Gas and Oil Home Heating Furnaces - Carrier Installation Safety Concerns

Hello All;

I'm new to this forum and I hope one of the experts here can help. Just had to remove the Flame Proving Electrode on my Carrier Gas Furnace for cleaning.(furnace would fire up but then cut back out within seconds) All is well, now, on that front. However while going through the manual on my furnace, model # 58MXA080 I came across an item which reads as follows.

"Your gas furnace uses air from outside the home for combustion and ventilation. It is not to be installed using in-house air. Therefore both pipes must terminate outside the structure and must not be obstructed in any way."

While working on the FSE electrode I noticed that while the exhaust was correctly vented to the outside of the house,the intake is using in-house air for combustion. Is this the correct and acceptable set-up or is the manual correct. This is a relatively new home (5yrs). It seems other homes in this sub division are set-up in the same manner. Should I be concerned or not????

Regards, Brig

Id say if the units calls for outside air it should get it.

Also go to www.furnaceclaims.com

There is a class action settlement On furnaces sold after 1989. Made by Carrier. This includes Carrier, Bryant, Payne and Day & Night

This is about the heat exchangers in the units.

Like Ed said if the installation instructions state that it must be that way then that's the way it should have been done. It may not hurt anything the way it is but what will happen is your home will be drawing in outdoor air from wherever it can when the furnace is running. Older homes it's not a huge issue but on a newer home the combustion air should be brought in from outside. It don't take very much time or materials to do it right.

Thanks guys for your swift replys. I concur with what you are saying and were some of my thoughts on this issue. And I think that in any relatively air-tight structure a vacuum effect could be potentially created causing starvation of air to combustion chamber, resulting in lower combustion efficiency, depending on the availability of air.

I would also think that there would be the reverse flow of air through dryer vents, range hoods, hauling back into the house contaminents/allergents which create their own set of health problems. I think this is part of what Mattison was inferring.

Reverse air flow could, I supose, also be created through the the exhausting vents of other gas fired appliances such as water heaters or fireplaces, especially if those appliances are not running at the time. It seems to me that any or all of these gas fired appliances running at the same time would be competing for a limited or reduced supply of air.

Regards; Brig