67Dart273
Well-Known Member
I was talking a friend and "keyed" my memory of a service / repair from my old HVAC days.
These folks were not our customers, and "I guess" they called us as an alternative, because the "service" the previous company did left them "cold."
Got a call back in the days, working for the Lennox dealer in the 80's--90's. "Smell." "Just had it serviced."
I go over there and here's a small "rancher" with a basement. "They had just had it serviced." "It smells funny"
I go down and the lint and dust was so think I asked her, "what did he do, stand here and look at it?"
This is a "70%" atmospheric burner, likely 15-20 years old, in a small basement, with a water heater "y'd" in near the chimney. The basement had been partially finished after the house was built, and the teenager son was sleeping in the finished room. No CO detector (they were new then) and no smoke alarms
I took a very quick look at the furnace, the burners were all covered in lint and dust, AND HAD LINT under the burners ?? 1/2" thick going up into the heat exchanger sections
The water heater had a fringe of soot around the vent connection WHICH SHOULD NOT BE and, curious, I moved my hand up there, was it cracked? AND THE VENT CONNECTOR between the water tank and Y connection FELL OFF!!!
AND THEN I SAW IT. This is a concrete block chimney with that red tile liner, and I could now see into the "Y" going from the water tank connection on into the chimney. "It looked funny."
TURNS OUT THE TILE LINER had broken loose inside the chimney, pounds and pounds of it, and had fallen down into the chimney in big chunks, AND WAS PLUGGING THE CHIMNEY except for accidental cracks through the pieces going upwards.
We had to get on the roof, use sections of pipe as a "pile driver" and drop down and break up the tile so it was small enough pieces to dig it all out of the chimney, then install a stainless vent liner.
My only thought is that the upper morter cap had cracked, water had gotten down in between the liner and concrete, and broken the liner apart.
GUYS GET YOUR HEATING SYSTEM CHECKED BY SOME GUY WHO PAYS ATTENTION
These folks were not our customers, and "I guess" they called us as an alternative, because the "service" the previous company did left them "cold."
Got a call back in the days, working for the Lennox dealer in the 80's--90's. "Smell." "Just had it serviced."
I go over there and here's a small "rancher" with a basement. "They had just had it serviced." "It smells funny"
I go down and the lint and dust was so think I asked her, "what did he do, stand here and look at it?"
This is a "70%" atmospheric burner, likely 15-20 years old, in a small basement, with a water heater "y'd" in near the chimney. The basement had been partially finished after the house was built, and the teenager son was sleeping in the finished room. No CO detector (they were new then) and no smoke alarms
I took a very quick look at the furnace, the burners were all covered in lint and dust, AND HAD LINT under the burners ?? 1/2" thick going up into the heat exchanger sections
The water heater had a fringe of soot around the vent connection WHICH SHOULD NOT BE and, curious, I moved my hand up there, was it cracked? AND THE VENT CONNECTOR between the water tank and Y connection FELL OFF!!!
AND THEN I SAW IT. This is a concrete block chimney with that red tile liner, and I could now see into the "Y" going from the water tank connection on into the chimney. "It looked funny."
TURNS OUT THE TILE LINER had broken loose inside the chimney, pounds and pounds of it, and had fallen down into the chimney in big chunks, AND WAS PLUGGING THE CHIMNEY except for accidental cracks through the pieces going upwards.
We had to get on the roof, use sections of pipe as a "pile driver" and drop down and break up the tile so it was small enough pieces to dig it all out of the chimney, then install a stainless vent liner.
My only thought is that the upper morter cap had cracked, water had gotten down in between the liner and concrete, and broken the liner apart.
GUYS GET YOUR HEATING SYSTEM CHECKED BY SOME GUY WHO PAYS ATTENTION
