cleaning heat exchanger

zeke

Since a heat exchanger in a hotair oilfired system collects soot,thus reducing the efficiency, how often and how thorough should a cleaning be performed? And how?
I have noticed that the tech doing the annual "tuneups" do a very superficial job in this area, like removing the flue pipe and casually vacuuming the heat exchange area. Is this really sufficient? Or should they go further?
I would be pleased if you could comment on this.

lchmb

Depends

Alot depend's on the unit. The better unit's will have cleanout's on the front of the heat exchanger that can be pulled. I alway's pull these and run a soot snake through them. Depending on what I see inside I may stuff a brush in and scrape around getting everything I can. I also pull the blower's and clean the squirrel cage and check the unit for cracks. You need to make sure to keep your filter's clean and the blower assembly clean to move enough air through the unit...:)

Mijola

Cleaning HX

What type of FWA oil furnace do you have? The type of cleaning will depend on the access points provided by that specific manufacturer, for cleaning of that furnace.

Regards,

Ed Carey

zeke

The furnace is a hotair Carrier upflow unit with a cooling coil on top. The unit is a 58HU 085 about 15 years old.
Thank you for responding.

zeke