Furnace Question

[yooperdave]

We have a 10-15 year old Bryant 90%+ efficient propane furnace. It has been a problem from day one and now after many years of constant belly aches it has been deceided to let it go out to pasture.

Can anyone recomend a small, QUIET and reliable propane furnace for a 1,000 s.f. cottage up north?

Thanks

Yooper Dave

 

[chim]

When we built our current house back in '89, we installed a Heil high efficiency furnace. It has worked well and kept us warm. I wanted a natural gas furnace, but there were no lines near our property.

One thing to check. The furnace is known as a "condensing furnace". There's a secondary heat exchanger that extracts enough heat from the combustion that a 2" SCH 40 PVC pipe is our chimney. When it does this, it generates some condensate that needs to be drained away. Since you called the place a cottage, is it a place that will be heated all Winter? The trapped condensate could freeze and crack the drain.....................chim

 

[thcri]

Dave,

I am in the heating and air conditioning business. Our company handles Carrier which is the same thing as Bryant. They both come down the same assembly line. My experience with the different products out there is that Carrier/Bryant is the most reliable. I know you didn't want to hear that. The furnaces 10-15 years old are in a range when a lot of new technology was being introduced and all manufactures had trouble. And yet today with all the electronics they now have you are apt to have more trouble. Efficiency comes at a cost, it is not free.

My opinion is no matter what brand you go with I would sure have some kind of back up or something to tell you when there is a problem.

An electric air handler would be the most reliable (but still is not 100%) but would be the most expensive to operate.

If you have neighbors at your cabin you can buy this little device that turns on a lamp when the temperature drops below a certain set point. If you neighbors drive by everynigt or are across the street they can watchh it for you. You can also get these devices that will actually call your house for you to tell you there is a problem.

Just whatever you do, have some type of backup or warning plan.

murph

 

[gsganzer]

I have a "Frigidaire Brand" propane furnace and haven't had a lick of problems with it (5 years). Most of your gas furnaces can be set for NG or LP by changing an orifice (different BTU's).

I've looked at a number of different furnaces and I found that most of them have similar components (such as Honeywell gas valve etc.)

If you get a forced air furnace, you do not want a standing pilot light (not sure they make them anymore). You want a glowplug or igniter. The pilot light gives off some moisture, as a combustion by-product, and will lead to added heat exchanger corrosion. Most people that have a pilot light, turn them off during the off season to prevent this.

 

[Docsknotinn]

Dave, I have a Bryant 90+ Natural gas furnace that has been great. We did have the Mother board replaced as most of them were defective, they cracked and were recalled. I dont know what problems you are haveing but our was replaced for free by Bryant two years after the close date of the recall. We never knew about it till it broke. I think the boards are about $400. A lot less than a new furnace. You might want to look into that. Just a thought. Dave

 

[cbh]

yooperdave,

My parents bought an small older summer cottage in 1973, which had a forced hot air (FHA) propane furnace. We started using the cottage in the winter and by 1975 we replaced the propane furnace with a Sears FHA oil furnace, which significantly lowered our heating cost. This was due solely to the lower $/BTU for oil, and the fact that you own the tank, so you can shop competitively for oil. Also, oil has a lot more energy per gallon, so you can store more energy per fill-up, thus avoiding higher winter fuel prices.

That furnace worked very reliably until my parents sold the cottage in 2000. The only exception was one spring when the cellar flooded all the way up to the oil burner motor and the bearings went bad, had to replace the burner motor, a minor expense.

We did keep a small 100 gallon propane tank for the stove and hot water heater. We spent much more time maintaining the propane hot water heater. The moisture in the dirt floor cellar would rust the cast iron burner and we would have to disassemble it every few years for cleaning, and had to replace the whole unit once.

Others may disagree, but I am not a fan of using propane for heating in cold climates. High efficiency propane heaters are available, but usually have more complexity or non-serviceable parts (i.e. computer boards) to deal with. Oil burners can have the same heating cost with lower efficiency because the fuel costs less, and with very simple controls. Just my $0.02.

 

[tc35dforme]

Like thcri, I am also in the HVAC field. My 2 cents....high efficiency = higher headaches. The new high efficiency units are wonderful, but are very highly tuned to operate at the outer threshold of combustion and thermal recovery. They are indeed the best way to go for a full-time use where the annual hours of operation are high.

If you go with a standard efficiency unit ( mid 80 %s ) you get less technology to give you headaches. You may pay a bit more, but how many hours of operation a year are we talking ??

As for the temp alarm...GREAT IDEA. I'd also look into the phone dialers. Not the chaepo's that you call, but the $ 49 units that will dial a series of numbers with a pre-recorded message. My friend has his call the service company directly and they check it out for him.

 

[gsganzer]

<font color="blue"> but usually have more complexity or non-serviceable parts (i.e. computer boards) to deal with. </font>

I know everyone likes to knock solid state components. But I've found that when it comes to electronics, they either die as "infant mortality" or they work for an extremely long time. That just always seems to be the case. The either go belly up early in operation or you never have a problem with them. Go figure?

 

[yooperdave]

Thanks to all for all the great comments.

We do have a propane heater as a backup which almost heats the whole place. It requires no electricity and was added the second time we froze out and busted up all of our water pipes again /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif!

As a backup it is great, but it does not evenly distribute the heat and we want to keep it only as a backup.

We do keep heat in the cottage all winter long. We visit it almost every weekend.

We did not want to heat with oil because it will gel with the severe cold and we could have problems once again.

We do have a condensing furnace and have a clear drain line which should not be prone to freezing. We had that problem many years ago.

Initially this year we had some moths in the intake which plugged the sensors just enough for a shut down.

Right now, the furnace will light and fire up for 1-2 seconds and then shut down and cycle continually. We have had 2 different servicemen out and neither can find anything wrong other than it just doesn't continue to run.

Thanks again

Yooper Dave

 

[cbh]

I hadn't thought about gelling of heating oil. On the other hand, our cottage was in central NH and the tank located outside, never had that problem, even though the furnace was not left on. I assume that oil dealers select the correct blend for local winter conditions. If the tank is in the cellar with the furnace, I don't think it would get cold enough to gel, regardless of the blend.