Got a couple questions about my furnace.. I think it was installed very poorly and its causing me issues now.
Any HVAC/Furnace / Plumbers on here?
- Thread starter animal-inside
- Start date
My HE furnace quit working today.. Happen to be -48 lol... I needed help figuring out what was wrong, but I think I got it.
I figured out that the condensation drain line froze solid. The dumbass who installed it, ran that drain line right along the concrete floor, then UP a slight incline (the floor sloops up) and then along a exterior wall and then into the sump hole. So because its a slight incline, there's always standing water in the drain line and since its right on the concrete floor in an unheated room, it froze. I will fix this be putting a 45 degree elbow in the drain line so its always has a sloop.
The line froze and then filled up with water so it had a back pressure when the furnace kicked on. Fixed now.
My other question is that I can see when the dumbass took my old furnace out, he just pulled off the fresh air intake hose and left it on the ground (almost right on that drain line).. It was a solid ball of frosted up ice.. I couldn;t believe how much cold air (remeber -48) was rushing through this 6 inch pipe.
My new HE furnace doesn't have a fresh air intake from outside. It's just a 2 inch hole on top of the burner and sucks in air from within the room.
Can I remove that old fresh air line and seal off the hole on the wall that was made for it? I don't think I need to worry about negative pressure because my house was built in 1950 and it has a crawl space that I know isn't air tight by any means. I was reading that these new HE furnace don't really need the air from the outside, but it can reduce efficiency by 3-5% without it. I'm not worried about this 3-5% loss
I have a wood stove that runs constantly, but I still don't think I'll ever have a negative pressure issue if I remove that air intake.
MY furnace rarely turns on because of my wood stove.
I figured out that the condensation drain line froze solid. The dumbass who installed it, ran that drain line right along the concrete floor, then UP a slight incline (the floor sloops up) and then along a exterior wall and then into the sump hole. So because its a slight incline, there's always standing water in the drain line and since its right on the concrete floor in an unheated room, it froze. I will fix this be putting a 45 degree elbow in the drain line so its always has a sloop.
The line froze and then filled up with water so it had a back pressure when the furnace kicked on. Fixed now.
My other question is that I can see when the dumbass took my old furnace out, he just pulled off the fresh air intake hose and left it on the ground (almost right on that drain line).. It was a solid ball of frosted up ice.. I couldn;t believe how much cold air (remeber -48) was rushing through this 6 inch pipe.
My new HE furnace doesn't have a fresh air intake from outside. It's just a 2 inch hole on top of the burner and sucks in air from within the room.
Can I remove that old fresh air line and seal off the hole on the wall that was made for it? I don't think I need to worry about negative pressure because my house was built in 1950 and it has a crawl space that I know isn't air tight by any means. I was reading that these new HE furnace don't really need the air from the outside, but it can reduce efficiency by 3-5% without it. I'm not worried about this 3-5% loss
I have a wood stove that runs constantly, but I still don't think I'll ever have a negative pressure issue if I remove that air intake.
MY furnace rarely turns on because of my wood stove.
So on the drain line sounds like you have it graded properly now so it drains. Only other thing i reccomended cutting in a T halfway if its a long run. Anything over 15 feet or so I put a vent and just stick the T pointing up to give it some air to drain better. Only if it keeps plugging on you.
As far as the old fresh air.. I normally run the new intake air pipe from the furnace out through that hole. Its actually code depending on the size of the furnace. But like you say in an old house its probably loose construction and you probably have enough air inside. And its only secondary heat.
It's got a T vent as soon as it comes out of the furnace.. The remaining line is only about 4 feet.
How big of a fresh air intake do they recomend for a HE furnace? As it was installed, it just has a 2-3 inch opening at the top of the furnace for a intake and it sucks it in from the air inside.
Depends how many btu and how far it runs. Smaller furnace with a short run you can run 2" intake and exhaust. If its a bigher furnace with long tuns or alot of elbows you would need 3"
I'll just go 3 inch than.
I'm guessing the furnace is about 12-14 feet from where the hole for the air intske is in the exterior wall.
I actually measured, the old fresh air intake is 6 inches diameter... Even for a older furnace, that's got to be over kill.
My furnace is mid sized.. I don't know the exact BTU's but the house is 1400 sqft top and 800 sqft basement.
I wouldn't worry about it too much. You can probably just seal up the hole unless you want to run another pipe from the furnace to the outside