Well, I just poked around in there with my boroscope and it's not at all what I expected! The furnace is literally just a cylinder with fire inside it (with an intake and exhaust), with a box around it that a fan blows through. I expected some fins or at least some contour to give it more surface area for heat transfer, but I guess that's just not how things were done back then. So yeah, no cleaning required in there, for sure. I didn't see any dust on any of the surfaces at all. It was a pain in the butt to get the scope in there were I wanted it but the joints where the main "cylinder" of the exchanger connect to the front opening and the exhaust didn't appear to be rusty either. The top of the exchanger where the water for the "humidifier" would sit is pretty corroded looking, but it looks quite thick so I don't think it's rusting through any time soon. I have digital CO detectors in the house so we should be fine. One more question. We had some home heating efficiency people in the house shortly after we moved in and the one guy was checking the levels of various gases at the exhaust on this furnace. I mentioned that we had replaced the gas valve and I wasn't sure if it needed adjusted. Seeming confident about the situation he kept cranking up the gas valve to output higher and higher because the efficiency reading on his little gadget said it was burning more efficiently (it told him 77% I think). When he left I was a bit concerned with how much louder the furnace got... I didn't want to overheat anything and I got the impression this young guy was probably more experienced with newer furnaces. I checked the temperature at the closest register in the living room and it was insanely hot... like 180F. I had the plumber stop by a couple days later to take a look at it, and he adjusted it back down a bunch, but I'm not sure if there was any rhyme or reason to his adjustment either. Is there any way to know for sure if it is burning at maximum efficiency without overheating anything? I've read the general rule that gas furnaces should burn blue, but this thing looks more like a flame thrower inside... some blue, but mostly yellow. Is that normal? If you look at the pictures I posted earlier you'll see a chip out of one corner of the plate on the end of the burner. Not sure if that would make any difference. Thank you again for all the help, and sorry for the wall of text. Read at your leisure.
source https://www.inspectorsjournal.com/topic/18995-maintaining-a-vintage-1950s-1960s-holland-forced-air-gas-furnace/?do=findComment&comment=173551
No comments:
Post a Comment