🏡 Better Homes HVAC Talk

[OffshoreDrilling]

Do you know what is the lifespan on these average? Ive had one for about a decade now, wondering if it might be time to replace it just to know its not going to shit the bed and have a condensate flood in the house.... Right now it pumps up into the attic, then outside through the eave, never been an issue but dont want it to become one either.

I’ve never replaced one but they do go out. If you’re going to replace it, get one with an integrated float safety switch. Use that float to break the power to R thermostat wire. If it fails and fills up with condensate, it will shut off the furnace and alert you to the problem.

 

[stock-t-bird]

OffshoreDrilling randomly a couple times the last couple nights, my furnace will be running. I can hear the main fan shut off (along with the flame after manually checking after it happened two cycles in a row), yet the draft fan stays on and ~2 minutes later, the flame and fan kicks back on.

Flame sensor? I have an extra, it's just a pain in the cunning linguals to pull it out.

i'm going with limit switch,limit gets too hot..burners shut down,cools off,re-sets..then flame sensor re-lights burners
im no expert,but deal with shit all day long..just a thought..no offence to Jared/Offshore please.
I respect him & his expierience.

there is a safety reason why burners are shutting down.
very hard to diagnose over internets,just a thought,trying to help out

 

[OffshoreDrilling]

i'm going with limit switch,limit gets too hot..burners shut down,cools off,re-sets..then flame sensor re-lights burners
im no expert,but deal with shit all day long..just a thought..no offence to Jared/Offshore please.
I respect him & his expierience.

there is a safety reason why burners are shutting down.
very hard to diagnose over internets,just a thought,trying to help out

Limit wouldn’t kick off the blower.

Flame failure, inducer keeps going to post purge. It tries and lights again, blower kicks on, repeat.

He could have a cracked HX too and not severe enough of a roll out to trip

 

[stock-t-bird]

perfect,well said..i thought about flame roll out on htx..thats why limit kicks out
we both dont know what furnace he has

we need beers together soon

 

[Chester Copperpot]

Nordyne M1MB-090A-BW

There has also been an odd odor ever since I cleaned out the condenser and airflow was drastically improved.

View attachment 189986

I’ll probably call the HVAC guy just to have him take a look before we go on vacation.

 

[Chester Copperpot]

EDIT: Guy from propane vendor called me back and explained it a bit more for me.

LP out, plug in. Have the proper orifice too. This furnace has been all fucked up among many other things in this house. Simply amazed at the PO.

 

[FESTER665]

Hoping OffshoreDrilling or someone might be able to answer this....

Been running a propane heater in the garage to try to keep it from being too cold (stays about 40-45 even in these temps with nothing) and can work and do stuff in the garage so thinking about piping in a wall mounted heater like below:

Should I be good adding this, or is there a way to make sure I have enough gas line at the house? It looks like 1: line going through the attic and then branching off to the items using gas (furnace, dryer, water heater, and stove) so I didnt know if I need to make sure of anything like a load calculation or anything like that.

Would likely hire a plumber to do the gas line because I dont have the tools to make pipe the right sizes, but imagine it should be too bad to break into the end of the line where it drops for the stove and run it into the garage. I imagine it would be like 35-40 feet total of black pipe including the drop through the garage wall.

Garage is only 300 square feet and the current 18000 BTU big buddy heats it well.

 

[Jimy Bilmo]

Hoping OffshoreDrilling or someone might be able to answer this....

Been running a propane heater in the garage to try to keep it from being too cold (stays about 40-45 even in these temps with nothing) and can work and do stuff in the garage so thinking about piping in a wall mounted heater like below:
View attachment 193868

Should I be good adding this, or is there a way to make sure I have enough gas line at the house? It looks like 1: line going through the attic and then branching off to the items using gas (furnace, dryer, water heater, and stove) so I didnt know if I need to make sure of anything like a load calculation or anything like that.

Would likely hire a plumber to do the gas line because I dont have the tools to make pipe the right sizes, but imagine it should be too bad to break into the end of the line where it drops for the stove and run it into the garage. I imagine it would be like 35-40 feet total of black pipe including the drop through the garage wall.

Garage is only 300 square feet and the current 18000 BTU big buddy heats it well.

There is a load calc online, but I'd advise against one of those blue flame heaters. They create and trap moisture like crazy. I'd try and find a normal garage heater IMO.

 

[FirstWorldProblems]

I had a ventless heater like that in my last house for 10 years and loved it, never had an issue.

The only thing I'd caution is that when you first start using it, it will smell bad. I was legit concerned lol, but after a few days it went away.

 

[FESTER665]

There is a load calc online, but I'd advise against one of those blue flame heaters. They create and trap moisture like crazy. I'd try and find a normal garage heater IMO.

Im not too worried about that when the garage door is opening a few times every day as well.....

Mainly just wanna keep it around 55 in the garage and then bump it up when im working on something.

 

[Shawn1112]

I had a ventless heater like that in my last house for 10 years and loved it, never had an issue.

The only thing I'd caution is that when you first start using it, it will smell bad. I was legit concerned lol, but after a few days it went away.

I also have one of those and zero issues. I use it as a supplemental heater when I'm running the electric heater I have mounted up high.
I run mine off propane though as I dont have a gas line out to the garage. 1-20lb tank will last 16-24 hours
My garage has zero insulation up top, and if I'm using both heaters, I can work out there in a t shirt

 

[FESTER665]

I had a ventless heater like that in my last house for 10 years and loved it, never had an issue.

