Forced AIr CO leaks?

[Deleted User]

> Does the furnace look like or similar to <BR>

It is gas and doesn't have any "appendages" on the side except a box on one end for the transition to a round pipe to the chimney.

The form factor is similar, but IIRC it is not as "thin" as the one shown.

[Deleted User]

Forced Air CO leaks?

Background - I maintain a house for a relative who lives 400 miles away. I was there doing some plumbing and noticed the fan in the XXth Century Zeph-air was not coming on reliably and when it did it sometimes "stuck" on. I took a quick look and decided it was the fan limit switch. Since I didn't know where to get a switch and had to finish the plumbing job I called a recommended furnace guy.

His assistant (a nice young man) came and agreed with my diagnosis. He replaced the switch assembly for a reasonable price.

I also asked him to check over the system since I am far from an expert on furnaces. He measured 1-4 ppm CO coming from the basement vent but nothing around the flue. He then pronounced the furnace to be JUNK and offered to quote a new system. He sized it by pacing the exterior dimensions of the house.

After returning home I called the Fire Dept in in the relatives town and asked them to check the CO. They found no none.

Question - If in fact there is 1-4 ppm out the vent how worried should I be.

jp_2

basement vent?

what exactly do you mean by "basement vent"?

1-4 ppm CO could be coming from a number of places.

[Deleted User]

I mean

by basement vent the place on the side of the furnace plenum where hot air comes out of the furnace into the basement. Is that also called a register? Sorry, I'm not up on the terminology.

jp_2

CO in flue?

very possible a crack in the heat exchanger.

what CO did he measure in the flue?

did he measure any CO in the living spaces?

ps terminology is different everywhere you go....

in canada a folk lift is a tow motor? when I was there I had no idea what they were talking about?????

Unknown

Towmotor is a brand name

http://www.af.nl/prive/heftrucks/towmotor/towmotor/

I've used one, before...

Noel

[Deleted User]

He didn't measure IN the flue

If that is the correct name for the pipe from the furnace to the chimney. He measured around it in several places near joints (with the meter almost touching the metal} and got no reading.

He also did not measure in the living spaces, but the FD did and got no reading.

There is also a new CO detector on both floors of the living space that is not alarming, not that that is a reliable indicator.

don_52

1951 20th Century Zeph-Air

Fred,

Does the furnace look like or similar to this?

db

jp_2

yep

when I was a teen every snowmobile was a ski doo.

Bruce Stevens

Fred

If this is the brown XX Century forced air furnace with a cast iron heat exchanger as I suspect, you probably have lost the gasket that goes around the two sections of the fire box, they are a bear to replace and costly and not too many people probably know how to do it, I also have seen bad casting leaking through also, or clean out cover gasket. These gaskets tend to die on a regular basis and I would recogmend replacement as opposed to tear down every few years,