In the winter of 2014 I was called to a residence in North Cohocton NY for a no heat call.
Upon arrival I found a down flow LP gas furnace which was recently converted to natural gas by a local company. The furnace was short cycling on high limit and there fore not staying on long enough to raise house temperatures accordingly.
The house was a modular style house with this furnace installed in a closet off the kitchen area. I checked the duct system and it was obvious that this was not the original furnace that came with the house.
Upon further investigation and finding the users manual for the furnace online it became clear that this furnace was incorrect for the application. The users manual declared in bold letters that this furnace can NOT be installed or used in Modular or Mobile home applications and was unsafe to do so. I informed the homeowners of my findings and they responded to them by saying that they just purchased the home through a Realtor and the furnace was replaced by another heating company to complete the sale of the house.
Because of the liability issue I could do nothing to help them and got back to them with a price to install the correct furnace the next morning. I did not ever hear back from them.
So my questions are these:
Why did the original installing company use the wrong furnace? How did the local company miss the fact that they piped and left running a potential hazard?
Are both companies so money orientated that common sense and customer safety is last on their lists?