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Posted by Dr. Hardcrab on August 3, 2005, 11:10 am
> I just recently had my heater service company over for a cleaning
> and servicing on my oil fired forced hot air system the other day. I
> couldn't be present at the cleaning but within 15 minutes I received a
> call from the technician saying that the draft reading was bad and he
> thought my system should be replaced.
>
> A 'draft test' was done with the -02 fan off and +01 fan on reading
> lead the tech to tell me this. This was done before the heater was
> either cleaned or serviced in any way. No nozzle change or anything. I
> believe that due to scheduling conflicts last year my heater never got
> serviced so I feel perhaps this complicated the issue. That plus it was
> about 90 degress outside that day, and I think the techinician didn't
> want the dirty job of cleaning out the furnace in those conditions.
>
> Should I obtain a second opinion of this?, shouldn't have the
> furnace been cleaned first and then readings obtained? The unit is over
> 25 years old and by rights has passed it's life expectancy but I feel
> perhaps the tech may have taken the easy way out being I wasn't there
> and he could charge me $65 and walk away without cleaning anything,
> then an hour and a half of dirty cleaning and only charging me $125.
>
> Any thoughts on this would be appreciated!
The charge for the cleaning doesn't sound that bad. I thibnk the guy was
just trying to sell you a new furnace. Maybe he gets commission for that.
But to be fair (since I wasn't there), I'll make a few points:
Getting a bad draft reading can be caused by several factors. Most of the
time it has something to do with the chimnay and not the furnace. I said
MOST. You can get a different reading on a 90 degree day compared to a 30
degree day. You CAN get a different reading before it's cleaned compared to
AFTER it's cleaned. Now, you can test the draft when the burner first kicks
in and if it changes when the fan kicks in, THAT could mean that you have a
crack in the heat exchanger which CAN lead to something catatsrophic. If
that was the case, he should have told you and then condemned the unit.
Maybe what you need to do is call them back up and explain exactly why they
think you need a new furnace (other than that it is old).
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