Another Furnace Problem

Well, I called the furnace man back this morning. Saturday I turned on the furnace to take the chill off the air and it came on just fine. After awhile the blower went off but the furnace continued to run. About fifteen minutes later I realized it was still running. I went in and turned the thermostat down and it went off. Then I turned it back up and the furnace flame came on but the blower would not. And the furnace would not go off until I turned it back again.

This morning he came right out. He checked everything out and hit a reset switch that automatically turned the furnace on. Evidently when the heat stayed on so long it caused the furnace to shut the fan down. After a long while it finally came on. After another long time the blower came on. So he checked the thermostat and it needed regulating. It was the original (1994) so he changed it out ($100 for the thermostat alone). He said if it had been the heat exchanger, we would have to get a new furnace.

Then he checked our air conditioner out and added freon. There was a leaky valve and he replaced that too. He said the furnace was built in 1994 and the air conditioner was original to the house (1971). He said the life of a furnace was twenty years and that was about the same for an air conditioning unit. I asked what we were looking at for replacement if it should come to that and he said between $5,000 and $6,000 for both.

It never rains but it pours. I hope they can just last as long as we do. If worse comes to worse, we will borrow the money and pay it back in payments.