Lone Star Cooling and Heating
Get help with Heat Exchanger Inspection
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Call (325) 219-0005Inspecting the heat exchanger of a gas furnace, the metal wall that keeps combustion gases out of the air the building breathes, for the cracks and corrosion that can let carbon monoxide through.
01Heat exchangers
A heat exchanger sits deep inside the furnace. These are the signs that bring it to light.
The alarm has detected carbon monoxide, and the first response is fresh air and a call to 911. Once the building is safe, the furnace is among the fuel-burning appliances checked, along with vents, a water heater and any attached garage.
Headaches, dizziness, nausea or tiredness that several people share, and that improve after time away, are classic signs of carbon monoxide exposure. That calls for fresh air and emergency help first, and a check of every fuel-burning appliance before the heat runs again.
Burner flames should stay steady when the blower comes on. Flames that lean, flutter or change color at that moment can mean air is being pushed through a crack into the burner area, and the furnace needs an inspection before it keeps running.
Soot is a sign that fuel is not burning cleanly, and rust or flaking metal points at corrosion. Either can go with a damaged heat exchanger, and both are reasons for a closer look at the furnace.
A cracked heat exchanger usually decides whether a furnace is replaced, so it is reasonable to ask to see it. Most cracks can be shown on an inspection camera or in a photo, and seeing the evidence makes a large decision easier.
02In the meantime
Carbon monoxide cannot be seen or smelled. These steps come before any question about the furnace.
Get everyone, pets included, out into fresh air and call 911. Stay outside until emergency responders say it is safe to go back in.
If a technician has shut the furnace down over a cracked heat exchanger, leave it off until it has been repaired or replaced, however cold it gets.
Gather people in one room with extra layers. Never heat the building with a gas oven or range, a grill or a generator, because each can fill the air with carbon monoxide. Keep any space heater clear of bedding, curtains and furniture.
Heat Exchanger Inspection
Serving Abilene, TX.
03After a crack
A cracked heat exchanger is rarely left in service. What replaces it depends on the rest of the furnace.
Possible when the furnace is fairly new, the matching part is still made, and everything else is in good order. The furnace has to be largely taken down to reach it, so the labor is substantial, and the result is a sound furnace that is otherwise the age it was.
The usual answer on older equipment, when the part is no longer available, or when the burners, blower and controls are also worn. The cost of swapping the exchanger comes close enough to a new furnace that the new one, with its own years ahead of it, is the better use of the money.
04Why they crack
A heat exchanger lives through thousands of heating and cooling cycles, and that is what eventually breaks it.
Each time the burners fire, the metal heats and expands, and each time they stop, it cools and shrinks. Over many seasons that movement fatigues the metal at bends and seams. Anything that makes the furnace run hotter than it was designed to, such as a clogged filter, closed vents or ducts too small for the blower, speeds the process, and so does corrosion from moisture in the flue gases.
An inspection combines several views, because no single test sees every part of every heat exchanger. A technician watches the flames as the blower starts, looks inside with a light or a camera where the design allows, checks for soot, rust and flame rollout, and measures carbon monoxide in the flue and the air leaving the furnace.
05Questions
It can. A crack or hole can let combustion gases, which include carbon monoxide, mix into the air the blower sends through the building. Not every crack leaks measurable gas at every moment, which is exactly why a furnace with a confirmed crack is normally shut down and why working carbon monoxide alarms matter.
Generally not. The metal expands and contracts every time the furnace runs, so welding or sealing a crack is not a lasting or accepted fix. The choices are a new heat exchanger, where the part is still available, or a new furnace.
Yes. An alarm warns once carbon monoxide has reached the air, while an inspection looks for the damage before it gets that far. The two work together, and neither replaces the other.
The usual advice is at least one on every level of the building and one outside each sleeping area, placed as the alarm maker directs. Alarms wear out, and most carry a replace-by date. A smoke alarm does not detect carbon monoxide unless it is a combined unit.
A smell of gas, a carbon monoxide alarm, a burning electrical smell, or no heat or cooling in dangerous weather: urgent. A system that runs longer than it used to, a new noise or one room that is off: worth a visit soon, but not tonight.
Lone Star Cooling and Heating
Call Lone Star Cooling and Heating, have us call you, or describe the issue.
Prefer to talk?
Call (325) 219-0005