I fired up the heater in my apartment for the first time this season today. It’s gas heat, the burners came on, but the fan never clicked on. Soon after smoke starting coming out of one vent upstairs.
The maintance guy came by and looked at it, said he’d have the HVAC guy come by tomorrow and look at it.
I’m just curious what could be the cause. It was just one out of the 4 vents upstairs with smoke coming out.
Replies
I think you know this but don't run it tonight. If combustion exhaust is getting into the distribution system you got trouble. Get closer to the GF tonight.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time
Thanks, and yeah, I shut it down as soon as I saw the smoke, and planned to keep it off
Get closer to the G/F? you kidding she found out the heat was out and said she was sleeping at her place.... It isn't even that cold.
The smoke was kind of heavy, I'm curious if the ducts are so dirty that a bunch of crap just worked it's way down over the summer and ended up buring up. I'm sure the ducts haven't been cleaned ever, the few I've cleaned out near the vents, were pretty damn disgusting.
Either way the HVAC guy is coming tomorrow, until then I'm just glad my renters insurance is paid up just in case....
The smoke could either be the "remains" of the blower motor, built-up dust over the summer or some animule that decided that would be a good spot to take a nap.
Depending on the smell and the amount of smoke my first guess would be the dust. Since the blower did not go on the heat exchanger would get much hotter than normal.
I turn mine on yesterday. Tried to wait until Oct 1, just be cause, but I was too cold.
Bill,
The smoke got pretty heavy, mainly because I turned it on, then took the dog out, came back in, and about 15 minutes after first turning it on thought it was funny I didn't hear the blower/fan going. Went upstairs and the entire room was pretty much filled.
It actually wasn't that cold here today, I was firing it up because I wanted to make sure it would work, these units are fairly old and not well maintained.
Edited 9/30/2003 7:37:43 PM ET by CAG