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G-ZUS
01-14-2019, 09:08 AM
Any recommendations for a furnace replacement? My 43 year old furnace is starting to make all sorts of weird noises while running.

ExtraSlow
01-14-2019, 09:24 AM
My mom used GI Joe and had really. Good things to say. She's a cranky old lady, and Jody took good care of her.
https://www.gijoeheating.net

My personal recommendation is to get the lowest efficiency and lowest tech furnace you can.

G-ZUS
01-14-2019, 09:28 AM
My mom used GI Joe and had really. Good things to say. She's a cranky old lady, and Jody took good care of her.
https://www.gijoeheating.net

My personal recommendation is to get the lowest efficiency and lowest tech furnace you can.

Thank's, I have sent a quote request to them.

Tik-Tok
01-14-2019, 09:30 AM
Are you selling anytime soon? If not, keep the furnace and replace the blower.

bjstare
01-14-2019, 09:31 AM
I had a house with a furnace of about the same age. Started making some noise, sourced a new blower for like $80 and put it in in about 30 min. Just food for thought.

mr2mike
01-14-2019, 10:16 AM
Might be interested in your old furnace.

New blower motor like cjbair said and or bearings on a pulley and it'll be like new.

rage2
01-14-2019, 10:29 AM
My mom used GI Joe and had really. Good things to say. She's a cranky old lady, and Jody took good care of her.
https://www.gijoeheating.net

My personal recommendation is to get the lowest efficiency and lowest tech furnace you can.
Just used Jody @ GI Joe a couple months ago. Good shit.

Super_Geo
01-14-2019, 12:23 PM
+1 for Advanpro, I've had really good experiences using them.

https://goo.gl/maps/QX473o2bMQE2

sabad66
01-14-2019, 12:54 PM
interesting thread. Is the general consensus that newer high efficiency furnaces are a lot more problematic than older ones? Just moved into a new place that has 29 year old furnaces and was planning to replace them in the next few years but now re-thinking this.

A790
01-14-2019, 01:04 PM
https://www.actionfurnace.ca/furnaces/furnace-installation/

Disclosure: I handle their marketing.

ExtraSlow
01-14-2019, 01:17 PM
interesting thread. Is the general consensus that newer high efficiency furnaces are a lot more problematic than older ones? Just moved into a new place that has 29 year old furnaces and was planning to replace them in the next few years but now re-thinking this.
That's what I've heard. The older the better for reliability as far as I know.

J-hop
01-14-2019, 01:26 PM
Yea I’d see if you can find a repair person to fix it not someone that will just try to squeeze your wallet and sell you on a new unit.

Furnaces are stupid simple. If you can change your oil you can pretty much service anything on a basic furnace.

There is really nothing that can go wrong with your furnace that warrants a replacement other than the heat exchanger (and just in my experience due to the price and potential availability of an exchanger for your model) and even some of the leak tests techs do on them are snake oil. Since it’s making a noise it’s not the heat exchanger obviously so it should be a reasonable fix that you could probably do yourself.

May seem daunting but once you tear into yours you’ll be shocked at the simplicity

RX_EVOLV
01-14-2019, 01:59 PM
I have an older furnace (maybe 90s?) that's running a high voltage line to my thermostat. Do you guys have any recommendation for a guy they can come run some wires and turn it into a low voltage line so I can use smart thermostat like EcoBee or Nest?

sabad66
01-14-2019, 02:30 PM
I have an older furnace (maybe 90s?) that's running a high voltage line to my thermostat. Do you guys have any recommendation for a guy they can come run some wires and turn it into a low voltage line so I can use smart thermostat like EcoBee or Nest?
:hijack:
I have two of these en route that i ordered by mistake (and company would not cancel the order):
https://www.supplyhouse.com/Honeywell-R8845U1003-Universal-Switching-Relay-w-Internal-Transformer-11013000-p

Just looking for what i paid for it which was $110 CAD each after shipping/USD conversion.

