What To Know When Buying A New Furnace

Almost four years ago we moved into our current home and I will say at the time for the most part we were very happy with it. After a couple years we had to replace our hot water tank and upon removal were told by the plumber that the tank was from 1976, so it was actually older than I am. We also realized then and maybe even before that our furnace was also quite old and would eventually need to be replaced. Being that things like our hot water tank and furnace were made back in those times to last I was hoping that we wouldn't have to worry about the furnace for awhile.

Each year to make sure the furnace did last I had it serviced and every year the tech that came would tell us we should replace it, that we could get a good deal, etc, etc. I suppose he didn't realize I wasn't rich and didn't really want to spend $5000 in one shot. Finally though, this year my luck ran out while servicing the furnace the tech informed me that the burner was warped slightly due to age and was leaking just a little too much CO2 and had to be replaced as it was below safety standards. He promptly tagged my furnace with a document advising I had 49 days to change the furnace or my heat would be cut off. Of course I thanked kindly as thoughts of letting the air out of his tires ran through my mind.

So I had a choice I could get my furnace through the company I had service my furnace every winter or I could search out someone else. I decided to see what price quotes I could get. Out of about ten furnace places I called a few didn't do natural gas, a few didn't get back to me and about four came in one at a time and gave me quotes. My prices ranged anywhere from $4000 - $6300. Suffice to say we went with the lowest quote.

With our new furnace I had my first introduction to an efficient model that doesn't need a chimney. Before this point having never seen this and living in the country as a child and having both a wood stove and an oil furnace in our home I couldn't picture a furnace that had no chimney but instead two plastic pipes. There was a problem with this as there was only one wall it could go out of and the overhang on the outside was quite low. But they did make it work.

- The new furnace is more efficient and over time no doubt will save us some money.

- It is slightly smaller and takes up a bit less space.

- It seems to put out heat with a little more force.

- It takes less time to heat our home.

- The pipes are an eyesore, they come out of the front of the furnace and hang over our ceiling.

- The furnace doesn't fit completely on the duct hole in the floor where the larger furnace used to be causing some heat to seep out near the floor.

- The pipes for the natural gas, condensate line and electrical wires are all on the front of the furnace at the floor right where we walk past, they seem quite in the way.

Overall the new furnace had to be, there isn't anything I could have changed as the furnace had to be put in. I look forward to saving some money but considering our home isn't large it would take quite a few years for it to matter and more than a decade to pay us back for the furnace. Either way I recommend to anyone to do your own servicing if you can and just get a natural gas/CO2 alarm to protect you from poisoning.

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