The EPA, which is usually very slow and reluctant to recommend any services, except the ones which have been proven to be viable and beneficial, recommends inspecting and servicing fuel-burning furnaces before each heating season (www.epa.gov) to be sure that you are protected from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Carbon monoxide can enter your home or facility any time you have a defect in your heat exchanger. A heat exchanger is the largest part of the furnace, usually made of aluminum or stainless steel, through which the poisonous carbon monoxide-containing exhaust fumes leave the furnace and are vented to the outside of your home. Heat exchangers, over time and/or as a result of a manufacturer’s defect, can have or develop penetrating scratches and holes. The result of these defects is simple: some of the carbon monoxide that was on its way out of the home will leak through these apertures and into your home or facility.
When selecting an HVAC contractor to perform the precision tune-up that the EPA recommends, it is extremely important to select a company whose technicians understand how to properly inspect heat exchangers, such as Four Seasons Heating & Air Conditioning in Chicago. It might surprise some readers to learn that very few companies are as equipped and willing to properly inspect your heat exchanger as Four Seasons is. I say “willing” because, as luck would have it, the heat exchanger is the absolute hardest component of the furnace to properly inspect. The heat exchanger is usually not even visible after you’ve removed the front panels of the furnace. The heat exchanger sits behind all of the parts you can see, including the motors, gas valve, pressure switch, circuit board, igniter, etc., and in most cases the entire blower motor assembly must be removed in order to gain access to the heat exchanger.
The blower assembly in an up-flow furnace (the vast majority of furnaces) will be on the very bottom of the furnace, and will include a housing, wheel (squirrel cage) and motor. The motor, like most furnace parts is wired in to the circuit board, which will usually be found near the blower assembly. In order to properly inspect the heat exchanger in an up-flow furnace, the technician must completely remove this entire housing. Even so, how then can he access the heat exchanger if it is behind all of the rest of the parts of the furnace?
Imagine a service technician lying on his back on your concrete floor and sliding the top half of his body into the furnace and underneath the otherwise inaccessible heat exchanger (much like an auto mechanic accesses certain parts of your car), using only the light from the small flashlight that is tied to his forehead to see up the furnace.
Now stop imagining. If you don’t SEE this very thing during your furnace inspection, the heat exchanger is not getting the attention and inspection that it deserves considering that if it is defective, carbon monoxide may be entering your home or facility.
If you have never had your heat exchanger properly inspected, you would probably guess that this is a fairly involved and time consuming process. You would be right. A Four Seasons precision furnace tune-up takes 45 minutes to 1 hour on a furnace where no problems are found. When problems are found, this time obviously increases.
If you have had your furnace worked on by a company other than Four Seasons, chances are you have NOT witnessed the proper inspection of your heat exchanger.
Of course, removing the blower motor and wheel assembly and looking at the heat exchanger does not mean that the heat exchanger was inspected thoroughly for all possible defects. All Four Seasons’ service technicians are certified Heat Exchanger Experts, as part of Four Seasons’ unmatched commitment to continuing education for its technicians. What this means to you is that your entire furnace, including the heat exchanger, will be serviced by someone who has been trained by industry leaders to identify any and ALL types of possible defects in your heat exchanger.
Ask your contractor if all of its technicians are Certified Heat Exchanger Experts. Chances are you will be asked “What is that?” And of the contractors who have heard of this cutting-edge training program, if they are being honest, most will likely admit that they’re technicians are not. That is, unless of course, you are calling Four Seasons Heating & Air Conditioning in Chicago.
Most heating & air conditioning contractors do not have the resources or even the ability to certify their technicians. The training is extremely expensive, and, even if price were not an issue, smaller companies cannot afford to take one of their only or very few “technicians” off of the street for the duration of time required to complete the training. This is yet another benefit of dealing with the biggest and the best, and another reason why, year after year, Four Seasons is remains North America’s largest and most award winning residential heating & air conditioning contractor.
The awards that Four Seasons receives, year after year, including the for the 5th year in a row a service award from a leading consumer review (list) website, The Dave Lennox® award, A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau, etc., are no mistake. They are the direct results of programs such as the ongoing continuing education and training for all Four Seasons Technicians. Heat Exchanger Experts training is only one of the many types of training that each Four Seasons technician receives and enjoys.
Unfortunately, certain companies which do NOT hire only the best and brightest HVAC technicians and who do NOT provide continuing education for their technicians once they are hired, have polluted the reputation of the industry that Four Seasons is proud to be a leader of. “Technicians” whose backgrounds and skills are not properly screened and who do not receive the benefit of continuing education and training are typically the types of technicians who develop unethical and unscrupulous behavior. It is not uncommon for technicians such as these to use “scare tactics” to sell parts and equipment which are not needed to unsuspecting consumers. Technicians such as this are an embarrassment to the HVAC industry and are not considered for employment at Four Seasons Heating & Air Conditioning in Chicago.
