A cracked heat exchanger ends the conversation
The heat exchanger is the steel wall between the combustion gases and the air you breathe. Once it cracks, there is no patch and no repair — the furnace gets shut off and replaced. It is the one thing we look at hardest, and if we find it we show you what we found rather than just handing you a proposal.
Temperature rise tells you whether a furnace was installed properly
Every furnace has a temperature-rise range printed on its data plate: the difference between the air going in and the air coming out. Too high means the blower is starved — undersized ducts, a crushed return, a filter nobody changed — and running hot like that cracks heat exchangers early. Too low and the house never feels warm. Ask whoever services yours what the number was.
Weighing a repair against a replacement
What matters is which part failed, what else is close behind it, and whether the ducts can be reused. A blower motor on an otherwise sound furnace is a repair. A failed heat exchanger is not. In between it depends on the specific part and the rest of the system, and we lay out both numbers instead of pushing you at one.
How A Visit Goes
- 01
We Come And Diagnose
A real diagnosis, not a glance at the age plate. You get told what has failed and why, in words that make sense.
- 02
Repair Is Quoted First
If it can be fixed economically, that is the quote you get. A replacement number only comes out when repair genuinely does not make sense, and we will show you the arithmetic.
- 03
Sizing By Calculation
For a replacement, we measure the house — insulation, windows, ducts, orientation — instead of copying the old unit's label. Oversized systems short-cycle, run humid and wear out early.
- 04
Installed And Commissioned
Charged to spec, airflow measured, ducts sealed and every register balanced. An install that is not commissioned is only half done.
- 05
You See The Numbers
Temperature split, static pressure, and the settings we left it on — written down, so the next person has a baseline.
Furnaces & Heating: common questions
My furnace keeps turning on and off every few minutes. What is that?
Short cycling, and it is usually airflow or a flame-sensor problem before it is anything expensive — a clogged filter, a blocked return, or a sensor that needs cleaning. A furnace oversized for the house does it too, and that one only gets fixed at replacement.
Is an old furnace dangerous?
Age by itself is not the test. What matters is the condition of the heat exchanger, the flue and the safeties, and that is what an inspection looks at. Working carbon monoxide alarms on every level are worth having whatever the age of your furnace.
Do the ducts have to be replaced when the furnace is?
Usually not all of them. What often does need work is the transition at the furnace itself and any leaking or undersized runs, because a new furnace pushing air through the old restriction gives you the old comfort problems. We measure and tell you what actually needs changing.
Heating & cooling throughout east Multnomah County
Most of our work is in east Multnomah County and the neighborhoods around it. Two weeks a year everybody calls at once — the first hard frost and the first real heat — so if you already know your system is on its last season, booking outside those weeks gets you a better job and a shorter wait.