gas furnace life expectancy (house, purchasing, income)

[serger]

Hi,
Anybody knows the average lifetime of a gas furnace in this climate. I need to get my AC condenser unit and evaporator coil replaced. The question is if I should do the furnace at the same time. Obviously quite more money at the moment but significantly less then the sum of two separate jobs would be.
The furnace is Trane 98-99 (not sure). The blower is single speed I think.
thanks

[Arclight]

I have replaced:

1. AC & furnance for the upstairs Ruud

2. AC & fur' for the downstairs. Carrier

Both 1&2 lasted 13-15 yrs.

Your unit is getting close to life expectancy. My cost for a furnace and ac unit was abt $5000.00

[serger]

Originally Posted by Arclight

I have replaced:

1. AC & furnance for the upstairs Ruud

2. AC & fur' for the downstairs. Carrier

Both 1&2 lasted 13-15 yrs.

Your unit is getting close to life expectancy. My cost for a furnace and ac unit was abt $5000.00

thanks a lot for the info.

But did they (the furnaces) serioulsly malfunctioned or you wanted a better match for the new ACs.

This seems like a really good price for a complete system, did you do it a while back. What I've got now for a 4 ton 14seer + furnace is quite higher.

[Arclight]

Originally Posted by serger

thanks a lot for the info.

But did they (the furnaces) serioulsly malfunctioned or you wanted a better match for the new ACs.

This seems like a really good price for a complete system, did you do it a while back. What I've got now for a 4 ton 14seer + furnace is quite higher.

The units were original equip when the house was built in 1997.

I had replaced the ac coils once so to do it again was prohibitive to me.

The current units were replaced within the last three yrs.

This forum might generally help you. Just read some of the posts.


Here

[skids929]

It's usually the heat exchanger that makes them crap out for good; the coil can be removed and replaced over and over. Where you folks don't heat alot I would expect 20 years or more out of a decent quality unit.

[Arclight]

My ac coils had rusted out. Also the furnace burners were starting to rust out. The units were too near the end of their life span.

Another consideration, the newer units are more energy efficient than your old equipt'. Still again, there were energy income tax breaks for purchasing new equip.

[serger]

Originally Posted by Arclight

My ac coils had rusted out. Also the furnace burners were starting to rust out. The units were too near the end of their life span.

Another consideration, the newer units are more energy efficient than your old equipt'. Still again, there were energy income tax breaks for purchasing new equip.

Unfortuantely all the tax breaks ended last year I believe. And it seems that the equipment prices are up.
Yes, the evaporator coil would be changed in any case since it cannot work with old type refrigerant.

I still have the option to replace just the compressor that failed and leave everything else in place but it would be an R22 compressor with very short warranty in that case.

Anyway a lot of things to think about.
Thanks a lot for the feedback.

[Pete53FR]

I hardly use our heater. Turn it off at 9PM and the most our house drops too is about 60. When I get up I set heat to 66 if it is cold to knock the chill off. We wear sweaters and cover up when we go to bed.

What we found out is when we leave heat on at night we would wake up stuffy and stopped up. Not having Heat on at night makes a big difference. My highest gas bill was 73 last winter.

[serger]

Originally Posted by Pete53FR

I hardly use our heater. Turn it off at 9PM and the most our house drops too is about 60. When I get up I set heat to 66 if it is cold to knock the chill off. We wear sweaters and cover up when we go to bed.

What we found out is when we leave heat on at night we would wake up stuffy and stopped up. Not having Heat on at night makes a big difference. My highest gas bill was 73 last winter.

Well, the issue is that the blower motor and motherboard that are part of the furnace and they are part of the cooling. I'm not really worried about the heating part of it too much at this point.

[racehorse]

The furnace in our last house lasted more than 20 years, and died when the house was on the market.

The replacement for a 2,000 sq ft house was $2K. We replaced it with something somewhat overpowered for the house, for resale value.