Forced Air Gas Furnace .. Almost Died

soundz

soundz

The Hat
Team MTBNJ Halter's
The motor on our furnace died last night. It burned out .. electrical fire smell through ducts and some smoke. I had to call 911 at 5:30am cause I didn't know what it was. Lots of police and fire people showed up, but not with the sirens on.

Anyways, everyone is safe and all so that's all good.

PSEG was called and the guy said we need to replace the whole furnace (and not just the motor) cause it's old and it's cracking and we could die from carbon monoxide. I am not very fond of dying in my sleep (until I am slightly older) and I obviously don't want to take any chances here.

The guy said roughly $5000-6000 to replace .. he will give an estimate tomorrow. Labor is free because we have some kind of plan with them.

The furnace is 175,000 input BTU, 135,000 output BTU SnyderGeneral. Does the cost sound about right?
 
this is a natural gas fired, forced hot air system?
is there an a/c system in there also?

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i'm in the camp:
fuck that - find the motor and replace it yourself.

otherwise what Matt said.
 
soundz said:
That site says on the high side the furnace itself should cost $1400. They guy said $5000-6000 with labor being free because we have the PSEG plan.

Zip code is 07632.
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You need a new air handler and compressor. It wont be the same size, so ductwork. Recover and recharge a/c

So the first thing to sell somebody something, is to threaten their life for non action.

$150 motor two hours to install
 
soundz said:
Do PSE&G workers have incentive to sell you stuff?
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Probably.

The blower motor going bad and making a stink is much different than a leaky heat exchanger.

On the other hand, a new unit will probably use half as much fuel. And the a/c will be more efficient too. The other thing they will probably add is an outside air feed. Saving more operating costs.

The number seems right because a/c is expensive.
 
Dang dude, glad everyone made it out unscathed. You can always call a few other people in for estimates and see what they think is needed to get it back to safe operation. Did the PSEG guy show you specifically what the problems are? Cracking seems like an odd issue...

On the CO detector all of my smoke detectors are also CO detectors, you should have them in a few spots in the house to be safe. I also have one in the utility room just because it was laying around.
 
fidodie said:
this is a natural gas fired, forced hot air system?

fuck that - find the motor and replace it yourself.

otherwise what Matt said.
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I'm with you on this unless the heat exchanger is cracked, if it is buy more blankets and keep the heat OFF
 
I'd get a few quotes before going with any contractor. I'm not far from you in Hoboken and had my gas furnace and roof mounted AC unit replaced 18 months ago. One quote was $7k and another was $11k, for the same equipment, more or less. I forget the specifics on the equipment but it was lower end stuff. I didn't happen to get a quote from PSEG but yours isn't that far off if it includes the AC condenser too.
 
I know that when you're without heat you'll do anything to fix it, but that cost sounds absurd. PSEG is notoriously high even with their maintenance contract. I paid 2.5k total to replace my gas forced hot air heater with a 150K HE model. Granted, I live in the Trenton area, but PSEG pulled the same thing with me, 5K to replace. Definitely shop around...

Oh, and here's some NJ rebate info:
http://www.njcleanenergy.com/residential/programs/warmadvantage/furnaces-and-boilers

If you end up doing the AC too there's rebates for that too:
http://www.njcleanenergy.com/reside...l-air-conditioners#COOLAdvantage_rebate_table
 
good to hear everyone is safe
I've gone through a few cracked heat exchangers, do those CO detectors even work?

price is okay, but if you can deal with the cold, do some research and shop around. between, my homes and parents/inlaws, I've changed about 6 units in the last 15 year, so have done lots of research cause I'm cheap

first check if you can reuse the chimney or will need a resleeve, I'm assuming your exhaust is going upwards. Check with you town for this. if the answer is yes, go with an outside vented unit which will cost less since you won't have to remediate the chimney and you'll have 95% efficiency which is attractive to homebuyers. If chimney is good go with the generic brand made by Carrier, labor will be the same but the unit is 500 to 1000 less. only thing is that you won't qualify for the rebates. I had the off brand installed about 5 years ago for under 5k. last tip is to change your hot water heater while they are there. Make them give you a free install cause it takes almost no time to do.

which furnace is Pseg offering
 
soundz said:
The motor on our furnace died last night. It burned out .. electrical fire smell through ducts and some smoke. I had to call 911 at 5:30am cause I didn't know what it was. Lots of police and fire people showed up, but not with the sirens on.

Anyways, everyone is safe and all so that's all good.

PSEG was called and the guy said we need to replace the whole furnace (and not just the motor) cause it's old and it's cracking and we could die from carbon monoxide. I am not very fond of dying in my sleep (until I am slightly older) and I obviously don't want to take any chances here.

The guy said roughly $5000-6000 to replace .. he will give an estimate tomorrow. Labor is free because we have some kind of plan with them.

The furnace is 175,000 input BTU, 135,000 output BTU SnyderGeneral. Does the cost sound about right?
Click to expand...

how many square ft is your house, new furnaces can be smaller as older one were like 60% efficiency at best
if they are just matching the current furnace specs, send them away
a good heating contractor will get to each of your rooms, look for the vents and do a heat calc to determine the right size
I've heard that over 50% get units too big because the contractors can charge you more for a bigger unit or are just lazy
 
what @qclabrat said - get a water heater thrown in. i'm replacing my furnace and air conditioner. i had three shops come through. prices ranged wildly. it's all about the installation. but most offered a free water heater replacement as part of the deal.
 
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