Watched exchanger being inspected

[Bob Elliott]

Had an older furnace today (just walked in) and on the job noticed 2 of five burners only lit and some sputtering so told my client he needs to get a Tech out here to check the unit soon as possible.

Lucky he had a friend in the business and the guy came out to boroscope the thing to find some cracking .
An interesting process I will discuss a little more and provide few shots of how he did it once I settle in later.

[Jesse Rupp]

Another good way to check to see if a furnace has a cracked heat exchanger is take your carbon monoxide detecter into the supply ducts to see if any traces of Carbon Monoxide. We have seen this several times especially in old 70's type furnaces.

[Bob Elliott]

[ATTACH][/ATTACH]

Screen shot came out light but snake screen was very bright.You can see the flex from the snake going in the burner tube (black hose) where he checked.
Mentioned to see more he would need to actually remove the blower compartment.

Included the shot of the burners with only two of five lit.

The dirt was from lack of filters which were the internal return type and hard to get at when used.

[Jim Horton]

Originally Posted by belliott

[ATTACH]Attachment 61294[/ATTACH]Attachment 61295

Screen shot came out light but snake screen was very bright.You can see the flex from the snake going in the burner tube (black hose) where he checked.
Mentioned to see more he would need to actually remove the blower compartment.

Included the shot of the burners with only two of five lit.

The dirt was from lack of filters which were the internal return type and hard to get at when used.

To bad the bore-scope pic was not clear enough for my eyes.

So was it a cracked exchanger that caused only 2 of the 5 burners to work?

[Wayne B. Wilson]

Many can have holes on the upper side of the exchanger, I doubt if a scope could see that, handy tool but nothing like a eye inspection of the system. i have found little pin holes on old oil furnaces . One guy even used cement to cover them over.

[Bob Elliott]

Originally Posted by wwilson3

Many can have holes on the upper side of the exchanger, I doubt if a scope could see that, handy tool but nothing like a eye inspection of the system. i have found little pin holes on old oil furnaces . One guy even used cement to cover them over.

No reason for him to dismantle a furnace not owned by the client when he could see cracks from the burners tubes as that would be redundant.

Also the tech mentioned most all exchangers are under warranty for 20 years.

[Wayne B. Wilson]

Originally Posted by belliott

No reason for him to dismantle a furnace not owned by the client when he could see cracks from the burners tubes as that would be redundant.

Also the tech mentioned most all exchangers are under warranty for 20 years.

Try colecting on that Warranty when it is 20 below and no heat.