Furnace

James

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Oct 31, 2008, 12:32:10 PM10/31/08

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I have a forced air natural gas furnace.

Is it a good idea to use a leaf blower to clean the furnace? It might
be easier to blow out the dust and then vaccuum the room instead of
trying to vaccuum the furnace.

Should I crake the window in the furnace room? That way the furnace
will draw air directly from the outside instead of air leaking in all
over the house to feed the furnace. The furnace room is right under
the bedroom so cold air directly into it might make the bedroom less
toasty.

Bob F

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Oct 31, 2008, 1:19:10 PM10/31/08

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"James" <j006...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:194c5ecf-72e4-4529...@x16g2000prn.googlegroups.com...

>I have a forced air natural gas furnace.
>
> Is it a good idea to use a leaf blower to clean the furnace? It might
> be easier to blow out the dust and then vaccuum the room instead of
> trying to vaccuum the furnace.
>

As long as you don't mind filling the ducts and house up with loose dust.

JonquilJan

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Oct 31, 2008, 5:00:52 PM10/31/08

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James <j006...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:194c5ecf-72e4-4529...@x16g2000prn.googlegroups.com...

The idea is to suck out the dust/debris from the ducts - not blow more into
them - which is what your leaf blower would do. I have my furnace 'guy'
work on the furnace (forced air propane fueled) and I clean out the ducts
with my vacuum extension attachment from above.

JonquilJan

Learn something new every day
As long as you are learning, you are living
When you stop learning, you start dying

Al Bundy

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Oct 31, 2008, 4:42:33 PM10/31/08

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All the duct cleaning must be done with suction and recovery.
Otherwise, you will spread mold and dust around the home in places you
can never reach with the vacuum. So much for that idea.

The house should remain in a neutral air pressure situation when the
furnace is turned on. Many homes have negative pressure and then you
are sucking cold air into every room through leaks in the wall. There
are products that equalize the pressure and allow the furnace to draw
cold air from outside for the burn process and close afterwards to
prevent drafts into the furnace. One brand name that comes to mind is
Skuttle and another is Equilize-air. (Spelling is a guess.) These
units are cheap and easy to install. They pay for themselves in energy
saved, comfort, and cleaner air because the furnace is not starved.

phil scott

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Nov 2, 2008, 12:35:33 AM11/2/08

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Ive been in the business for over 45 years..the first 15 on the
smaller systems as you have... your furnance doesnt need cleaning as a
rule..look into the fire box when its running at the burners...if they
are all rounded blue flame tips its fine, if there is debris on top of
the burners you do need to clean them... a leaf blower will make
things worse. You need to call a furnace repairman or learn to
remove the burner assembly safely, clean then re istall and leak check
the gas line connections.

If your furnace is over 15 years old it may have a cracked heat
exchanger, that will put deadly carbon monoxide into the house and
ruin your health... its also probably not very efficient. if you are
going to run it regardless get a CO detector and install it.

Give fuel prices these days, replacing an older furnace with a 85 to
92% efficient one is a very smart move.. but not 98% efficient, those
are very complex...service bills can be very high. (I recommend the
Rheem brand since it was sold to Japanese company)... shop for best
installed price.

Phil scott

phil scott

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Nov 2, 2008, 12:37:10 AM11/2/08

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thats very good advice.

Phil scott