Reynoldsburg, Ohio, Furnace Repair and Replacement

According to history books, on his farm in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, in 1870, horticulturist Alexander W. Livingston introduced the Paragon tomato, which became the first commercially grown tomato. Since then, Reynoldsburg has claimed the title “Birthplace of the Tomato.”

Is that really when they were first grown? Well, no. The tomato’s history dates back to at least the Aztecs. But who are we to quibble? Reynoldsburg is home to the popular Tomato Festival, a tradition since 1965.

The city is also home to a bevy of Fire & Ice customers. We’ve been pleased to take care of their heating and cooling needs for years, and look forward to serving more in the future.

We’ve met a lot of residents there who have had furnace concerns. Some folks wonder whether to keep sinking money into their old but trusted heating system; and others know that they’ve gotten 20 good years out of their unit and are looking to buy a new one.

We have advice for both situations. First, let’s talk about how to know when it’s time to replace rather than repair.

Read more: Should I Repair or Replace My Furnace?

What Can Go Wrong With a Gas Furnace’s Heat Exchanger?

Our first concern when we look at a natural gas or propane furnace is: “Is it safe?” By that, we’re talking about the heat exchanger.

Heat exchangers transfer heat from one medium (gas, liquid, or a mixture) to another. They are used in both the heating and cooling processes.

Each time the furnace kicks on and off, the heat exchanger gets hot, then cold. Like any piece of metal, it will do that only a certain number of times before it will crack. And that’s when the trouble begins.

If the furnace has a crack in the heat exchanger, that’s not safe. I’ve walked into houses before and smelled this sickly, sweet odor of incomplete combustion. That’s a sign of gases, including carbon monoxide, which is an odorless, colorless gas that can cause nausea, dizziness, and even death.

The heat exchanger can’t be repaired, only replaced.

I wish we could predict when the furnace is going to break down. But we can offer only an educated guess. I’ve seen people put a new heat exchanger into a 22-year-old furnace. It’s their choice, and we respect it, even if we don’t agree with it.

Our first choice would be to tell the customer that the furnace has had a good life, but it’s time to move on.

How to Avoid Costly Furnace Repairs

There are a few things you can do to extend the life of your furnace system and keep the furnace repair bills under control.

Schedule annual maintenance: We recommend you have a professional HVAC technician give the furnace a once-over in the fall before the heating season begins. The best thing they can do is to repair/replace a part before something serious happens. They’ll also ensure your machine remains under warranty.

Change your furnace filter: You can do this yourself, or an HVAC service expert can do it for you. Having a clean filter extends the life of your furnace, keeps the ducts clean, improves airflow and efficiency, cleans the air so you can breathe better, traps airborne dust, and a few other things.

Have your ductwork cleaned: Clean ducts mean clean inside air. Clean inside air means that the interior of the furnace gets less dirty. Clean machinery will always perform better than filthy. We recommend air duct cleaning at least once a year. And we strongly recommend cleaning your ducts if they’ve never been cleaned. The health and furnace benefits are worth the expense.

What Type of Furnace Is Best for Your Home?

If you decide to opt for a replacement furnace, you have options. We’ll go over the variables to give you a better sense of what's out there, and the pros and cons of each one.

Single stage: This is the least complex of the three options, and also the most affordable. It has only two settings: “on” and “off.” When it’s on, you get 100% of its heating capacity. If you have a single-stage furnace already and don’t have any comfort concerns (hot and cold spots in your house), this might be a perfect fit.

Two stage: This type goes one step beyond the single stage. It has a setting that emits about 60-70% of its capacity. The reasoning is that sometimes you don’t need a lot of heat. When only a little bit of warmth will do, this will deliver just that much. It’s also capable of operating at 100% when more warmth is called for.

This is more expensive than a single-stage furnace, but it offers cost savings on your energy bill. When it’s running at its slower speed, it runs longer, which is easier on your HVAC system because it’s not stopping and starting as often. It also does a better job of alleviating hot and cold spots in the house, offers better indoor air quality, and is quieter.

Modulating: Furnaces in this category offer premium comfort and cost the most. It can operate from 40% to 100% in tiny increments. This can maintain the temperature control in the house within one degree. Its operation is going to provide just as much heat as is needed at that moment.

It is the quietest and most energy-efficient of the three. If your existing furnace can’t even out warm and cool spots (for instance, if the second floor is comfy but the basement feels like an ice box), this machine will do the best job of mixing the air

The only downside to a modulating gas furnace is going to be a higher initial investment in the machinery. But its efficiency will help offset that in your energy bills.

Electric furnace: As the name implies, this unit doesn’t run on natural gas or propane. It has heat strips that work much like a toaster. When the furnace gets a call for heat, the strips glow red hot, and a blower distributes the heat.

We often see these paired with heat pumps, which struggle to heat when the temperature dips below 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Technically, electric furnaces are 100% efficient; they don’t produce waste. But they are energy hogs, which makes them expensive to run.

Next, we need to consider fan speeds.

What Are the Different Fan Speeds?

A blower motor simply pushes the heated air through the ducts. Older systems are usually single-speed, meaning that they run at the same heat capacity at all times.

Newer systems run at variable speeds, so there are a number of blower motor speed settings.

A single-speed motor blows at 100%, or at 0%. They are usually cheaper than variable speed systems, but aren’t as energy efficient, are noisier (air blowing through the ducts at 40% is quieter than at 100%), and tend not to last as long since they are always running at full capacity.

A two-speed fan has an additional output of around 60%.And a variable-speed fan can make tiny adjustments up to 100%. As is the case with stages, the better the fan, the higher the price, the greater the energy efficiency, the more the indoor air is being treated.

Installation of Furnaces in Reynoldsburg, OH

Once you’ve settled on the furnace that best suits your unique home, it needs to be installed. This is where you have to trust your HVAC contractor is going to follow the directions to the letter.

Yet, one of HVAC’s most disturbing fact is that 70-90% of systems in homes have at least one performance-compromising fault incurred at installation or due to inadequate maintenance. You can save money by hiring someone who will cut corners on installation, but we like to say that the most important day in the life of a furnace or air conditioner is the day that it’s installed.

Your unit might run, and you might get the warmth you were hoping for, but a small problem during installation will inevitably turn into a larger one, costing you time and money.

Here at Fire & Ice, we take the time to commission the equipment. It’s a thorough startup process for new heating or cooling equipment to make sure it’s operating within manufacturer specifications and the parameters of your home.

Full commissioning takes about 45 minutes per major equipment type or 60-90 minutes for a full system. It’s a 57-point process.

It’s worth asking your HVAC provider if they do this step. If the answer is “no,” more than likely they’re hurrying to get to their next job. We pay our technicians by the hour, not the job. Therefore, they take the time to do it right.

And we take yet another step. We come back to your home in a couple of weeks to ensure that everything is satisfactory. And if something is wrong, we fix it.

Read more: The Complete Guide to Home Furnaces

Fire & Ice Customer Reviews: Reynoldsburg, OH

Helen’s testimonial below is one of many from satisfied Fire & Ice customers.

Buying a New Furnace in Reynoldsburg, Ohio

Whether you live in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, or somewhere else in Central Ohio, we hope that we’ve passed on some information you can use when you meet with an HVAC contractor. After all, an informed customer knows how to ask better questions and get better end results.

If you’re in the market for a replacement furnace, or perhaps you’re simply looking to ensure your existing one is doing the best that it can, we’d love to hear from you.