Our furnace had been shutting off before warming the house to the temperature set on the thermostat. There was a tag showing that Aksarben ARS had done service on the unit in the past so I had them come out.
The technician, Michael, told me the primary heat exchanger was faulty and recommended more than $4000 in repairs. The furnace had “the potential to become hazardous, of leaking the products of combustion or flame roll out”. He had a second technician, Eric, come out to confirm this. I am not the homeowner so I certainly was not going to authorize anything. In my experience, when a HVAC technician found a hazardous furnace they turned off the gas supply and locked it, but Aksarben had me sign a “breached heat exchanger acknowledgment” form. They said they would send someone out when she got home and agreed to come back at 5:00.
I had used Complete Comfort in Ralston in the past and decided to get a second opinion. I wasn't going to tell them it had been looked at and removed the warning tag. The homeowner was home by this time and told them Aksarben had been out. He immediately asked, “Did they tell you the heat exchanger was bad?”
Jalen looked it over and said the heat exchanger was in “good condition”, cleaned a dirty flame sensor and recommended using less-restrictive air filters. The unit has worked fine since.
The homeowner called Michael and cancelled the appointment. Incredibly, he claimed that he had no way to contact them (because this must be the only person in this business who doesn't have a cell phone). They were told that no one would be home. He miraculously got ahold of them since they did not show up.
more