"Romwar" wrote in message
...

Hello,

I had my oil furnace serviced yesterday by my oil comany. During the
servicing the nozzle and filter were replaced and the flue was cleaned.
After the repairman left I noticed a strong odor of oil in the heated
air which was not present before he worked on it and I thought this was
just from stirring things up in the furnace and flue and that it would
go away soon.

Well, next morning the smell was still very strong so I called and the
repairman came back for a look. When he looked he found a large crack
in the side of the combustion chamber. The chamber will cost $1500 to
replace according to this guy.

This left me feeling as though I'm being taken advantage of. Shouldn't
a crack in the combustion chamber been detected during the maintenace?
The crack was in a remote location, so I can understand how he would
not have seen it directly on his first visit, but he did take CO2,
stack temp, and draft measurements and I think this problem should have
been caught.

How long was the first guy there? When we service oil, it takes over an hour
and leaves the tech smelling like he went for a dip in your storage tank.
if he was there about 30 minutes, he just changed the nozzle and perhaps
went looking it over....and if you paid less than $100..thats what you got.


Now I know very little about oil furnaces, so I'm hoping I can get a
little advice or opinion on this situation. I still haven't decided if
I'm going to replace the combustion chamber. I was thinking I might be
able to epoxy the crack. I'd like to know if this is possible so that
I can save myself a lot of money. Of course, I need to be sure that
the solution is also safe.

Ok..for starters....unless you have a ThermoPride, and the units under 10
years old, get a new unit, but shop around for a bit. Get at least 3 quotes,
and be prepared to pay for them..
Epoxy the crack? Bubba said it best, Holy **** are you that stupid? Heat
exchangers are NOT to be repaired, they are to be thrown away when
cracked...period. Your life may depend on it...if you are sure you wanna
epoxy it, ask yourself this..would you crank your car up in the garage, and
close the door, and take a nap out there?
if not..replace the unit, or exchanger...
oh..its illegal in most states for a tech to leave your unit operational if
its got a crack in the exchanger, so, I dont know why you still have heat.
Here, we can do two things...shut it off, or shut it off and call an
inspector, who then will condem the home until it is repaired.
I would be wondering more about that first company, and WHY they didnt
dis-able the unit.


Thanks


--
Romwar