A Dry Week of Cold Mornings Put the Furnace Vent to Work

Last week in Battle Creek looked easy. No storms, no hail, and no measurable rain from Monday through Sunday. Afternoons ran about 65 to 70 every day, but the mornings did not follow. Monday through Thursday opened in the mid-to-upper 30s, near 35 at the coldest, and fog sat over town on several mornings before the sun burned it off. That is a thirty-degree swing every single day, and it means the furnace in most Battle Creek houses fired up at dawn, ran hard for a couple of hours, and shut off by lunch, with the windows closed the whole time.

That pattern is what puts the exhaust side of a heating system to work for the first real stretch of the season. A gas furnace or water heater only stays safe if its vent carries combustion gas out of the house. Over the summer, vents and flue pipes pick up leaves, bird and wasp nests, rust flakes, and sagging or separated joints. A newer furnace that vents out the side wall through plastic pipe can be blocked by leaves, a bush that grew in front of the termination, or a fall project that stacked something against the house. When the vent cannot carry the exhaust out, it spills back into the basement, and carbon monoxide has no color and no smell.

Do this today. Push the test button on every carbon-monoxide detector, and replace any that are more than about seven years old or missing. Walk outside and look at where the furnace and water heater vent: clear anything within a few feet of the pipe. In the basement, look at the flue pipe for rust, gaps, or a joint that pulled apart. If a detector goes off, anyone in the house gets headaches or feels sick when the heat runs, you see soot or rust streaks around the furnace or water heater, or the furnace keeps shutting itself off, get everyone out and call A.W. Crooks. We are 24/7 residential plumbing and HVAC in Battle Creek and the surrounding areas, and we do not add a weekend tax during business hours.

If the furnace has not been looked at since last winter, the $99 furnace tune-up and $199 boiler tune-up are still live: one system check, repairs not included. Got a quote from someone else for a new system? The second opinion is free. Book at tctcinc.com/specials.

Planning a standby generator before winter? Its exhaust needs the same clearance from windows, doors, and vents. Generators, panels, and residential and light commercial electrical are The Michigan Electric Company.

Running commercial or new-construction plumbing while the ground is still open? That is The Plumbing Company, commercial and new-construction plumbing only, not 24/7. One call to (269) 962-5441, or an email to tctc@mitctc.com, reaches all three.