Without pulling it apart, im not sure. That tech (it was his call i was going just to give a second opinion) didnt have anything for me to properly clean those burners with but they were caked up with rust and debris on the inside Only reason i dont think its a cracked heat exchanger is because after removing dirty filters and moving a coffee table from in front of a return his aunt said the unit didnt cut off again. The unit never tripped any safeties while we were there. And the areas where the flames appeared to be rolling off were different from before i "cleaned" them to after. Ive played the video for my mentor back home, my boss, and even that other technicians mentor, neither of them says they would jump to a heat exchanger issue based on what i recorded and history of the call.

🤣 yessir Eastside till i pass ✊🏽. It was real common to test gas leaks that way and although i never hurt myself doing it, i wont go back to checking leaks that way.

🤣🤣🤣

That's what i figured, considering it was only on the insulation on the panels, not on the inner insulation of the ductwork.

Not a bad idea...when i go back to put new filters in and actually check the electrical components for a maintenance ill try that idea. That just seemed too simple at the time to think about i guess 🤣 plus i had a 5gal bucket stollen out the bacj of my truck, gotta get another one

Yeah. Owner never told me that had any heating issues, just that the ceiling leaked and the roofer "advised" them to get a HVAC company to check the unit.

I appreciate that. I hope you get back in the field, i love it! Wish i could toch more units like this and actually do some real diagnosing.

That's even what the owner of the axe throwing place said. Because they've had to keep calling them out (property management company i think just got some cheap people to do it) to keep patching leaks.

I wish i could but theres no water access that i can hook a hose up to. I think this would be a good time for one of those sprayers 😅

@ there has to be water in the building by code…I had to drop one into a mechanical room

Appreciate the feedback

Thanks man, appreciate the support, and I'll keep an eye out for that stuff going forward. I hate when we specify running new copper wire for an air handler or package unit, and they run aluminum

Has thatbworked for you over the years?

@ yea, no issues

Man i gotta level up at some point right 😁

That explains why the aluminum wires insulation coating was brittle while the coppers was fine. Does the grease stuff work long term or is it just going to burn up another disconnect?

@@AB_HVAC I used it on my 200 amp service on my house 35 years ago and still looks like new! It keeps the AL conductors from corrosion.

@ccthepope where can you buy that grease? I called my local johnstone and they say they dont have anything but for an arm and a leg they could order something for me

@@AB_HVAC I got mine at my electrical supply house. Any electrical house has to have it as it is required by code.

@jkmarshall3553 yes he will 🙏🏽 going with a non-fusible.

Its a magnetic snap mount i found on Amazon, did the video look good?

@AB_HVAC Yes

Awesome ill keep using it!

We are coming back to replace with a disconnect i literally said that at the end of the video

More likely It has no disconnect, the breaker is off the main panel

@@AB_HVAC still I heard you say you were coming back but I left have left that on

@JacksLore yes the unit is on, to give the customer heat. It took months if not years to get that disconnect to that condition. 2 days in some wirenuts isnt going to hurt especially with the unit inly running gas heat not pulling many amps

@@AB_HVAC understood you do nice work

Yeah, idk if it can be heard well, i asked dude if he had a barbecue lighter on his truck (i use them instead of a match). Because i was going to shut the gas off real quicj and test it while the blower was running. What is the point of the NOX screens? Ive only ever see them only on goodmans, not any other brand

Call a good local HVAC company in your area

Nice to see you keyboard warrior. He believed he fixed the issue and didn't even want to go back there that day but said we could go if i wanted to. He has asked me how much i charge for a service call, labor charge, blower motor replacements, and a range of things. To be very clear, im not saying there is no crack in the heat exchanger, i didnt take it apart to look for it, it was his service call and he let me tag along to see if i could point anything else out. Could there be a crack? Sure, there could also be a static pressure/airflow issue, the blower motor could have dirty fan blades, and theres a bunch of reasons. I made a decision there with the unit satisfying the house at 79° and no immediate limit faults were popping that i wasn't going to dismantle a 12-year-old package unit on a hunch. I would want more than flickering flames across the spreader to make me take apart the system. The resident never mentioned to me or him any symptoms of CO exposure. I wasn't in my truck, so i didn't have my CO detector, and he doesn't have one. This was ultimately his call, and he was trying to get home for a family event. I would've gladly pulled apart that unit and blower assembly to get a better view of the heat exchanger if he wanted to. In my 5 years as a service tech, none of the heat exchangers I've diagnosed (package unit or 80% furnace) were due to a small blowback across the spreader. Either the flames entirely on a few cells were blowing out or back, or the high limit switch would trip within a few minutes of the heat cycle operating with good airflow and clean filter/evap coil. All of my closest mentors, and HIS mentor watched this video as well, have let me know personally that with the way the unit was performing at that time none of them wouldve bothered to check the heat exchanger either because there wasnt enough evidence to truly jump towards that conclusion. Thank you for the view

@@AB_HVAC Fair enough, not your service call and not your truck. Get yourself a basic combustion analyzer - if the oxygenation is within range for a given manifold wc you are good to go. If you have 40 -50% over oxygenation then you have a cracked heat exchanger, no question, and you can sleep at night.

