Chickadee Furnace Co.

Hey folks, we’ve got another cracked heat exchanger here. This customer had this furnace repaired a few months ago by a different company, but now their CO detectors have been going off thanks to cracks in the heat exchanger. Some companies won’t even look at the heat exchanger unless the flames are acting weird or the rollout switch has tripped. Guys, if your furnace is rolling out, it is WAY past the point of being dangerous! That means the holes in the heat exchanger are so large that the furnace fan is blowing the flames around. Small cracks like this can still be very dangerous and allow CO in the home. I don’t mean to scare anyone, it’s just the reality.
If you are afraid of scuzzy hvac techs trying to rip you off, just make sure that they show you visual confirmation of the problems with the heat exchanger. If you’re still not convinced, get a second opinion.
For safety I recommend to have your furnace professionally checked every couple years, especially if it’s older than 20 years. And always make sure you have working CO detectors in your home, in addition to smoke detectors.

Furnace Filters! This is the most important maintenance you can do as the homeowner. If you let your furnace filter get clogged up before you change it, you’re shortening the life of your furnace. It is very hard on the heat exchanger if it’s overheating all the time (not to mention your furnace will shut off eventually), and it’s tough on your blower motor since it has to work harder to move air.

General rule of thumb is to change your filter every 3 months! It’s a good thing to check it every month. Try shining a light through your filter, if it doesn’t shine brightly through your filter it should probably be changed.

Heat exchangers are designed to keep products of combustion completely separate from household air. For various reasons heat exchangers can become compromised, like this one here. This can potentially cause a dangerous scenario by either creating abnormally high levels of CO (carbon monoxide) and/or by allowing combustion gases to enter the household air.
We perform a full safety inspection at every maintenance and service call we go to. If we find anything such as a cracked heat exchanger we make sure to show it to our customers in person so you can see for themselves.
Often heat exchangers carry an extended warranty, sometimes 20 years or more, but they can still be expensive to replace since it is a labour intensive task. This particular furnace was 26 years old and not under warranty, so the customer opted for a brand new furnace.

Hey folks,
We’re going to try being a little more active on the ol social media so let us know what HVAC questions you have! We want this account to bring value to you not just marketing fluff so let us know in the comments what you’re curious about!

Hey folks, Nolan here from Chickadee Furnace Co. I’m going to start creating some content to educate the average homeowner on their furnace system. It’s good to have a basic understanding of your furnace so you can be better prepared when something goes wrong. In this vid I explain the basics of a heat exchanger. furnace101