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Combustion Analysis—It’s Important, but Not Everyone Does It!

Gas Burner

If I wanted to go on the road as the World’s First and Best Psychic Dog, I know just the trick to pull to amaze my viewers: my assistant would ask someone in the audience to stand up, and I would announce (through special barking code) that they use a gas furnace to heat their home. And I’d be right … most of the time. (If I’m wrong, I’ll just tell them they may have a gas furnace in the future.) 

So I’m guessing you have a gas furnace. And if you do, you’ll need occasional combustion analysis for it to help make sure it’s keeping your family safe. Our team is great at combustion analysis, and we’re proud of that because far too many other HVAC contractors don’t do it at all!

“What is ‘combustion analysis,’ Olive?”

Glad you asked! The very short version is that it’s a test to see if your furnace is safe. To generate heat, your furnace combusts (that’s my fancy HVAC talk for “burn”) natural gas. The hot gas goes into a part called the heat exchanger, which looks something like a large metal clamshell. The gas makes the metal hot, and when air from the blower gets pushed around the exchanger, it picks up that heat and then heads into your house. 

What could go wrong with this process that makes it necessary to test its safety? Cracks along the heat exchanger. If the heat exchanger has cracks, they can allow carbon monoxide from the combustion gases to exit and get into the air that ends up in the house. Carbon monoxide (CO) is bad news for people and dogs and anything else in your house that has to, you know, breathe.

But heat exchanger cracks are tough to see. This is how combustion analysis is super helpful. This test picks up on carbon monoxide that is escaping from the heat exchanger. If we do a combustion analysis and find CO, it means the exchanger is cracked and the furnace is unsafe.

“And … there are contractors who don’t do this?”

Sounds weird, right? You’d think all HVAC contractors would be focused on checking the safety of the gas furnaces in their clients’ homes. Sad fact, many don’t. The notorious “Chuck in a Truck,” the unlicensed guy who makes big promises for cheap prices, doesn’t do this. But our Russell & Abbott team always does combustion analysis before we start to do repairs on a furnace, as well as during regular maintenance. We have the best equipment to make the measurements because we invest in the safety of our customers. 

If you want a Seymour, TN, HVAC contractor who goes through all the important steps and understands how vital combustion analysis is, well … come on, you know who I’m going to recommend! Russell & Abbott never take shortcuts, and we are honest with all our customers. We couldn’t imagine skipping over a step like combustion analysis! When you trust us with your heating, we’ll see your trust is repaid.

Stay warm and safe,

Olive

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