I agree!

🤣🤣 honestly if i had my pick, with it being a gas pack id rather put a rheem. If it was a heat pump id agree, Tempstar for sure

I never chalked it up to duct issues. And explain to me how its the heat exchanger if it never blew the flame rollout or went out on limit after replacing filters, and the top 2 burners were causing the issue and after putting it back together it was the middle 2. I have plenty of videos where i fix the issue.

With the information given to me at the time of being there with him, it never once shown me it was a bad heat exchanger. The flames werent exactly BLOWING back but more so seemed like they were having issues flowing through the burner. Thats why it was burning a slight greenish color and yes some of it appeared to blow back but the main flames coming from the burners werent flickering or blowing back, just spots by the spreaders. This guy had somewhere to be and just wanted me to help him double check some stuff. We walked into the house with it reading 79 set to 79, a cracked heat exchanger wouldve either caused that thing to lockout from the rollout switch or tripped the high limit at some point while we were there or overnight and wouldve repeatedly did that causing the unit to be off for hours and not make the temperature be satisfied in the house. Last video i believe youre refering too was a 75kbtu furnace attempting to heat 800-900sqr.ft. zones on a complete 2100 sqr.ft. house and the unit would continuously trip limit when calling for one zone. If both zones were operating it worked better but long run times caused it to still trip.

@@AB_HVAC The rollout switch doesn't always trip with a cracked heat exchanger. If that were the case there wouldn't be any deaths from carbon monoxide poisonings. I'm sure you've heard of people dying from carbon monoxide? Most of the comments on here tell you its a cracked heat exchanger but you're to hard headed to listen. You think you know it all. You're more like a first year apprentice. My god you're going to get someone killed. You don't have the experience to work alone. You need supervision or go back to school.

And ill have you know i just replaced an outdoor txv on a 14seer Rheem pressure tested at 340psi, 480micron vacuum, and a 50° temp split with the heat strips running. Thanks for the view though

And youre just like a common keyboard warrior who things they can solve every service call through the comment section. With the information and things presented to me, it doesnt seem like a cracked heat exchanger. Not any single one if encountered with a gas furnace or package unit. Thanks again for the view.

I appreciate that!

I try to stay positive 🙏🏽 unless its a unit in a crawl space

I like that. Never thought of that

🤔 you know bro?

@@AB_HVAC yeah, man, met him through a mutual friend, through the same hvac school. Good guy, funny.

@HVACKR 💀 small freaking world dude. He is an awesome guy

Well, it was 79 when we got there set to that. Initially, he told me that it was going out on limit, but she had dirty filters, and one was covered by a table. When he uncovered it supposedly worked all day. We went back just to double check it. The flames werent completely blowing back though so i didnt think it was a bad heat exchanger

@@AB_HVACdid you put an analyzer on it? Might be wise to pop the top and put an eye on it. Only a few screws

@drodriguez394 oh dude its more than a couple screws 🤣 come on now. But he had some other stuff planned so we didnt deep dive into it, seemed like the issue was resolved for the time being. I told him to definitely do a good maintenance on it

Some of the goodman models come with that metal material right in front and after years of abuse it just burns off. I dont think its a cracked heat exchanger though only becuase the flame rollout switch never was the cause (per what he told me) of the unit cutting off.

yeah it seemed like the flame would only roll out when the fan came on. suspicious heat exchanger

How far is that from Augusta Georgia?

@ about 2.5 hours. I’m 25-30 from downtown Atlanta

@Onemanhvac sheesh. I got family in ATL though i slide through from time to time. Hit me up on instagram and i can try and let you know next time im passing through

That flame sensor cleaner does a dang good job, too!

Or some Goodman units have Catalyst stuffed in the inlets for low nox emissions and it could be melting and impinging.

Glad you like them! I definitely love this trade...except the part about crawl spaces

@ hahahaha yeah I’ll take most attics any day! I’ve been cornered by too many snakes in a crawl before.

@BlackWarriorHVAC1 thatll be the day i walk out like a puss. ✌🏽 see yall tomorrow for the next service call 😂

@ 🫡😂

Thanks man, i do my best. I wish you all good things in this field. Be open to different ways of solving problems 🙏🏽

Glad i can be somewhat of a teacher 😅

I dont see anything wrong with that. I normally keep a wire brush on the truck for cleaning burners