Cleaning Furnace Secondary Heat Exchanger

Secondary condensing heat exchanger.

Cleaning furnace secondary heat exchanger.

A home heat exchanger is less likely to fail due to dirt and grime then a heat exchanger in a car or ship. Cleaning the secondary heat exchanger in a condensing furnace is usually difficult and a mess. Beware the fins of the coil are easily bent so keep your air pressure a few inches away from the coil surface. A rheem rgda model furnace is used for the demonstration.

That was best avoided. In most cases this part looks much like a small radiator some have a baffle style exchanger which looks much like dishes setting in a dishwasher and 100 of the air blown from the fan must travel through it during both the heating cooling seasons. Some fans are held in by screws or bolts. In condensing furnaces there is a secondary heat exchanger made up of small tubes that receive the exhaust gases once they have gone through the primary heat exchanger.

The heat exchanger is connected inside the furnace or boiler with metal tubes that transport the water and air exchange. Usually that means neglected burners that are dirty or corroded but it could be other things. If you crawled in then just take a vacuum cleaner with you and crawl in and clean away also a long handled brush will help. I suggest a mask and goggles for safety purposes.

Usually i d guess that lack of regular maintenance led to the sooting problem. They will push you hard to either get it fixed immediately or replace the unit entirely on the spot. Most build up will be on the blower side or bottom of the reheat coil. Place your vacuum suction below the reheat coil and using air pressure carefully blow the coil clean.

Secondary heat exchanger cleaning. Remove these with a screwdriver or ratchet in order to take the fan out. Here are a few scenarios where duct cleaning may be necessary. You can wrap a small piece of tape around each wire and label it to make reassembly easier just make sure to remove the.

To the best of my knowledge this unit does not have a secondary heat exchanger as it only has one heat exchanger. The secondary heat exchanger in high efficient furnaces are a very important component to have cleaned. A demonstration of how to clean a heat exchanger on an older draft hood style gas furnace.