Hi, well today my furnace went out. It's a natural gas forced air. I
believe the valve for the gas probably malfunctioned, as the ignitor
tries to "light" the burners, but then goes out. It's 13 years old
(same with the AC) so I believe it's time to probably replace them
both.

Any advice on brands?

wrote:
Hi, well today my furnace went out. It's a natural gas forced air. I
believe the valve for the gas probably malfunctioned, as the ignitor
tries to "light" the burners, but then goes out. It's 13 years old
(same with the AC) so I believe it's time to probably replace them
both.

13 years isn't very old, IMHO. Our furnace is nearly twice that old and
still going strong.

Any advice on brands?

Not one that's going to die after only 13 years.



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On Wed, 13 Dec 2006 02:03:10 GMT, CJT wrote:

wrote:
Hi, well today my furnace went out. It's a natural gas forced air. I
believe the valve for the gas probably malfunctioned, as the ignitor
tries to "light" the burners, but then goes out. It's 13 years old
(same with the AC) so I believe it's time to probably replace them
both.

13 years isn't very old, IMHO. Our furnace is nearly twice that old and
still going strong.

Any advice on brands?

Not one that's going to die after only 13 years.


Yeah But.... If he gets a new one with high efficiency, he can
save money on his utility bill.

wrote in message
ups.com...
Hi, well today my furnace went out. It's a natural gas forced air. I
believe the valve for the gas probably malfunctioned, as the ignitor
tries to "light" the burners, but then goes out. It's 13 years old
(same with the AC) so I believe it's time to probably replace them
both.

Any advice on brands?

At 13 years, it still has a lot of life left in it. Pay the $100 or so for
a repair and save thousands of dollars. It may be something very simple to
repair. Even the new higher efficiency models are not justifiable to
replace an entire furnace with the savings.

writes:

Hi, well today my furnace went out. It's a natural gas forced air. I
believe the valve for the gas probably malfunctioned, as the ignitor
tries to "light" the burners, but then goes out. It's 13 years old
(same with the AC) so I believe it's time to probably replace them
both.

Any advice on brands?


http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/h...view/index.htm





--
--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

Todd H. wrote:
writes:


Hi, well today my furnace went out. It's a natural gas forced air. I
believe the valve for the gas probably malfunctioned, as the ignitor
tries to "light" the burners, but then goes out. It's 13 years old
(same with the AC) so I believe it's time to probably replace them
both.

Any advice on brands?



http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/h...view/index.htm





It says "differences of less than 5 points are not meaningful" yet all
the values appear to be 20% +/- 5 points.

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The e-mail address in our reply-to line is reversed in an attempt to
minimize spam. Our true address is of the form .

lots of q and a at:
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/...=list&pageNo=1


wrote:
Hi, well today my furnace went out. It's a natural gas forced air. I
believe the valve for the gas probably malfunctioned, as the ignitor
tries to "light" the burners, but then goes out. It's 13 years old
(same with the AC) so I believe it's time to probably replace them
both.

Any advice on brands?

wrote:
Hi, well today my furnace went out. It's a natural gas forced air. I
believe the valve for the gas probably malfunctioned, as the ignitor
tries to "light" the burners, but then goes out. It's 13 years old
(same with the AC) so I believe it's time to probably replace them
both.

Any advice on brands?

I'm not sure replacing a 13 year old furnace is
necessary, that isn't all that old.

Having said that, I have one piece of advice. Check to
see how loud the blower is. I got a new York furnace
last year, and the blower is louder than I expected. I
finally turned the blower speed down one notch, and it
is better, but it is still louder than I would like.

Bill Gill

If you are reasonably sure that you only need the gas valve, then call
around and ask over the phone for a rough idea on how much to replace
it. Have an accurate description of the furnace (make, model, type)
It sounds relatively easy to fix and therefore might be more of a
repair issue instead of a replace unless your existing system is really
inefficient.

I agree that 13 years is not very old.

Smarty

I replaced my 21 year old Heil high efficiency 92% forced air only because
it was in a home that is sometimes empty during the winter and I did not
want to worry about it. It was still rock solid.

