Both old and new furnaces can develop a major problem that can threaten your home and the safety of those inside. One of the worst furnace failures is when the heat exchanger cracks. A cracked heat exchanger is one of the hardest problems to detect and one that can lead to illness and even death. To help promote a safer home, ATW Mechanical would like to share some of the common signs that you can look for to determine if your furnace’s heat exchanger has developed a cracked.
What Happens if You Have a Cracked Heat Exchanger?
Yellow Colored Furnace Flame – When a furnace flame is burning, it is usually a blue color. A furnace should produce a steady blue flame when everything is operating properly. However, if you notice your furnace is burning a yellow flame, this indicates a problem. There can be one of a couple of problems such as a dirty burner or you have a cracked heat exchanger. If your flame is yellow and flickering. there is a much bigger problem occurring and you need to seek emergency HVAC repairs.
Soot on the Outside of the Furnace – During a heating cycle, a lot of carbon is produced inside the heating system. Often this causes a lot of the soot to accumulate inside the furnace. However, if you are seeing soot on the outside of the furnace, that may be the site of the crack. Along with soot the furnace will produce an incomplete combustion which also means the furnace is failing to burn all of the gas. When a furnace fails to burn up all of the gas, this can be due to dirty burns or a cracked heat exchanger. If you are having incomplete heating cycles and you are seeing a lot of soot, you most likely have a cracked heat exchanger.
Odd Smell Coming from the Furnace – All of the combustion and its emissions are contained within the furnace and are ventilated through the furnace’s flue. However, if you notice an odd odor, much like formaldehyde, the fumes and emission are flowing into the home and not out through the flue like it is supposed to be, this can only be due to a cracked heat exchanger. If you are detecting an odd odor, quickly turn off your furnace, open up all the windows in your home, and contact an HVAC repair service.
Furnace Component Corrosion – When there are external components that have signs of exterior corrosion, this is also often due to a cracked heat exchanger. The residue from combustion that flows out through the crack can cause corrosion to build up on the nearby components. If you are seeing corrosion this is due to a mixture of moisture or chloride mixing with the combustion emissions.
Forced Air Furnace Repair, Replacement, Maintenance & More in Henderson, North LV, Summerlin, Paradise, Lone Mountain Village, Centennial, Spring Valley, Sunrise Manor, Enterprise, Boulder City, Aliante, Desert Shores, Eldorado, Peccole Ranch, Silverado Ranch, Tuscany Village, Whitney & Las Vegas Nevada
When you are having one or more signs of a cracked heat exchanger you will want to turn off your furnace immediately. To stay on the side of caution open up the windows in the event there is carbon monoxide inside the home. Next, contact an HVAC comapany like ATW Mechanical to come and replace the cracked heat exchanger. For quality HVAC services, contact ATW Mechanical today.