The Dangers of Cracked Heat Exchangers
Why You Should Have Your Furnace Serviced This Season
Whether you’re planning on getting more exercise this year or to organize that pile of junk mail, resolutions are hard to keep. That includes resolutions to keep up with your home maintenance.
If you’ve put off your regularly scheduled furnace inspection, your heat exchanger could be at risk of a crack. Broken heat exchangers are no laughing matter, and can result in expensive and even dangerous consequences. Don’t begin your year with a damaged furnace; make a resolution you can easily keep with help from Barbosa!
Danger #1: Carbon Monoxide
Many of us have heard of carbon monoxide and the dangers associated with it. Odorless, colorless and tasteless, letting this deadly gas build up in your home is certainly not how you want to kick off the New Year. Though you may have a carbon monoxide detector, this device will not protect you from the chemical. Your detector will alert you to dangerous levels of CO, but ideally, it will never be triggered in the first place.
Your heat exchanger is meant to vent combustion gases like carbon monoxide out of your home while circulating clean, warm air indoors. However, when you heat exchanger cracks, CO and other combustion gases could be released into the air you breathe. So, what can you do to prevent carbon monoxide from entering your home? Be sure to keep up to date on your furnace inspections to ensure that your heat exchanger is in tip-top shape.
Danger #2: Furnace Fires
Whether your furnace was installed improperly or has simply worn out over time, carbon monoxide poisoning is not the only danger a cracked heat exchanger presents. It can also cause damaging and deadly furnace fires.
This happens when uncombusted gas escapes your furnace through the cracks in your heat exchanger and mixes with the heated air in your home. Because the gases now mingled with your indoor air are combustible, anything from lighting a candle to an unexpected electrical shock can start a furnace fire.
Though an intense blaze does not always occur, it is very risky to leave your cracked heat exchanger damaged for long. If you’re worried that your furnace may have cracks, have a furnace inspection done to determine whether you need repairs.
Make this year unlike any other, and stay true to your resolutions! Contact the licensed professionals at Barbosa if you fear your furnace may be compromised, and don’t let your resolution to keep up with your HVAC maintenance slip away as quickly as a New Year’s diet plan! Call Barbosa today at (214) 351-7030.