3 Common Symptoms of a Cracked Heat Exchanger

If you have a gas furnace, you depend on a component that you may have never heard of to keep you warm in Damascus, MD. That component is the heat exchanger, which transfers the heat from your gas burner to the air in your ducts. It can sometimes develop cracks. To determine if your heat exchanger has a crack, look for these common symptoms:

Soot Inside Your Furnace

If your furnace is in good shape, all of the combustion byproducts will leave through the flue. However, if your heat exchanger has a crack, some of those byproducts won’t make it out. Therefore, if you notice an accumulation of soot inside your furnace, it could be time to start thinking about a replacement.

Odd-Colored Flame

There’s one color that you want to see when you look at your furnace’s flame: blue. Any other color indicates that the fuel isn’t combusting properly, which can put you and your family at risk. In many cases, incomplete combustion occurs when a crack in the heat exchanger creates an imbalance during the combustion process.

Carbon Monoxide Detector Warnings

Although any gas appliance can release carbon monoxide, the most common culprit is a gas furnace. If there’s a large crack in your furnace’s heat exchanger, there’s a good chance that it’ll release unsafe amounts of carbon monoxide into your home. Therefore, if your carbon monoxide detectors go off, it’s important to evacuate your home and then have your system inspected once it’s safe to reenter.

A cracked heat exchanger isn’t something you want to mess around with. Your comfort and your safety are too important to ignore the symptoms of this serious system issue. For help with furnace repair and other services, contact Eric Smock Heating & Air Conditioning, Inc. We’ll repair your heater and restore your comfort in no time.

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