Why You Should Replace A Cracked Furnace Heat Exchanger

 

There are many reasons why your furnace is not running as well as it once did. One of those reasons could be a cracked heat exchanger. With a cracked heat exchanger, you furnace may appear to be working. Warm air will still exit the registers, but it will not be as hot as the thermostat reads.

The reason for this strange loss of intensity might not be immediately obvious, but it is important that you check or have a professional check to see what is wrong.  Look for cracks in your heat exchanger.  The smallest crack can affect the performance of your heat exchanger.  The function of your heat exchanger is to exchange heat between two substances.  In the case of forced air heat, that's combustion air and the return air from the home.  The metal bends and folds of the heat exchanger allows for the maximum amount of air to be exchanged between to two streams of air creating heat in the home.

The process of combustion creates different by-products: carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide, soot, carbon dioxide and water vapor. These same by-products are pushed out of the kitchen when you cook with the help of your vent hood. This keeps these by-products at a low level in your home. A cracked heat exchanger is utilized throughout the winter for many hours, as much as 900 hours each winter. If those by-products are allowed to escape and build to high levels they create a danger to your entire household. Every expert would recommend you replace your cracked heat exchanger to prevent those by-products building to higher levels.

Replacing a cracked heat exchanger could be caused aging materials or over stressed materials.  If your furnace is 15 to 18 years old, it has functioned the expected life span of the average furnace.  If the heat exchanger has cracked, it may be due to age. It could be due to the stress of short cycling.  This repeated on and off action puts stress on your exchanger, so does overheating, which can be caused by improper air flow.  If you have a dirty air filter, poor ductwork and/or improper insulation, the restriction of air could promote overheating. 

A cracked heat exchanger may not cause your furnace to stop working entirely. It can put your family at risk of being exposed to the by-products of combustion at much higher levels than are safe. In the end, you have two options; replace the heat exchanger or upgrade to a newer furnace with greater efficiency.

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