Furnace Inspections & Certification

Furnace Inspections Are Essential

When a house is up for sale in many parts of the country, local communities often require a home inspection prior to sale.  These inspections help identify issues in homes that need attention and are a good consumer protection measure. Furnaces, Boilers, Air Conditioning systems and Hot Water heaters are often referred to as Comfort Equipment or Mechanicals. When they are working we all tend to take them for granted. When they don’t we are often UN-Comfortable.

Home inspectors vary in their skills and knowledge and may tend to emphasize one aspect of their inspection over others, although it is fair to say that most are serious about their jobs and do their best to identify issues that matter.

Typically they have a set of guidelines they use to determine the parameters that are acceptable.

In the following video, you will see an example of a thorough job done inspecting a typical furnace. Note that midway through the video he notes a condition that while not ideal is within the established parameters, but which could use some actual servicing.

This is not meant to be an indictment of this individual who actually does a good job describing his process in detail.  However, it does raise an issue we will address later in this article.

 

As described above, a furnace inspection covers many different aspects of the device, all of which are important.  Industry experts report however, that many home inspection generalist will sometimes fail to note a key element in their inspections that can lead to potentially deadly results. Although in fairness, in the example above the inspector does several gas checks.

The issue we raise has to do with cracked heat exchangers.

 

A key Component that professional furnace inspectors look for during an inspection.

Perhaps the most important single thing is a cracked Heat Exchanger.  A crack in one of the heat exchangers can lead to leakage of deadly carbon monoxide gas in your home.

Watch this video to get a better idea of what is involved.

 

It is a good idea to have your furnace inspected annually or at a minimum once every two years. Typically your local furnace company will provide this service, but to be frank, in addition to doing maintenance they are of course also looking for opportunities to make additional repairs. It is the nature of the business, and not necessarily bad.

In contrast, you have the Home Inspector who is primarily interested in checking off a list to things that go far beyond your furnace, from termites to cracked window glass. In some cases their furnace inspections can be somewhat less rigorous than the job done in the first video.

New Wave in Mechanical Inspections: Certification

That has lead to a newly emerging trend of independent Furnace Inspection Firms that focus just on the mechanicals, be they furnace or boiler as well as water heaters and air conditioning systems.  In the St Paul, Mn area the former owner of a mid sized furnace company has started a new business focusing on just doing inspections and certifying the mechanicals.

Tom Snuggerud, of TDS Furnace Inspections works with home sellers and buyers to not just check but certify that the mechanicals are in proper working order.  He does not do repairs or service work, but just gives a totally unbiased assessment of the condition and function in terms of both safety and efficiency as well as anticipated longevity.