Did you know that each and every new Four Seasons service technician signs a comprehensive ethics statement before he or she is allowed to set foot in any customer’s home? The statement states that the technician understands that he or she may never sell a part, accessory, service, or piece of equipment to any customer that doesn’t need it, want it, or can’t afford it. Four Seasons maintains a zero tolerance policy with regard to the ethics statement and any breach of it would immediately cost the technician his or her employment at Four Seasons.
I would suggest that you ask your service provider,(if it is not already Four Seasons) if they have their service technicians sign an ethics statement.
As you probably already guessed, “inspecting” the heat exchanger provides an unscrupulous and dishonest service technician the ultimate scare tactic to sell an unnecessary piece of equipment to an unsuspecting homeowner. Imagine the following scenario: It is late at night and 5 degrees below zero in Chicago. You called a heating & air conditioning company because your furnace is not working. The technician arrives and tells you that not only is your system not working, but your heat exchanger is cracked and the entire unit needs to be replaced. What are you to do? You’re likely not going to want to spend the money or the time to try and find another company to come out that late at night, you’re freezing already, you’re worried about your pipes bursting….you’re likely going to purchase that furnace that you didn’t really need because you believe the heat exchanger had a crack that it didn’t really have. You can also expect to pay much more than a fair price to this dishonest and unethical technician at the same time. Remember, it is late at night and you don’t exactly have the option of shopping price. If this “technician” was the type of person who was willing to lie to you and tell you that you had carbon monoxide exposure when you did not, he will also be willing to rip you off at the same time.
Four Seasons Heating & Air Conditioning is so serious about its ethical commitment to its customers that it issues the following heat exchanger guarantee with each of its precision tune-ups and furnace repairs:
If a Four Seasons technician diagnoses a defect in heat exchanger and that defect does not exist, Four Seasons will replace the furnace for free.
That’s right! If a Four Seasons technician ever tried to sell you a furnace under false pretenses, you would receive the very furnace that he or she tried to sell you absolutely free, installation included. Of course this does not happen because of the types of technicians that Four Seasons hires and its commitment to the highest ethical standards and continuing education, but this guarantee will give you the peace of mind that you deserve anyway.
A Precision Tune-Up from Four Seasons is meant to be a pleasant, informative service visit to your home that carries with it no obligation and nothing to lose. If your Four Seasons technician has nothing to gain by trying to sell you a furnace that you do not need, is thoroughly trained in correctly identifying problems the “right way”, and has signed a statement that he or she will lose his job if he tries to sell you a furnace that you do not need, wouldn’t you believe what he or she said? If a technician such as this tells you that you have a defect in your heat exchanger and that your home is being exposed to carbon monoxide, wouldn’t you want to know about it?
Schedule a Precision Furnace Tune-Up with a Certified Heat Exchanger Expert from Four Seasons Heating & Air Conditioning in Chicago. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
In closing, if you choose to use a company other than Four Seasons Heating & Air Conditioning, we wish you the best of luck, but would remind you to follow the pointers and ask the questions mentioned in this article. Be aware of the companies offering $29 and $39 “clean & checks,” because that is exactly what you will get. No ethically minded company is going to send a qualified, well-trained service technician to your home for a process that takes an hour on the average for $29 or $39. They wouldn’t be in business if they continued to do that for very long. Is it possible that they simply want to gain entry into your home through their misleading low price and then try to make up the difference once they are inside through misleading or deceptive practices or extremely high prices? I’ll leave it to you to answer than one.
Whatever your answer is, you can be sure that this will not be a concern if you choose Four Seasons Heating & Air Conditioning. It’s all in our reputation and in our guarantees. For more information, please visit www.fourseasonsheating.com
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Tags: Furnace, Furnace Inspection, furnace tune up, heat exchanger, Heating, HVAC, service technician
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Four Seasons Heating was out to our appartment building that we have on the South side of Chicago, my brother has the same type of building across from us. We called Four Seasons Heating out to do a furnace tune up each year. My brother cleans his furnace himself, we told him you should have a pro like Four Seasons Heating tune up your furnace he says no I got it. One day we were talking about gas bills and I said our bill is 600 he said what my bill is 900 I said wow we have the same building same furnace and you pay 300 mire for your heating bill he also had his furnace break down 2 times, our gas furnace never had one issue. I told him Four Seasons Heating does our furnace tune up, you should use them so he did and guess what he got the lowest gas bill ever, his furnace was set wrong and Four Seasons Heating tuned it up. We were talking in the ten years he tuned the furnace up himself he save $890 dollars but wasted $12,500 in gas by having a furnace that was not tuned up. So if you live in Chicago call Four Seasons Heating, you can’t go wrong.