384. Cracked Heat Exchanger

Foreign.

I'm Derek Cole, host of the Derek Cole Podcast and we believe in taking the time to explain how things work for your air at home or your business. And we also believe you deserve clean air in that home. And that is why we founded the Healthy Home Challenge. It's a five day online video series with daily emails, worksheets and even quick action steps you can take to protect you, your family and your co workers. If you haven't joined us yet, you can sign up. It's free to free five day access. You can go to Simmons One Hour Comm. You'll see a link to learn more about indoor air. You've probably known for a while that you need better indoor air at home or at work. After all, we spend 90% of our time indoors these days. Your breakthrough awaits at Simmons One Hour Comm. Now let's get into today's episode. Please listen closely and maybe even take some notes so you can remember these insights of home comfort and energy savings. And share this episode with three of your friends because we all need to share better ways to be more comfortable at home. Be sure to tag me or DM me on Instagram Derek Mcole so I can say hi. Thanks again for listening and let's begin.

I've had furnace companies inspect my furnace in the past and tell me that there is a crack in the heat exchanger and the furnace needs to be replaced. I could not see the cracks, but assume that you need magnification to see them. Is there a way as a homeowner that you can tell whether it's true or whether they're just trying to scam you?

A couple things should be done in that situation. If it's a very small hairline crack, you're probably not going to see it unless you have a heat exchanger camera and go in there with a light and find it. There are books as well, heat exchangers, depending on the manufacturer. You know, a carrier heat exchanger fails differently than a goodman heat exchanger does. It has different spots in which is prone to fail. So that's obviously the spot they're looking at. A picture can be taken with these devices. Even the cameras we have. You can actually bring a screen to the homeowner and say, you know, I'm gonna go keep watching screens. You know, you want to see it. I'm gonna go to the furnace and I'll show it to you. So that can be done. That should be done. That way you're confident in what they find as well as if they do Find a crack in the exchanger, it is going back to co. It is a danger. It should be disabled. We disable all of ours because it is a safety hazard. Because the possibility of CO coming into your house is not worth the risk of not turning off. So we turn off, kill the gas to it, put a sticker on it. That way if a company comes behind us, they know that we found a cracked heat exchanger. Now, I've had these phone calls before where companies do come behind us. I will give you a good example. I have one. Last year, company came behind us, couldn't.

Find the crack, couldn't find the holes.

And the technician told me to take the top off the unit. And I said, did you take the top off the unit? The guy said, no. I said, well, if you take the top off, he's got a marker around where the crack is. So it depends on who's doing the second opinion. I mean, this guy wasn't even going to take the top off the unit. He was just going to say it was good to go, turn the gas back on. That's nothing to play with. I mean, you're playing with lives and you're playing with co, something very dangerous. So you want to be sure that the heat exchanger is good before you activate it. And if there's any kind of problem, you need to see the evidence of that problem before. And that gives you peace of mind. You say yes, even though I can't physically see it from looking right here, I can't really see the crack. I know that with the camera he found a crack because I saw a photo, I saw the video and I know what I got.

Hold on one second. I think it's getting ready to turn off, but it shouldn't because I deleted the card.

How's that? That was a real phone call too.

I don't.

I mean, it shouldn't shut off. Okay.

You want to restart it?

Okay. I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Derek Cole Podcast. Tell some people about this episode. It's on each of us, really, to spread the better ways to be healthier and more comfortable in our homes and workspaces. I'm asking you to be the dealer of positive and life changing messages in your circle of influence. Take a screenshot right now and share the screenshot and the link to this episode with three of your friends today. Share on social Media Use the hashtag Healthy Home. That's hashtag Healthy Home. We are always giving away shout outs, prizes to our community. If you would like to help me personally. Then please rate and review on Apple podcast. Give it some stars. Leave a review because that stuff actually does help and I read all the comments. So my last thought for today please remember you deserve better air at home and greater comfort at home. Don't settle for being uncomfortable for your heating air every single month. We are so thankful for having you here in our community and be sure to go deeper with us at simmons1hour.com.