definitely heat a whole house with a heat pump especially if we calculate the load and that that's where it's going to be crucial is you need to calculate what your heat load is going to be on that house it's not hard it it takes a little bit of work of measuring and seeing how things are and we can definitely do a calculations on what you need for your home that's always what seems like when people don't have what they need it's because somebody came out there and they just sold them on the idea of a heat pump and they didn't look into what you actually need to have that heat you actually want [Music]

I would say the biggest problems that we have with these have to do with maintenance, maintenance, maintenance, maintenance. Seems like we're always pushing maintenance, but it's true. I have had units where unit won't run. It's going off, you know, it's hitting my high limit and stuff like that. And then you pull the blower and this this secondary heat exchanger sits right above or below the blower, whichever. So, that blower is blowing right here. And before it goes in the coil, it goes into this light coil. So this coil right here, secondary heat exchanger, can get dirt built up on it. [Music]

the heat pump was running just fine but the furnace wasn't kicking on so there's no gas it's very cold in the house when the temperatures drop real far the heat pump struggles to work which is why you have to have backup heat and so what I found was it was not igniting so I had voltage going to my igniter but it was not glowing and it was not coming on an igniter is one of the cheapest fixes that you can make on a furnace igniter is typically $250 some customers don't mind spending that and they just want to keep putting Band-Aids on on it and kick it down the road as far as they can which is fine you know this is as cheap as it gets there's not really any cheaper repair that would need to be made other than this igniter

to go ahead if you're on the fence. If you think you need a new system, to go ahead and replace the full system and not just the AC portion because we can get updated warranties on all pieces of equipment. That way we're not starting at zero on two of them and have an expired warranty on the other and then whenever we have something fail inside the furnace and it's not on a warranty, we don't have to have a conversation of hey, this isn't covered because X, Y, and Z. It saves you money. It saves us heartache. We want to make sure that you make the best decision for your home. Your home. >> [music and singing]

all right so upon putting this blower back together we had previously already pulled out one piece of folded metal thought we were all clear went to test the blower quickly and I was a little suspicious so I kept my hand right next to the pigtail to unplug it and sure enough about a second of run time I hear a big thud Tink sound and another piece of metal had fallen out from the heat exchanger so now I really need to dive in deep and figure out why somebody had been wedging these pieces of metal in the heat exchanger if we were to all Ely find out that this furnace is not under warranty I would recommend getting an estimator out here because we have a lot going on and I'm concerned about the overall safety of this especially if somebody's just shoved metal in there to to combat issues the longer we work on this particular call I'm starting to wonder what all kind of Corners might have been cut and what kind of a quick quick fixes that weren't the best fixes might have been done

Doesn't matter how fancy of the system you buy. If your if your duck work is not sized appropriately, that new system or the existing system is going to struggle to run an operator. It is the delivery system that brings you comfort when you need it the most. And if your duck work is not sized appropriately, then you're not going to be comfortable in the way that you need to be comfortable.