Seems I've Dodged a Bullet

iced98lx

65k BTU unit heater, natural gas. Obviously had a nice little fire by the pilot light. Unit was functioning completely normally still when I saw the burn marks this morning which is either reassuring or scary, not sure which.

Obviously, I turned it and the gas to it off, but before I tear into it, should I even be attempting to repair this or just replace it after something like this.

Thanks for any suggestions!

mattmia2

Replace. Especially at that age. And get someone that knows what they are doing to look at the vent and check/adjust combustion and draft.

EBEBRATT-Ed

Could be as simple as a bird in the flue pipe.Does it have induced draft

Larry Weingarten

Hi, I'd love to see photos of the inside. I've seen aluminum gas tubing hit by flame and melted. It produced results similar to what you have.

Yours, Larry

hot_rod

Looks like some exposed 120v wiring also?

iced98lx

EBEBRATT-Ed said:

Could be as simple as a bird in the flue pipe.Does it have induced draft

This is why I post things places with people who know so much more than me. Turns out, there was a bird in the damn flue pipe. Cleaned up, cleaned out and everything looks great, works fine. Surprised it vented enough that the Co2 detector near it didn't go off, though we do have plenty of air leaks in the garage still...

Larry Weingarten said:

Hi, I'd love to see photos of the inside. I've seen aluminum gas tubing hit by flame and melted. It produced results similar to what you have.

Yours, Larry

I will try to get some photos of the inside, I did have a heating place come inspect it after I cleaned the bird out etc and they said no reason they wouldn't run it.

hot_rod said:

Looks like some exposed 120v wiring also?

Good call out, and true. originally wired in 1978 but I should absolutely clean that up....

mattmia2

I'll repeat again, it seems like there are so many stores that burn down where the fire started in a unit heater.

If it is burning reasonably well it isn't going to make a lot of CO so I wouldn't necessarily expect the CO detector to go off. An appliance with a rollout switch would be great.

JakeCK

This only reinforces my desire to install spill over and roll out switches on my old boiler... O.O

Have you played the lottery recently?

HVACNUT

You didn't dodge any bullet yet. That thing is still in flight. 
Have someone back with a combustion analyzer and also test the heat exchanger. 
A Rollout switch would be smart, as mentioned. 

iced98lx

mattmia2 said:

I'll repeat again, it seems like there are so many stores that burn down where the fire started in a unit heater.

If it is burning reasonably well it isn't going to make a lot of CO so I wouldn't necessarily expect the CO detector to go off. An appliance with a rollout switch would be great.

Understand your point, appreciate the suggestion, we are going to take some action here.

JakeCK said:

This only reinforces my desire to install spill over and roll out switches on my old boiler... O.O

Have you played the lottery recently?

Not a lottery player, like to hold onto my luck for situations like this

HVACNUT said:

You didn't dodge any bullet yet. That thing is still in flight. 
Have someone back with a combustion analyzer and also test the heat exchanger. 
A Rollout switch would be smart, as mentioned. 

I need to have someone back to put in a new vent on the roof anyway so I've asked them to check it out, I had them go over it carefully when we converted it from LP to natural gas as it is very old but barely used. Previous owner of the home moved it to the basement and used it as a backup heat source should the boiler/pump for the hydronic heat ever fail, instead of a heater in the garage like it was originally installed. They traveled a lot and apparently did not trust the boiler / pump.