Cracked Heat Exchangers Are a Major Problem

Summer is winding down in Manor, TX, and soon enough your heating system will be called upon to keep your home comfortable. If you own an older furnace, or even if you don’t, now is a good time to start checking it and ensuring that it’s operating the way you expect it to. That way, you can correct any problems well before you need your system to operate full time. 

Among the issues you should watch for are cracked heat exchangers, which constitute a major health threat to your home and need to be dealt with promptly before they do. Here’s a quick breakdown of how they work and why now is the right time to check for damage of that sort.

Key to Heating

Most furnaces use gas burners to provide heat, but you can’t simply use the burners to warm the air, since it’s an inefficient way to go about it. Instead, the heat and gas from the burners go through the heat exchangers, a shaped piece of metal that disperses the heat from the gas into the air. At the same time, shunt off carbon monoxide and other poisonous gas to the vents, where they can safely exit your home.

A crack in the heat exchanger reduces its efficiency at conveying the heat, but more importantly, it can cause poisonous gases to leak into your home. Some systems have automatic shut-off switches that turn the heater off the moment they detect toxins in the air, but that still leaves you with a big repair job on your hands.

Heat exchangers crack when they suffer sudden damage, but most of the time, they crack because of simple wear and tear. Regular heating maintenance from a trained technician can spot the damage, but the sooner you address it, the better off your system will be.

Call Intelligent Air Services for heating repairs today!