Cracked heat exchanger

[zmaxmotorsports]

Somebody was talking about contractors telling home owners they had cracked heat exchangers,without ever showing them proof on a thread that got sideways a week or so ago.
I finally made it back over to clean up my mess at this empty house and button up the install.
Here's a few pictures of the cracks in old furnace,I circled them to make it easier to take pictures with my phone.

 

[zmaxmotorsports]

Here's a couple more,found 4 cracks in it.

 

[zmaxmotorsports]

And here's the bouncing baby Goodman I temped in to replace it,will get it buttoned up today.
Check out the 1970s tablecloth contact paper on return air drop.

 

[Bronson]

I installed my Goodman in 94.
It has been a good unit, still runs fine, but I will be replacing it over the summer.
Not sure which way I will go?
NG, upflow heating 1200 sq ft.

 

[Richard Cranium]

what causes the cracks?

 

[zmaxmotorsports]

what causes the cracks?

Those were caused by a problem in the heat exchanger designed I think.
Trane had a slightly different design they used back in 70-80s ,they had an offset just above that point that always cracked in same area.

 

[Stuff]

Overheating is what causes most cracks in newer systems.
10-20 years ago bad seams and rivets cause early failures.

 

[Brian_WK]

My experience of failed heat exchangers.
Lennox Pulse - Bad design The primary would crack.
Carrier, Bryant, Payne 90% - Secondaries that had the epoxy coated clam shell, Epoxy would wear away causing the Galvanized steal to rust out in a hurry.
Almost any brands 80% induced or lower - low air flow and dirty filters would cause overheating and warping/cracking.
Under firing an induced 80% causing condensation in the heat exchanger causing it to rust out.

Brian

 

[PassnThru]

View media item 61115View media item 61114 View media item 61117
Been there.

 

[LS6 Tommy]

View media item 61117
Been there.

I haven't seen one of those in a LONG time...

Tommy

 

[bobbyjean]

i dunno why my draft switch wont make and my limit is tripped

 

[zmaxmotorsports]

i dunno why my draft switch wont make and my limit is tripped

 

[bonneyman]

View media item 61115View media item 61114 View media item 61117
Been there.

Yep, Carrier package unit.

 

[JRC3]

Package unit? I have a Carrier pack unit outside my house, which is odd for my area. Basically the garage (original furnace location) was finished for living space and the crawl space had limited access, so they did a pack...

Anyways, when first looking at the foreclosure I had access and had some companies in to bid some mold remediation in the crawl space. This led to some small talk with two guys sent out by one company...The pack unit was a topic they brought up, leading to one of the guys saying something like, "well, it's outside, so if the heat exchanger cracks you'll have nothing to worry about..." I just let the comment go.

 

[mrobins297aaa]

here's the heat exchanger on my 11 year old Bryant 90 plus.
it's one of those with the laminated steel heat exchangers. At the time (2010) I checked into it and Bryant had a lot of problems with those and lost a law suit over it and was to replace them for free if they failed. But it seemed like there was a lot of hoops to jump thru to get it for free so I ended up just replacing it with a new furnace.
with the energy credits at the time it didn't cost much.

 

[danski0224]

Somebody was talking about contractors telling home owners they had cracked heat exchangers,without ever showing them proof on a thread that got sideways a week or so ago.
I finally made it back over to clean up my mess at this empty house and button up the install.
Here's a few pictures of the cracks in old furnace,I circled them to make it easier to take pictures with my phone.

Glad that you took pics and offered proof.

I have yet to encounter a "cracked heat exchanger" story in my area with pics or a CO analysis to back it up. But, then the "selling technician" won't make his quota of boxes for the week.

And, you never clarified whether or not you play the 1099 (fake) subcontractor game with your helper

 

[Brian_WK]

This is a picture of my Payne 90% secondary. The picture is pretty louse as its from my inspection camera. I did a combustion analysis at the beginning of the year and everything checked out fine. One day came home from work and found the house not up to temp after day time setback. I had not CO coming from the vents but the hole in this is about the size of a quarter. The combustion analysis was showing over 1000PPM in the exhaust pipe.

Brian

 

[Zmaxmotorsports2]

Glad that you took pics and offered proof.

I have yet to encounter a "cracked heat exchanger" story in my area with pics or a CO analysis to back it up. But, then the "selling technician" won't make his quota of boxes for the week.

And, you never clarified whether or not you play the 1099 (fake) subcontractor game with your helper

I pay him the way he wants to be paid,he deals with his own taxes.
He's happy and the tax man is happy.