How long should a furnace last?

Get a really good brand or you will be replacing it in 5-7 yrs. I have an old one that is 30 yrs old and I only replaced the motor once. None of the fancy electronics so it always works.

 

Our old furnace was installed when the house was new in 1989. It died in 2010.
I don't recall the brand though.

Jedi

 

need more info. what energy source? electric, natural gas, oil? where do you live? a heat pump may work if your climate isn't too severe. what type of heat distribution do you have? forced air, baseboard, radiant? if the insurance is paying why not get a new unit? an average unit should last about twenty years.

 

A good brand, well maintained, should last 20 years.

 

What's wrong with the old one? Probably a scam as your screwed if you don't have heat. New furnaces run as low as $800 on Amazon depending on what you need. Install shouldn't be that much if it's just a swap out.

 

Jeez I'm glad I can fix things myself. My electric forced air heat pump has broken down several times in the last 15 years, and I've always been able to repair it myself, with one exception, when it cracked a pipe that had to be repaired by a specialist, then recharged.

I hate to think what they would have told me in the other cases. A couple of times it has just been dead batteries in the thermostat. Twice it has blown the little 5amp fuse on the circuit board, then worked fine after replacing the fuse. Two other times it has fried the wires running from the internal circuit breakers to the main panel, due to bad screw connections at the breakers. Once it was making a horrible noise in the blower fan because a piece of insulation had been sucked into the squirrel cage. Once it flooded the furnace room because the drain hose from the condenser fell off. I didn't call the repairman in any of these cases, I figured it out for myself.

This furnace was installed 16 years ago, when the house was remodeled. I can remember how unhappy I was when I first went to check the filter, and found that it didn't have one! I had to make up my own brackets to hold a filter in place where it couldn't be sucked out by the fan. What were they thinking????

The gas furnace at my brother's house has lasted at least 30 years, the weak link is the pump and valves for the water recirculation.

 

I wonder if your mother board also has the little 5amp fuse like mine. If it does, perhaps the board was OK and the fuse just blew during a power surge (like it's designed to do). I don't suppose you got the old board back? If it was just the fuse, it can be fixed for 25 cents, not $500+.

 

They don't build stuff like they used to.

My last house was built around '97. I had replaced all sorts of major parts of the HVAC.

My current house was built around 1920. The boiler is over 50 years old, and is still running strong.

(Touch wood.)

 

Pull the board off (you can leave the wires attached) and look at the back of the board for burned solder points. If one is bad it have some black around it. If that is the case just re solder it and usually it works again. Could also be the glow bar. They only last so long like a incandescent light bulb. If the furnace wants to start but stops before the burners ignite it could be the glow bar. I had to have a furnace guy over once. The pressure sensor for the exhaust fan failed. I probed it and all looked good. Problem is it failed closed so it always indicated it was working. It never opened so the circuit board showed a fault. I was bummed I had to pay that time. I never thought to check it with the furnace off. It would have shown it open. I fixed it a few other times but I am good at that stuff. I keep some spare parts on hand. I always keep a glow bar on hand. Be careful. They are fragile.

Rodney

 

a 13 year old furnace may not be high efficiency...

A new furnace is probably <1000$ on the internet. If you can connect it yourself (easy), you can have a new furnace.

 

Generally 15-20 years life span. The old one's last almost forever, well until the heat exchanger goes bad. Thermo coupler, gas valve, thermostat, blower, and a limit is about it. Newer furnaces have much more. The mother board usually cost about $100, it's easy to change. Yes, there is a fuse on them. Check what code is flashing first. There should be a little red light, that will flash a code (it's on the mother board). The back of the furnace door usually has a list of what the codes are.

 

The electric heat pump in my house is original to the house (built in 78). I was told they should last about 15 years.. still going strong. No doubt it isn't as efficient as a more modern unit, but I will deal with that whenever it goes out.

 

When my gas boiler went 5 years ago I replaced it with a German made Buderus Boiler. Best investment I ever made. The gas company actually sent somebody over to see if I had tampered with the meter because we were using so much less gas. Since most of the guys on this site are tech crazy you should look into this piece of equipment when the time comes. It hangs on the wall and is running 10 zones and making hot water and my usage is 1/2 of what it used to be.

 

PROB LASTS 15-20 YRS

BRAND TO GET.....RHEEM OR PEERLESS

 

Our downstairs furnace is a gas Goodman and has been OK for the past 9 years since new. I have had to replace two igniters (ceramic resistive heaters that glow red hot to ignite the gas) and one blower motor (GE motor with bad brush, a little more tricky to diagnose as it worked for a few minutes each time).

So far nothing major, but I can also troubleshoot and replace parts myself.

IMO, a furnace rarely needs to actually be replaced if it is cleaned annually, but sometimes if there is a tough issue to track down the tech will simply look at one that is a bit older and assume most homeowners will just shurg their shoulders and pay.

 

Still works but is in the attic & I'm kind of afraid to turn it on w/o recent service cleaning. Have only had a few day of cold this winter so never needed it. Gas furnace in an attic never seemed like a good idea but that is what my house came with. That thing has fired up (no pun) everytime w/ no problem for the 20 something years I have owned my house.

 

New Federal requirements coming next year will dictate the efficiency of the furnace you will need to purchase. It is based on the region you reside in. Unlike the last Fed mandate that required a minimum 13 SEER without regard to where you lived - Florida or Michigan, made no sense. I am mentioning this only because if you are not crazy about high efficiency furnaces, you may not have a choice next year. Lennox now has a furnace that is 98% efficient -

Furnaces should last 20 years with regular maintenance. You will get what you pay for. Goodman for instance has a high rate of repair, but is very inexpensive to purchase. Trane is more expensive but built very well.......most importantly, have the furnace installed by a reputable company. How it is installed may be just as important as the brand you choose.

 

I once had a furnace go 5 years after my house was built, they told me the furnace was out of warranty. I said how can that be my house is only 5 years old. Turns out the furnace was new but twenty years old. They told me that sometimes builders will buy up a bunch of furnaces when they get a good deal and the fact that it was sitting somewhere for 15 years is probably why the heat exchanger rusted through.

So, I had to replace it, my builder had retired and closed his business in that 5 year period.