Dust-Free Furnace Startup this Fall

[ThePenIsMightier]

I'm just sharing my strategy for folks like me who haven't had their furnace heater running in several months and hate that dust sandwich that pukes out of it when it first comes on. I did this last year and it worked great. Follow these simple steps.

1. Open at least 1-2 windows on every level of your house.

2. Close all heat register/vents everywhere except your bathrooms (assuming your bathrooms have exhaust fans). Weigh down the ones in your bedrooms, particularly your kids' bedrooms.

3. Turn on HRV (if applicable) and stove hood fan.

4. Fully open or even remove register/vents in bathrooms and remove towels from near their airspace.

5. Turn all bathroom fans on for the maximum time and close the bathroom doors.

6. Turn thermostat up to initiate heating cycle on furnace and monitor the furnace in case it throws an error.

7. Allow furnace to run for about 20 minutes and then lower thermostat because it's likely not reached setpoint.

8. Repeat 6 & 7 within about an hour.

9. Marvel at the lack of dust stank throughout your house while you shitpost on Beyond and shower TPiM in precious +Rep.

10. Return everything to normal and have the help vacuum the house.


I think you'll find success in this method. It's not 100% but it's miles ahead compared to the regular dust cloud during a shitty allergy time of the year.
Any suggestions for improvements are encouraged.

Happy Autumn!

[suntan]

- Remove pet from ducts.

[ThePenIsMightier]

- Remove pet from ducts.

My pet duck flew away.

[Thaco]

option B, have central air and your furnace fan runs all summer anyway

[pheoxs]

Do you not run your furnance fans at night time in the summer to cycle fresh air in? Mine right most evenings throughout the summer, always nice to chill the house a bit as well as fresh air. (No central AC life)

[lasimmon]

The real question is who leaves their fan off all summer?

[ThePenIsMightier]

Do you not run your furnance fans at night time in the summer to cycle fresh air in? Mine right most evenings throughout the summer, always nice to chill the house a bit as well as fresh air. (No central AC life)

Oh, absolutely! Probably running 24-7 for a good chunk of the summer. But... It seems the heat exchanger and burners, etc end up with about 4 months of trapped, stagnant dust that gets incinerated on Labour Day and stinks up the house.

[killramos]

This is the first I have ever heard of this being a problem?

[ZenOps]

Get a Sharp Plasmacluster and nuke the dust.

[ThePenIsMightier]

This is the first I have ever heard of this being a problem?

Weird. It was always like this at my old place with the ancient furnace and it's like that here with this new #HyperEffishent furnace.
:dunno:

[Darell_n]

The procedure sounds good for a brand new furnace or stove startup. Burn all the machining oil off the burners and smoke the place out, haven’t heard of it being done in other situations.

[Buster]

My strategy of peeing down the vents in the fall has so far not worked.

[ExtraSlow]

I do this for self cleaning oven cycle. that stink lingers badly.

[suntan]

My strategy of peeing down the vents in the fall has so far not worked.

Key is to record it and post it on OF.

[mr2mike]

Furnace has been off since spring.
I just go in and use HVAC brushes clean it reasonably, air compressor with long blow gun and shop vac.
15 min and its clean ready for fall.
I also emery cloth the ignitor and flame sensor while I'm in there. Keeps them alive a bit longer.

[Tik-Tok]

This all sounds like a lot of work for, at most, 5 minutes of burnt dust smell.

[ThePenIsMightier]

This all sounds like a lot of work for, at most, 5 minutes of burnt dust smell.

Mr. Mike's sounds like more work than me! Mine takes time, but minimal effort. Plus, I think it's closer to 55 min of #DustyBalls than 5 min.
Meh... Maybe whatever asshole put that conch shell thing up about me was right and I need to sucks to my ass-mar.
LoL!!

[mr2mike]

Haha. Lots more work. Not as much time spent compared to finding a matching puka shell necklace for your Conch to complete your 90s throwback costume.
Mine is a bit of maintenance and time. Killramos might try it to hide from his wife.

In all honesty, how many beyonders even do anything for furnaces.
Better off posting Pete the Plumbcracker and heating's emergency #.

[ThePenIsMightier]

That conch is probably older than that! It came with the property and it's sun-bleached to ghost white. LoL!

[Tik-Tok]

Mr. Mike's sounds like more work than me! Mine takes time, but minimal effort. Plus, I think it's closer to 55 min of #DustyBalls than 5 min.


Ok, then try it my way. Set the furnace to 15°C, then open the nearest window to the thermostat before you go to bed. In the morning you're dusty furnace smell will be all gone. You might have some allergy sniffles, but you'll blame that on it being cold in the house.

[mr2mike]

Someone didn't use ThePenisMighty's furnace start up method this morning.

https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/explosion-rocks-northeast-calgary-neighbourhood-1.5575874

[ExtraSlow]

The dirty NE. Bridgeland is gross.

[ThePenIsMightier]

I'm just sharing my strategy for folks like me who haven't had their furnace heater running in several months and hate that dust sandwich that pukes out of it when it first comes on. I did this last year and it worked great. Follow these simple steps.

1. Open at least 1-2 windows on every level of your house.

2. Close all heat register/vents everywhere except your bathrooms (assuming your bathrooms have exhaust fans). Weigh down the ones in your bedrooms, particularly your kids' bedrooms.

