Anyone ever had their a furnace scoped?

[lliang_chi]

Has anyone ever had their furnace scoped? That's when they take a camera and point it down the tubes the gas burners fire into? I had mine scoped this week and the company said there's a lot of corrosion in it, and that I should replace both furnaces. To the tune of $9K total for both furnaces. I'm having a second company come out, this coming Weds to hopefully do another scope, but has anyone ever heard of this?

The gas jets are nice and level, firing straight into the tubes. The furnaces are 10 years old. Any one know much about furnace/HVAC units.

Thanks,
LC

 

[Karl_K]

It is mostly a scam...
It is normal for them to corrode, as long as there are no holes there is no hurry to replace the furnace.
Get a couple carbon monoxide alarms with digital readings so you can check the levels in the house and be protected if you don't have them already.

 

[JewelFreak]

Agree w/Karl. You should not have to replace a 10-yr-old furnace. Sounds like pure baloney to me.

I'd call a reputable company, ask them to clean & check it -- but NOT tell them what anybody else said. See what they advise. There are so many scams around furnaces, fireplaces, roofs -- anything the average homeowner doesn't know much about. Take every expensive recommendation with a very large grain of salt.

 

[ksinger]

Yeah, I'll ditto the scam thing. Ten year old furnace? That sucker should work without incident for at least 20.

I would have it inspected and cleaned by someone else. AC/furnace guys, plumbers, and car mechanics are the absolute worst for trying to scare you into replacing entire systems, and they frequently can because no one but them (in most instances) knows enough to say them nay - they just LOVE to prey on women. I know I just love having my husband along for car repairs because he spent 2 years of his younger days working as a mechanic and has brought several dead cars back to life by rebuilding the engines and other systems, just for fun. They simply cannot BS me with him standing there, and he subtly lets them know in the preliminary friendly small talk, that he is more than a bit knowledgeable. Cuts down on that sort of thing.

Good luck, and truly, don't panic. Whatever goes down, it clearly ain't broke, and you're default response needs to be to be suspicious that anyone would say OMGOMGOMG you MUST fix it.

 

[lliang_chi]

Hm, thanks for the advice everyone. The sucky thing is my DH is absolutely no help when it comes to this home maintenance/repair stuff. I'm a lot more handy and into it than he is. I'll try to do some internet sleuthing as well. The pipes do look pretty bad, so I'm not sure if I should replace it or not. It wouldn't surprise me if the builders just did a crappy job with the furnaces like they kind of did with everything else.

So does it make sense to have someone else come in and clean the furnaces even though I *just* got it done last week???

~LC

 

[TooPatient]

Hm, thanks for the advice everyone. The sucky thing is my DH is absolutely no help when it comes to this home maintenance/repair stuff. I'm a lot more handy and into it than he is. I'll try to do some internet sleuthing as well. The pipes do look pretty bad, so I'm not sure if I should replace it or not. It wouldn't surprise me if the builders just did a crappy job with the furnaces like they kind of did with everything else.

So does it make sense to have someone else come in and clean the furnaces even though I *just* got it done last week???
~LC

Probably for peace of mind. The guy last week was probably just trying to scare you, but if the builder did some questionable work in other places and the pipes look bad...

Some places around here offer super inexpensive duct cleaning & hvac inspections (like $100 or less) in hopes of selling you on an annual cleaning/inspection contract. I don't think the contract is worth it but the cleaning/inspection costs a lot less because they do get some people to sign up that way.

 

[Karl_K]

The pipes do look pretty bad,

Here is where the get you, were you seeing corrosion or soot or just the natural discoloration of the metal?
How far into the metal did it go if it was corrosion?
They can look pretty bad and be just fine.
Get a second opinion and the co alarms.

A 10 year old furnace in most states should have been required to have stainless steel heat exchanger with a min 20 and could be as long as 40 year warranty against rust through of the heat exchanger.