This doesn’t look like what she described but I have not seen it either. There are a few pipes that connect her water heater to her furnace. She has forced air heat and ac.
1998. Do you think this is the same as hydroair?
Yup. Positive. Does she have a boiler? If she has only one boiler that supplies both hot water and heat (the coils that air gets blown through) it is called a combiboiler. Ours is NTI Trinity.
Google “boiler repair specialists” and see what comes up for your area.
From another forum:
“I am a professional hydronic installer. I have installed over 400 of these boilers in large and small houses. None of them have ever had a problem. When installing boilers, proper knowledge of primary and secondary piping, zoning, buffer tanks and mixing valves is a must. If your installer advertises that he installs furnaces as well, run. Boilers are the Lamborghini of heating you wouldn’t have a Ford dealer work on a Lamborghini. So why have a furnace guy install your boiler? You’re asking for trouble.”
No, just what I described. A water heater with pipes to the furnace.
The furnace is quite small. The outer appearance is the same as a gas furnace.
Exactly. There is something that heats the water through. It is the boiler (you call it “water heater”). Ours is the size of a large backpack. Only folks who deal with boilers will know how to service that kind of system. They last 15-20 years give or take a couple. Need to have someone clean the gunk out of the fire chamber (if it has it) periodically and see if everything else is OK.
Wow!
Thanks! I will let her know. A quick search for repair for a hydrair or for her brand Aqua Therm leads to zero.
Yikes. I googled it and it is apparently wood or coal fired?! Nooo… that can’t be right. Is it really wood fired?!
No-- thanks to you I found a site that says it is either water coils or oil coils.
Doing a Yelp search for “HydroAir Aqua Therm repairs PDX” did show some furnace companies.
Since it attaches to her water heater I think it must be that the furnace heats the water coils and the fan blows into the air. I hope I am right! She is really not good at figuring things out. I, however, have CC forum!
Our heater looks like this. It freaked many a plumber. 
https://us.v-cdn.net/5021738/uploads/editor/6l/lxza7lc9y2k6.jpg
Wow! cool!
She described hers as more of a mainstream look which is why she assumed it was gas. She has had two furnace companies out (once a year for maintenance). They tell her everything is fine but when she called the company to return they said they do not serve Aqua Therm. Guessing if she called it Hyrdo Air manufactured by AquaTherm she might get somewhere.
I sent her the link and your and my thoughts. She is not very good at problem solving but maybe this
will help. She tends to be a “mean girl”. We play MahJongg once a week so at least I will get some
brownie points for my efforts :D.
She basically needs to take a photo of the setup and have it handy when she calls around. That crap is complicated! We had no idea what our NTI Trinity was. Until it stated to leak, and I called around only to discover that furnace guys and boiler guys are from two different universes. Good luck!
She has a water heater or a hot water tank? Big difference. You need to know more than how it looks.
My old system was tankless. In our case, coils in the boiler heated the water. Using a side hot water tank was an option. (But as all now know, my system is steam, not air.)
And googling is sometimes a matter of circling wide and seeing what makes bits of sense. “Aquatherm” is used in various contexts.
https://hvac-talk.com/vbb/showthread.php?440892-Anyone-know-about-these-units
Maybe this is an aquathem product via “First Company?”
She should go to the manufacturer’s website or call them and find a dealer in her area to come out and service.
Yes, there are Aqua Therms, Aquatherms, and aquatherms. From the description, as I said above, it sounds like system is a type of hydronics the pros call “hydroair.” These are apparently quite popular in Canada and Midwest. They can come with a holding tank or tankless, but in all configurations, there is a boiler involved. Here on the West Coast, most furnace companies and plumbers have no idea what these systems are. You really need to have a mechanical co that services boilers. Boilers are a notch more sophisticated than gas furnaces. 
Random question: I have merino socks from Costco, thanks to recommendations from cc’ers. They are fine. But other rave about Bomba’s, which are $$). What’s so special about bomba’s and has anyone her worn both? Are the bombas worth the $$$?
Bombas were the rage (new and different). I bought a few pair as gifts last year and haven’t gotten and feedback from recipients and thought they were overpriced. Won’t buy them again.
I’ve used AdBlock and AdBlock Plus for years, and it makes web surfing a delight. Apparently they just updated AdBlock Plus and now nothing loads on my computer! I had to remove AdBlock Plus to get anything to load. Now, of course, I’m seeing gobs of stupid ads (mainly as a result of my clicking on links in the thread “When Ugly and Expensive Meet” – that’ll teach me!). Is anyone else having this problem??
Yes, AdBlock Plus started messing up my computer, too, so I switched to uBlock Origin. and haven’t had any trouble since. It gets great reviews online. Try it and see how you like it. I never see ads on CC, thank goodness.
Thanks, @patsmom. I just downloaded it. We’ll see if it gives me the same problems as AdBlock Plus. I really hope not.
Interesting. I’ve had zero problems with adblock plus.