3. Turn on HRV (if applicable) and stove hood fan.

4. Fully open or even remove register/vents in bathrooms and remove towels from near their airspace.

5. Turn all bathroom fans on for the maximum time and close the bathroom doors.

6. Turn thermostat up to initiate heating cycle on furnace and monitor the furnace in case it throws an error.

7. Allow furnace to run for about 20 minutes and then lower thermostat because it's likely not reached setpoint.

8. Repeat 6 & 7 within about an hour.

9. Marvel at the lack of dust stank throughout your house while you shitpost on Beyond and shower TPiM in precious +Rep.

10. Return everything to normal and have the help vacuum the house.


I think you'll find success in this method. It's not 100% but it's miles ahead compared to the regular dust cloud during a shitty allergy time of the year.
Any suggestions for improvements are encouraged.

Happy Autumn!

Skipped (ok, I forgot) #'s 1, 3 and part of 4 (left towels and registers in.)
Still profit.
Flawless Victory.

You're welcome!

[mr2mike]

Great video outlines how to clean your furnace burners.
Was looking for something like this. Every time I check mine they look new. Figured I was missing something. Apparently not.

https://youtu.be/q7MPXEA0Xho
https://youtu.be/q7MPXEA0Xho

[ThePenIsMightier]

^Great video!
Please head on down to your local Mr Mike's and enjoy a steak and salad bar! Tip the new standard 39% to enjoy future content!

[mr2mike]

I told him, wear a tie and dress shirt for the intro!
Plus steaks on me if you wear the tie to my restaurant.

[suntan]

^Great video!
Please head on down to your local Mr Mike's and enjoy a steak and salad bar! Tip the new standard 39% to enjoy future content!

Where the hell are you going where the tip is only 39%?

[Tik-Tok]

Where the hell are you going where the tip is only 39%?

Lorena Bobbits restaurant?

[pheoxs]

Anyone do a furnace tuneup? How much does it usually run (~150$?) and got any company recommendations? Had someone out checking something on our gas line and they noted the furnace was running rich and should be re-adjusted.

[tonytiger55]

Any recommendations/referrals on a company to decomission a gas powered heater thats in the garage?

[roopi]

Any recommendations/referrals on a company to decomission a gas powered heater thats in the garage?

Turn gas valve off.

[tonytiger55]

:facepalm:

[ExtraSlow]

What does decommission mean to you?

[Darell_n]

What does decommission mean to you?

Send a cheque to the government for its lifetime of carbon tax and apologize to all the locals for using it.

[tonytiger55]

What does decommission mean to you?

Perhaps I should have been more clear in my post.
There is a heating unit in the garage. It is fed with a gas line from the furnace room. The gas is turned off. But I would like to have this unit removed and disposed off. As well as the gas lines taken out.
I am seeking services for a reputable organisation that specialises in such business.

[suntan]

Perhaps I should have been more clear in my post.
There is a heating unit in the garage. It is fed with a gas line from the furnace room. The gas is turned off. But I would like to have this unit removed and disposed off. As well as the gas lines taken out.
I am seeking services for a reputable organisation that specialises in such business.

Try GasTech.

There's really no such thing as idiot gasfitters as the problem is self correcting.

[pheoxs]

Anyone do a furnace tuneup? How much does it usually run (~150$?) and got any company recommendations? Had someone out checking something on our gas line and they noted the furnace was running rich and should be re-adjusted.

Bump as it seems to have gotten missed. Anyone got a furnace company they'd recommend for a tuneup? SE (ikea area).

[ExtraSlow]

I think the best safety check is the free Atco one:
https://gas.atco.com/en-ca/products-services-rates/new-services-changes/furnace-appliance-inspections.html

[pheoxs]

I think the best safety check is the free Atco one:
https://gas.atco.com/en-ca/products-services-rates/new-services-changes/furnace-appliance-inspections.html

As far as I know they only do inspections, they won't actually do adjustments / repairs would they? It's a 4 year old furnace so still relatively new, just running a bit rich so wasting more fuel than necessary.

[MOB68]

Hopefully things have changed but Atco was booking over 4 months out last year when I had mine done.
I had an old (early 80s) "low efficiency" furnace and the guy started pulling things like the burner tips (?) out to try and clean them and was then struggling to reinstall them. Plus he didn't have any replacement parts in case it got damaged. Freaked me out as it was only April and still had some cold weather to go through.
Made my decision then to upgrade to something newer.

[ThePenIsMightier]

As far as I know they only do inspections, they won't actually do adjustments / repairs would they? It's a 4 year old furnace so still relatively new, just running a bit rich so wasting more fuel than necessary.

How do you know it's running rich?

[Darell_n]

How do you know it's running rich?

Chimney must be rolling coal under heavy load.

[ExtraSlow]

Chimney must be rolling coal under heavy load.

Underrated comment

[pheoxs]

How do you know it's running rich?

Could occasionally smell gas outside so called Enmax. They came out and checked the meter and lines and such. He had his monitor so put it by the side vent and I turned it on and it was showing quite high levels on startup and then also during running. Said I need to do a combustion analysis as it’s wasting gas by not burning fully.

[mr2mike]

Spend $1000's to save $1's.
I'm not an HVAC pro but it'll be rich on start up until temps get up.
Come put your nose on my exhaust tip on cold starts mid summer.

[ThePenIsMightier]

....
Come put your nose on my exhaust tip.

Sir, this isn't a furnace in an Art Room.