Had a scary service call yesterday

Glenn Harrison_2

and says she smells a strange odor in the dining room over the furnace. Now I just did a tune-up about 3 weeks ago, so I'm figuring it's probably not the furnace, but of course I'm going to check it anyways. I get there, and found the rod that goes thru the Barometric Damper had "walked" out and the damper blade fell out and was wide open. This caused the furnace to draft very poorly and the fumes started leaking out thru the sight hole in the HX, due to the built up burner pressure. I quickly checked the CO in the house, and fortunately it was only 2 parts per million.

The good news is that since I had done a tune-up and used my combustion analyzer, I knew the unit was burning properly, and the CO produced was only about 20 PPM, so the CO levels in the house still would not have gotten very high. It sure could have been a whole lot different if I hadn't had/used my analyzer. Boy I'm glad I made the investment!

By the way, for those who don't think Oil produces CO, I have personal proof that they can and will, and can leak CO under the right circumstances.

Mijola

Hole in HX???

Glenn,

"This caused the furnace to draft very poorly and the fumes started leaking out thru the sight hole in the HX, due to the built up burner pressure".

It is good that found the problem on that call, but my question is about that "slight hole". Did you miss the hole in the HX on the cleaning 3 weeks ago. Did you know about that hole beforehand during the cleaning? Are you (or somebody) going to replace the furnace now that you know of the hole?

Not trying to bust you nuggets but I was confused by your post


Regards,

Ed Carey

Mijola

Hole in HX???

Glenn,

"This caused the furnace to draft very poorly and the fumes started leaking out thru the sight hole in the HX, due to the built up burner pressure".

It is good that found the problem on that call, but my question is about that "slight hole".

Did you miss the hole in the HX on the cleaning 3 weeks ago. Did you know about that hole beforehand during the cleaning? Did you leave the furnace running after you found that the HX has a slight hole in it? Are you (or somebody) going to replace the furnace now that you know of the hole? Did you do a differential pressure test with your draft gauge to check the oil HX for leaks or holes after you cleaned it?

I really do not mean to bust you nuggets (which I guess I am kinda doing with these questions) but I was confused by your post.


Regards,

Ed Carey

Mad Dog

Me too

Mad Dog

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Mike Kraft_2

My guess

Is Glenn meant the sight hole in the combustion chamber..........not the HX.

Glenn:)?

cheese

Glenn Harrison_2

Ed,

Please feel free to "bust my nuggets"

This is a 30+ year old Amoco forced air furnace. I used a poor term, now that I think about it, the word I was looking for was observation port. The door on the observation hole above the burner rotates on a screw, so it is a metal on metal mating when the door is shut. I have always checked the door for CO leakage and never detected any, but you could feel leakage with the damper broken. As soon as I repaired the damper, the leakage went away. I did have to replace the plug in the test hole in the observation door, as it popped out as a partof this.

I have been cleaning this unit every year for the past 8. I know it's old, but it still looks pretty good, I have never seen a failure of the heat exchanger, the combustion analyzer never flinches when the blower comes on, and the draft is always the same in the flue and over the fire (-.01 to-.02).

Ed, if you go back and read, I said SIGHT, not slight. However, now that I think about it it was a poor choice of word.

Hope this clears things up.

And if anybody is wondering why I don't get her to replace this thing, there is a long story behind it involving potential devolpment of land around her house.

Glenn Harrison_2

That's what I meant, Mike.

Poor choice of words. Actually, the word "observation" wouldn't come to mind this morning.

Mark Hunt

Hey Glenn


Good catch! You caught a potentially deadly situation and corrected it!

What say you and I start sharing war stories via e-mail? I wouldn't mind "hearing" from another set of eyes.

Do you ever bring a digital camera with you on service calls?

I understand completely about "potential development"!

Take care.

Mark H

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Mijola

To Glenn

Sorry for my mistake about slight vs sight. It is amazing how one word makes all the difference in the world.

All I read was hole in HX, and immeidately got my daily excercise by "jumping to conclusions" (Smile)

And BTW, that was a good catch,


Best Regards,

Ed Carey

Glenn Harrison_2

Thaks Mark.

Like I said, the key is a proper tune-up and using the analyzer to make sure it ran clean. I have to give her the credit of making sure she has it cleaned every fall. This is a perfect example of why maintenance and the right tools are the key to saftey. The thing that bothers me is why the rod took a walk all of a sudden. I know it was fine when I cleaned it. I've also never seen this happen before. Kind of blew my mind.

Feel free to e-mail me any stories you have. Of course I would prefer to see them on The Wall, at O.T.T., or the board at N.C.I., so all can learn. I'll be more than happy to send you any stories I have in the future, but I will probably post them here too.

Right now I have a company supplied Polaroid on the truck. I had planned on getting a digital this year, but it financialyhas been a bad year, so I had to hold off for the time being.

By the way, I haven't had the chance to say Thank You for the Google Carbon Monoxide articles idea. I've been watching artciles for months, and it really is scary the C.O. accidents and deaths occuring, especially the last couple of months. They are a real eye opener.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend,

Glenn Harrison

Glenn Harrison_2

Not a problem, Ed.

Please be assured that if there was a hole in the HX I would have disabled this unit.

And thank you.

Mark Hunt

Glenn


Check your e-mail.

Mark H

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