Repairing the faulty igniter on your furnace may be all that is needed.
"BillGill" wrote in message
...
wrote:
Hi, well today my furnace went out. It's a natural gas forced air. I
believe the valve for the gas probably malfunctioned, as the ignitor
tries to "light" the burners, but then goes out. It's 13 years old
(same with the AC) so I believe it's time to probably replace them
both. Any advice on brands?

I'm not sure replacing a 13 year old furnace is
necessary, that isn't all that old.

Having said that, I have one piece of advice. Check to
see how loud the blower is. I got a new York furnace
last year, and the blower is louder than I expected. I
finally turned the blower speed down one notch, and it
is better, but it is still louder than I would like.

Bill Gill

DK wrote:

Yeah But.... If he gets a new one with high efficiency, he can
save money on his utility bill.

How can gas furnaces vary much in efficiency?

It's a gas flame, no matter the brand. Same amount of heat, etc.

"HeyBub" writes:

DK wrote:

Yeah But.... If he gets a new one with high efficiency, he can
save money on his utility bill.

How can gas furnaces vary much in efficiency?

It's a gas flame, no matter the brand. Same amount of heat, etc.

You're kidding right? If not you must be getting confused with
electric heating.

I just replaced a 60% efficient gas furnace with a 94% efficient
model. How much heat gets lost up the chimney vs used to heat the
living space varies wildly by furnace design. Modern high efficiency
models are so efficient they vent out PVC pipe out the side of the
home and the exhaust is quite cool.

Best Regards,
--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

HeyBub wrote:

DK wrote:

Yeah But.... If he gets a new one with high efficiency, he can
save money on his utility bill.


How can gas furnaces vary much in efficiency?

It's a gas flame, no matter the brand. Same amount of heat, etc.


Surely you jest?

--
The e-mail address in our reply-to line is reversed in an attempt to
minimize spam. Our true address is of the form .

I replaced a 27 year old GE heat pump with a 98% efficient Trane gas
furnace and 19 seer AC unit. It cost quite a bundle to replace, but
I'm hoping the new stuff lasts as long as the original GE. I think a
$300 fan would have brought the old heat pump back online, but I
decided to convert to warm air and a variable speed blower. I'm
hoping for a lower bill this winter, but I'm keeping low expectations
just to be safe.

My advice is to look at the cost per year + cost of repair vs the cost
of a new system + the savings per year. My guess is that its much
cheaper to repair than replace. It's not like a new car that you can
really enjoy, it's an expensive box in the basement.

If you think about new, get a couple/three estimates for replacements.
My experience is that these systems are like buying a used car, prices
vary considerably. There are 86 opinions for what you might need.
The installation is really important, so make sure you have an
experienced crew.

On 12 Dec 2006 17:47:30 -0800, wrote:

Hi, well today my furnace went out. It's a natural gas forced air. I
believe the valve for the gas probably malfunctioned, as the ignitor
tries to "light" the burners, but then goes out. It's 13 years old
(same with the AC) so I believe it's time to probably replace them
both.

Any advice on brands?

Thank you everyone for the help. The furnace and AC are going on 14
years old. The AC seems to be in pretty bad shape. It's loud, and
doesn't cool the house very well. I figured replacing them both will be
around $7000. Not something to sneeze at. I will ask the tech when he
comes out this weekend what it will cost to simply fix the furnace, but
my guess it will be around $400/500.

Paulaner writes:

I replaced a 27 year old GE heat pump with a 98% efficient Trane gas
furnace and 19 seer AC unit. It cost quite a bundle to replace, but
I'm hoping the new stuff lasts as long as the original GE. I think a
$300 fan would have brought the old heat pump back online, but I
decided to convert to warm air and a variable speed blower. I'm
hoping for a lower bill this winter, but I'm keeping low expectations
just to be safe.

My advice is to look at the cost per year + cost of repair vs the cost
of a new system + the savings per year.

Yowsa. Where do you live that a 98% unit was you selection looking at
savings vs system cost?

--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/