I ordered them because i was told i had a millivolt system but turned out i had a standard 24V system. They should also work for a high voltage system too. It should be quite easy to wire in yourself and i could probably help you if you're not comfortable. Not an HVAC guy but learned a lot about these systems recently doing research. Basically you plug your high voltage lines into this box, then wire the lines going up to your thermostat into it as well. The smart thermostat will trigger the relay to turn on your high voltage system. This box also has a built in transformer that will give you a "c (common) wire". One issue is that you'll need 3 wires going up... if you only have two wires going up you can either fish a new wire up or use something like a 'fast stat common maker' which is basically a multiplexer. Nice thing about fishing a new wire is you can pull a 7-wire bundle up which will give you some extra wires that you can use for humidifier control.

EDIT: another option is to go with Mysa instead of nest/ecobee. Mysa works natively with line voltage systems

speedog
01-14-2019, 06:19 PM
interesting thread. Is the general consensus that newer high efficiency furnaces are a lot more problematic than older ones? Just moved into a new place that has 29 year old furnaces and was planning to replace them in the next few years but now re-thinking this.

As long as natural gas prices remain this low, the pay back period on new HE furnaces will be decades out.

Thaco
01-14-2019, 08:44 PM
yep, keep the dinosaur as long as you can, mine's form the 70's, installed new in the house, only issues i have had is blower motors... new furnaces are very unreliable based on experiences with friends and family... keep the old one til the heat exchanger rots through... you'll never pay back the savings with an HE one because that money will go to repairing it.

sabad66
01-15-2019, 09:27 AM
possibly a dumb question, but if it gets to the point where the Heat exchanger starts cracking/rusting/rotting through, would that increase risk of a CO leak?

rage2
01-15-2019, 09:58 AM
possibly a dumb question, but if it gets to the point where the Heat exchanger starts cracking/rusting/rotting through, would that increase risk of a CO leak?
There needs to be a perfect storm of conditions before you have CO in your home. Crack needs to be exposed to airflow with a combination of a failed inducer blower. It's pretty rare, but it does increase the risk. Problem is most companies that find leaks won't work on the furnace anymore for liability reasons. It's also a wonderful scare tactic/sales tool.

sabad66
01-15-2019, 07:18 PM
There needs to be a perfect storm of conditions before you have CO in your home. Crack needs to be exposed to airflow with a combination of a failed inducer blower. It's pretty rare, but it does increase the risk. Problem is most companies that find leaks won't work on the furnace anymore for liability reasons. It's also a wonderful scare tactic/sales tool.

Ah good to know. That’s one thing I’ve always been paranoid about with my older furnace even with two CO detectors in the house

Darell_n
01-15-2019, 10:05 PM
possibly a dumb question, but if it gets to the point where the Heat exchanger starts cracking/rusting/rotting through, would that increase risk of a CO leak?

No more than idling a car in your basement.

rage2
01-15-2019, 10:54 PM
No more than idling a car in your basement.
It’s nothing like that.

ZenOps
01-16-2019, 08:18 AM
Calgary should be fine, a rotting furnace is much less likely here. Its places like Victoria/Vancouver where you have salty acidic moist air that might find its way into your furnace - where you might want to replace things based on recommendations.

High eff are doubly finiky in Calgary because of our high altitude (low oxygen density). Literally getting a double capacity blower to keep the flames a nice blue might be a good idea.

schurchill39
01-16-2019, 12:31 PM
Branden at Xtreme Furnace has been incredibly helpful to me dealing with all the issues on my high efficiency furnace. Recommended to me by another beyonder and he's been awesome.

RX_EVOLV
01-21-2019, 10:27 PM
So turns out I do have a low voltage system and can install an Ecobee.. however I don't have a C-wire running to the Thermostat, so I need to buy a Fast Stat Common Maker.. I can't seem to find it anywhere though.. anyone knows where I can buy a Fast Stat Common Maker?

Thaco
01-21-2019, 10:28 PM
you probably just need a transformer, i had to install one for my ecobee as well, i dont remember the details exactly but i am sure i found it via google, i think i bought the transformer from BE electric in town.

https://support.ecobee.com/hc/en-us/articles/227874667-Heat-only-2-wire-boiler-furnace-installations-for-ecobee-thermostats
Option 2, transformer, I installed mine right on the furnace kill switch box and tapped in to the wires in the box. then i used my existing thermostat wires to pull a new run with 6 wires in it. i think it only needed 3-4 but its all i could find at home depot.

