Stated for the every-person, a heat exchanger is a giant pice of metal that transfer heat from one medium to the other other. In the use of your home’s furnace the air circulating in your home is blown past the heat exchanger and increase temperature in doing so. It also is a pathway for the products of combustion to move from the burner chamber out through your exhaust venting. 

What should I do if I think my heat exchanger is cracked?

1) Turn off your furnace: if the furnace isn’t running it poses no danger. 

2) Call SaskEnergy: their techs have the super expensive, super delicate, fancy furnace maintenance tools that can indicate even the smallest combustion problems. They will come to your home for free to take a reading and let you know what the CO ppm (parts per million) exists in your home. If they feel it is unsafe they will let you know. 

3) Call Family Plumbing & Heating: SaskEnergy can only do so much until you as the homeowner need to make corrections. Call us out to assess the situation and we can provide you will all your furance repair options.

Can the heat exchanger be replaced?

Can it be? Yes.

Do I recommend it? No. 

So here’s the thing, majority of the time by the time the heat exchanger has cracked you’re well in the lifespan of that furnace. Let’s say you got a 15 year old furnace, sure Carrier is offering 25 year parts warranty on a replacement exchanger but the squeeze isn’t worth the juice. Sure it saves you money to replace the engine in a ’95 Sunfire than buy a new car but at the end of the day all you have is a ’95 Sunfire. The blower motor, gas valve, control board, etc are all still 15 years old and ready to fail. The labour involved with replacing the heat exchanger is better put into buying a new system and getting back under a full warranty. 

Any questions, please give us a call @ 306-519-3722

Thanks,

  Brenden