The only thing I'd caution is that when you first start using it, it will smell bad. I was legit concerned lol, but after a few days it went away.

Yeah, Id rather not put a hole through the roof to vent another heater if I can prevent it, but may look that direction if those heaters are that much better to run.....

 

[FirstWorldProblems]

Yeah, Id rather not put a hole through the roof to vent another heater if I can prevent it, but may look that direction if those heaters are that much better to run.....

Not worth it imo. My garage was around 400 sq ft and it heated it just fine, and everything is dry AF in winter anyways so moisture was never a problem for me

 

[FESTER665]

I also have one of those and zero issues. I use it as a supplemental heater when I'm running the electric heater I have mounted up high.
I run mine off propane though as I dont have a gas line out to the garage. 1-20lb tank will last 16-24 hours
My garage has zero insulation up top, and if I'm using both heaters, I can work out there in a t shirt

Yeah, my garage is tiny and insulated so it should work really well for the space I imagine.

I have a big buddy portable propane heater and figured I would let it run for an hour to warm it up, went inside and came back out an hour later and it was like 74 degrees in the garage.

 

[Shawn1112]

Yeah, Id rather not put a hole through the roof to vent another heater if I can prevent it, but may look that direction if those heaters are that much better to run.....

Mine is ventless and as mentioned no issues. I'd recommend putting an oscillating fan in front of it while using it. Just dont put it to close as it will melt the fan, ask me how I know lol

 

[FESTER665]

Mine is ventless and as mentioned no issues. I'd recommend putting an oscillating fan in front of it while using it. Just dont put it to close as it will melt the fan, ask me how I know lol

If I had a dollar everytime I did something dumb like that I could retire.

Were you guys running the blue flame ones or the infared panel ones? The Big Buddy I use is the IR panel and its nice to warm you up fast pointing it at yourself, but imagine the blue flame one would be better for the insulated garage to keep it at a stable temp in the 50's then the IR panel variety.

 

[Shawn1112]

Blue flame

 

[Jimy Bilmo]

Just come pick up my spare electric one and run that

 

[FESTER665]

Just come pick up my spare electric one and run that

Electrical panel is tapped out (they only used 100A services back when the house was built) and the gas line would be easier to run than the conduit to the garage.

The gas line drop for the stove is like 10 feet from the wall between the kitchen and garage at the most, just need to move about 10 feet from the center of the roofline to the edge of the garage where I would want the heater.

 

[Jimy Bilmo]

Electrical panel is tapped out (they only used 100A services back when the house was built) and the gas line would be easier to run than the conduit to the garage.

The gas line drop for the stove is like 10 feet from the wall between the kitchen and garage at the most, just need to move about 10 feet from the center of the roofline to the edge of the garage where I would want the heater.

 

[1quick]

Hoping OffshoreDrilling or someone might be able to answer this....

Been running a propane heater in the garage to try to keep it from being too cold (stays about 40-45 even in these temps with nothing) and can work and do stuff in the garage so thinking about piping in a wall mounted heater like below:
View attachment 193868

Should I be good adding this, or is there a way to make sure I have enough gas line at the house? It looks like 1: line going through the attic and then branching off to the items using gas (furnace, dryer, water heater, and stove) so I didnt know if I need to make sure of anything like a load calculation or anything like that.

Would likely hire a plumber to do the gas line because I dont have the tools to make pipe the right sizes, but imagine it should be too bad to break into the end of the line where it drops for the stove and run it into the garage. I imagine it would be like 35-40 feet total of black pipe including the drop through the garage wall.

Garage is only 300 square feet and the current 18000 BTU big buddy heats it well.

I ran one of those at my last two houses in 1000ish sqft garages and they worked awesome, a ceiling fan helps disburse the heat a bit better, some of them have a blower option that mounts on the back that’s what I had on mine and it was great, I ran one on propane when I worked for the pipeline and could get it for free, and the other house I ran on natural gas both were great

 

[FESTER665]

I ran one of those at my last two houses in 1000ish sqft garages and they worked awesome, a ceiling fan helps disburse the heat a bit better, some of them have a blower option that mounts on the back that’s what I had on mine and it was great, I ran one on propane when I worked for the pipeline and could get it for free, and the other house I ran on natural gas both were great

Is it something you can just set and forget like to maintain 50 degrees during the winter?

All of the hanging heaters are like 50000+ BTU and thats just overkill for a tiny ass one car garage.

 

[1quick]

Is it something you can just set and forget like to maintain 50 degrees during the winter?

All of the hanging heaters are like 50000+ BTU and thats just overkill for a tiny ass one car garage.

Yeah but they don’t have a temperature written on the dial it’s kind of trial and error, the temp dial is 1-5 I’d leave mine around 2-2.5 and it would stay 50-55°

 

[Pewter-Camaro]

I had a ventless heater like that in my last house for 10 years and loved it, never had an issue.

The only thing I'd caution is that when you first start using it, it will smell bad. I was legit concerned lol, but after a few days it went away.

I also have a blue flame one. my garage stays at 45 or so on the 1 setting. I also have a 240v electric fan driven greenhouse heater that I run in the lowest heat setting 800w mostly to circulate air around the garage. Works great in my piss poor insulated garage with holes all over the place. I was working in there the other day and was -1 outside and turned up the gas heater and fan and was a comfortable 65 in there no problem.

 

[FESTER665]

So now I just need to make sure I have enough gas service to run it and should be good.