Thaco
01-21-2019, 10:36 PM
oh also, related to this thread DO NOT GET A CARRIER FURNACE, my inlaws got one in their house, brandnew house 10 years ago, they've already had several repairs at $1000+ each time... proprietary parts with huge markup... latest one is an inducer motor, cant buy just the motor which would be maybe $100, nope, you can only buy the whole assembly for $1150, that's just the part, install is extra.

sabad66
01-22-2019, 10:20 AM
So turns out I do have a low voltage system and can install an Ecobee.. however I don't have a C-wire running to the Thermostat, so I need to buy a Fast Stat Common Maker.. I can't seem to find it anywhere though.. anyone knows where I can buy a Fast Stat Common Maker?

I had to use one at my old house and I just ordered it on amazon. If you order today it will be here Thursday or Friday.

Do you only have two wires going up from furnace to thermostat or do you have a bundle with some spare unused wires? if you have a bundle with unused you won't need the Common Maker. The common maker is really only needed if you only have two wires and don't want to fish/pull a new bigger bundle up. At my new place i ended up hiring an electrician to pull some new 18/7 wire up. 7 wires is overkill for just heat control but doesn't hurt to have the extras in case you want to wire in your humidifier or add an A/C down the road.

Also do you have a C terminal on the furnace side? If your system is low voltage (24V) and not millivolt then you would already have a transformer and can just simply tap into that if your furnace doesn't have a control/motherboard with a labeled C terminal.

RX_EVOLV
01-22-2019, 10:32 AM
I had to use one at my old house and I just ordered it on amazon. If you order today it will be here Thursday or Friday.

Do you only have two wires going up from furnace to thermostat or do you have a bundle with some spare unused wires? if you have a bundle with unused you won't need the Common Maker. The common maker is really only needed if you only have two wires and don't want to fish/pull a new bigger bundle up. At my new place i ended up hiring an electrician to pull some new 18/7 wire up. 7 wires is overkill for just heat control but doesn't hurt to have the extras in case you want to wire in your humidifier or add an A/C down the road.

Also do you have a C terminal on the furnace side? If your system is low voltage (24V) and not millivolt then you would already have a transformer and can just simply tap into that if your furnace doesn't have a control/motherboard with a labeled C terminal.

I only have 2 wires going up to the Therostat, but I do have a C-terminal on the furnace side. The Fast Stat would be the easier DIY way for me, although I can't find it anywhere. The Common Maker model is not on Amazon at all for some reason; just the 3000-5000 models. Not sure why it's so hard to find and they don't sell at Lowes/HomeDepot/Rona. Unless I can also use the 3000 models to add the Common...

We *might* install an AC this summer (pending if we can justify the cost)... maybe worst case I can wait until then as it sounds like they will need to pull more wires up anyway if we do get an AC..

sabad66
01-22-2019, 10:44 AM
I only have 2 wires going up to the Therostat, but I do have a C-terminal on the furnace side. The Fast Stat would be the easier DIY way for me, although I can't find it anywhere. The Common Maker model is not on Amazon at all for some reason; just the 3000-5000 models. Not sure why it's so hard to find and they don't sell at Lowes/HomeDepot/Rona. Unless I can also use the 3000 models to add the Common...

We *might* install an AC this summer (pending if we can justify the cost)... maybe worst case I can wait until then as it sounds like they will need to pull more wires up anyway if we do get an AC..

interesting... i ordered mine from amazon a couple years ago but just checked and looks like it's not on there any more. I even went to my past order to get the link but now it says 'page not found'.

if you can't find one from somewhere else it's worth looking into hiring an electrician to fish some wire for you. I found a guy on kijij and he did it for me for $80 cash but i had to provide the wire. This is the one i ordered: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0069F4HEU/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_wE0rCbE4N6HBK

i went this way because i wanted my humidifer wired in and needed the two extra wires.

G-ZUS
01-22-2019, 11:04 AM
Lowes sells a transformer if you want to add a smart thermostat to your old furnace