Just got the annual heater inspection done. They found a major repair that our maintenance plan doesn’t cover. I am waiting for an estimate for repair. I wonder considering its age if we should get a new one. Any thoughts? The heater is by Carrier.
I have Sears home warranty. We had problems with our heater last winter. We were getting cold water. It was completely covered with a $60 deductible. Special parts had to be ordered and that took a few weeks. We too are required to have inspections. If it is a major repair I would replace it. Consider yourself lucky that it lasted 22 years. Would the warranty pay anything towards replacement. We were given the choice - either they would fix the problem or they would give us a bit of money for replacement but it was no where near the cost to replace it.
What fo you mean by “heater”? A hot water heater , a furnace?
I was going to ask the same. Am guessing the Heating component of a HVAC type system (ie the burner)
Anything mechanical that has lasted 22 years has a better chance of lasting another 22 years, after being repaired, than the brand new replacement will have of lasting a decade. in my non-scientific opinion, but I’ve always lived in old houses and have lots of experience with repair vs replacement.
good luck!
If it is a gas furnace (annual inspection, made by Carrier,… just guessing here) a new one should be significantly more efficient than an old one. One of our home’s original furnaces broke after only 13 years. We replaced both, and both A/C units also.
The new ones are more efficient but the trade-off is they don’t last as long, or so I’ve been told.
We have an old wall heater in our vacation house that was built in 1947. Still works perfectly!
I’m with @alh on this one. Getting it repaired might be your best bet.
Replacing a gas furnace with a more energy efficient one may not be a simple task. Newer units may not fit well into the existing space. In our case, it would have required reconfiguration of the garage space where it now sits and some duct work to the tune of a couple of grand. We chose to spend $500 on the repair - replaced the burned blower motor.
I would research both options. What’s the guarantee, costs, efficiency of the new heater? Will it save enough fuel to pay for itself? For the old heater?
@alh, I think you are correct. Things used to be better built. We have a steam heating system, and our boiler is probably about 60 years old. Or more. No cracks, no problems. People pointed out hat the boiler was old when we bought the house, 20 years ago.
We recently replaced our old oil burner - at least 70 years old according to the service records with a new much more efficient gas one. Our heating bills plummeted, but I don’t expect our new system to last as long.
We would like to do that, @mathmom, but it is simply too expensive to redo the whole system, which would involve taking out the steam radiators and changing to forced hot air–very hard to retrofit. Just replacing the furnace/boiler with a gas one creates problems with the chimney, which would have to be relined, which would decrease the aperture, which we might just get away with. (As in not die of CO2 poisoning!) But we’re talking around $17K, and not that much more efficient because of the steam.
I have a 45 year old belt driven Low Boy gas furnace in one rental and a 17 year old low efficiency gas furnace in another. Another rental has an upstairs space gas heater from the late 1950’s. First one has had 3 services calls since 1986, second one one service call, Jetson’s space heater-none!
In contract, my 5 year old super high efficiency gas furnace in my home has had one service call after another…electronics, blower motor, you name it. Yes, it uses 25% less gas, and more than makes up for it in service calls, no-heats, no confidence, and general aggravation.
Anything old, I’m repairing until it’s completely dead.
It’s a gas furnace. Something about the heat exchanger. We had a blow motor replace a few years ago and something else big before that. Did they make it so much better 20 yaers ago? It’s not that ancient.
Our furnace/hot water is 21 years old. There are parts that are no longer available for it…even on eBay and after market. If one of those fails, we will replace.
It’s an annoying thought.
According to http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=14051 , the minimum AFUE for gas furnaces was set at 78% in 1992, where it remains today. So if your existing gas furnace was from 1992 or later, it is unlikely that a new one will be significantly more efficient (most have AFUE of 80%) unless you specifically choose a high efficiency model.
On the other hand, older than 1992 gas furnaces may have been significantly less efficient, so there may be substantial savings on the heating bill if you replace an older than 1992 gas furnace with even a typical new one with AFUE of 80%.
Why would you have to switch to hot air? We still have steam radiators with a gas boiler. Our chimney had been relined about 10 years ago, and was inspected and proclaimed okay for the job.
The furnace was installed in 1993. I think my furnace is energy efficient. My heating bill is not that high. Are new heaters poorly made?
Just out of curiosity, the guys who were performing your “annual inspection” said the furnace needed a “major repair.” Is the furnace operational? If so, I would tell them to take a hike in the woods - UNLESS it is something related to safety.
Our furnace existed for 16 years without any inspections. When the motor went out… it went out. For CO, we have CO detectors all over the house.