Are you concerned that your furnace is near the end of its life and may soon stop working? Knowing when to replace a furnace isn’t always easy, and the last thing you want to do is wait too long. Luckily, there are some fairly tell-tale signs that can help you determine when to replace your furnace before it ends up failing or becomes a safety hazard.
1. Furnace Is 15 or More Years Old
You can potentially get more than 15 years of life out of a furnace, but trying to do so comes with some major risks. The biggest one is that an old furnace can end up completely dying in the middle of the winter. The time this risk is the highest is during a period of extreme cold when your furnace has to run much more than normal.
Having your furnace suddenly fail is obviously something you want to try and avoid at all costs since it will quickly result in your home becoming unbearably cold. Even worse, your pipes could end up freezing and bursting. If you need to replace your furnace in the middle of winter, you can also be fairly certain that you’ll be without heat for a day or two at the very least. You’ll also usually end up paying more for an emergency replacement during the winter than you would if you scheduled the replacement ahead of time during any other part of the year.
2. Your Heating Bills Keep Rising
Another thing to consider if you have an older furnace is that it’s likely not nearly as energy efficient as a new unit will be. As furnaces age, they tend to develop issues that prevent them from working as effectively and lead to them using more energy. Your heating bills can obviously fluctuate from year to year depending on how cold the winter is. Nonetheless, if you’ve noticed your energy bills are continually increasing each winter, it’s a good indication that your furnace can no longer heat as well as it once did. This is a situation where installing a new furnace can really pay off by keeping your energy bills much lower. If you opt for a high-efficiency unit, it can save you so much that it essentially ends up paying for itself after some time.
3. Furnace Takes Forever to Heat Your Home
If you have a standard single-stage furnace or a two-stage unit, it should rarely need to run for more than 15-30 minutes at a time. The exception is if you turn your heating down at night or during the day. In this case, it could take at least an hour to heat your house once you turn the temperature back up. If your heating cycles are constantly longer than 30 minutes except in the situation we just mentioned, it’s also a sure sign that your furnace no longer works effectively.
Having your furnace inspected and maintained can sometimes overcome this issue so that your furnace again works properly. The inspection can also reveal issues that you need to have repaired. Nonetheless, there will always come a point when a furnace gets so old that there really isn’t anything you can do to improve its performance. In this case, opting to replace your furnace will greatly benefit you by ensuring your home is always consistently warm no matter how cold it gets outside.
4. Furnace Keeps Breaking Down
Almost all furnaces will eventually require certain repairs or need to have some components replaced. Your furnace may keep breaking down to the point where you’re frequently having to pay for repairs. If so, it’s a good indication that it doesn’t have much life left and may soon give out entirely. Paying for occasional repairs isn’t much of an issue, but there isn’t much sense in continuing to pump money into an aging furnace that’s already on its last legs. In this case, you’d be much better off putting that money you would’ve spent on repairing your old furnace into the cost of installing a new unit instead.
5. You Have an Older Furnace That Requires an Incredibly Costly Repair
Any time you have an older furnace that you need to have repaired, you obviously want to get an estimate. This is so that you know approximately how much it will cost to get the unit working properly again. Many of the more basic furnace repairs will typically only cost a few hundred dollars at the most. If your furnace requires a major repair, you could be looking at paying well over $1,000 to get it working again. When facing this type of situation, you should always consider how many years of life your furnace may have left. If your furnace is more than 10 years old and is no longer under warranty or has an issue that the warranty won’t cover, the smarter decision is often to replace it.
One thing that can help you decide if repairing your furnace is worth it is to consider the cost of the repairs and how many years of life your furnace has left. Then compare this to the cost of installing a new unit. Let’s say you’re quoted a price of around $1,000 to repair a 12-year-old furnace and also get a quote of $4,000-5,000 to install a new furnace. Since your old furnace will likely give out in the next few years, you’re almost always going to be better off putting that $1,000 towards a new furnace.
6. Furnace Makes a Loud Rattling Noise
A rattling noise coming from your furnace as it runs is not something you should ever ignore. If you hear a rattling sound when your heating is on, the first thing to do is check if the noise is coming directly from your furnace. There are many situations where one of the air ducts in a home can start to come loose and end up vibrating and rattling whenever the HVAC system is running.
If it’s your furnace that’s producing the rattling sound, you should immediately turn it off and then call a certified HVAC company to schedule an inspection. The reason is that this sound often indicates that the heat exchanger has developed a crack, which can result in one of the metal tubes partially coming loose and rattling. A crack in your furnace’s heat exchanger is extremely dangerous since it allows some of the combustion fumes to escape and leak out into the ductwork. That means you could end up with your heating system blowing carbon monoxide all around your house and creating a major risk of carbon monoxide poisoning.
It is possible to replace a furnace’s heat exchanger. However, the extremely high cost of doing so means it rarely makes sense unless the furnace is under warranty and the warranty will cover the cost of a replacement heat exchanger. Even then, you’re still looking at paying a few hundred dollars at the very least since furnace warranties only cover replacement parts and not any labor costs. Your furnace might not be under warranty or the heat exchanger cracked as a result of something not covered under the warranty terms. Therefore, opting to install a new furnace is almost always going to be the better option. The only exception is if your furnace is fairly new and has many years of life left.
Contact Us Today
If you’re searching for a trustworthy HVAC company in Mentor or the Greater Cleveland area that specializes in furnace replacement, Anderson Heating, Cooling, Plumbing & Electric is the one to turn to. We have over 40 years of experience and will ensure that all of your home comfort needs are expertly met. Whether you need to have your furnace inspected, want to learn more about your options for a new furnace or need any other heating, HVAC or plumbing service, contact us today.
