Also, the heat exchanger costs almost as much as the furnace to replace
I am not a fan of our gas heating device. It requires a lot of work and doesn’t undoubtedly give enough to warrant this. 1st, the replacement of this furnace was a disaster. I needed to have a flue system and gas hookups set up. It took the Heating, Ventilation plus A/C worker all afternoon to do it. Next, the care of keeping the heating system going was a bunch. I regularly do things for the furnace. I need to change our furnace filter once a week, vacuum out the inside of it and make sure the fan motor belt is properly lubricated. Dust seems to be the biggest enemy of the furnace. Next, a furnace can undoubtedly become a huge problem when it is dusty. If the furnace has an icky filter and I don’t replace it, the debris gets into the system. The dust then will cause all the pieces to work harder and push for longer hours. It raises our yearly bills and overheats the system. The furnace can absolutely overheat to the point it catches on fire. The furnace could overheat to the point of the heat exchanger busting down. A little crack that is unseen by man can happen where carbon monoxide can pour out of it. This odorless, tasteless and colorless gas is poisonous. If exposed for too long hospitalization is required. Also, the heat exchanger costs almost as much as the furnace to replace. So if it breaks, might as well start anew. The furnace also uses forced air which means the heat rises and creates cold areas in the house. You also deal with air ducts and that is a whole other set of issues.