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Some Old Guy

Cold enough?

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Some Old Guy

Woke up at 4:30 this morning to find it a little chilly in my house. Furnace kicked out. 

 

So it seems the exhaust and intake pipes are too close together. So the warm exhaust condensate turns to fine ice as soon as it comes out and the intake sucks it in and clogs the intake pipe. Then that trips a safety switch at the furnace. (Propane Heat)

 

So I have to go outside and clean out the intake pipe and kick away the ice build up. Then to the basement to take off the doors to expose the guts of the furnace. Then I have to hold the switch where the door is and hit the reset for the safety thing.

 

When the house was built I guess codes weren't in place on how far apart these two pipes had to be from each other. So I was thinking of adding extension pieces to the pipes to separate the distance. 

 

Anyone know if this will affect the furnace?

 

On a side note, it was so cold that I burnt my hand on my door handle!!!!

 

And I guess this is good weather to make ice!

 

Roger

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Resource Pimp

Mine are 24" apart horizontally and the intake has a 90 degree elbow on it drawing from the ground side. Never had your problem....knock on wood


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Some Old Guy

Mine are vertical about 3 inches apart. I have elbows on pointing away from each other. 

 

Roger


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eddylives

Roger 

I see no reason why an extension of the intake would affect operation.

Every unit will have a maximum straight pipe run that is calculated using elbow equivalent values (eg a 90 degree elbow is equivalent to X amount straight pipe length)

Now the only thing I can see being an issue is when was your unit installed?

Codes for type of pipe has changed and you may not be able to find the same any more.

 

Extending the exhaust may lead to a freeze up issue


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Some Old Guy

I extended the intake. I thought that the exhaust would freeze up if I extended that.

 

It looks like I'm not the only one with this issue!!!

 

 

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Thefishleclair

I never looked at the Intake part, Only the output. Guess Ill have to look at that as well. Good Post!

 


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RatherBeFishin

Intake to exhaust is to be 18” apart to code. 

Will not hurt to extended it. But it is to be primed and glued with 636 pvc primer and cement. I would say dont do it if it was inside. But outside is fine. Just cause to do it properly the ends of pipe are supposed to be bevelled. 

Its better to snorkel your exhaust up and then have your intake just straight out with a 45 or 90. 

To snorkel up exhaust have a 90 right off the piece that comes through the house pointing up. Then one more 90 at the top of the extension and your good to go. 

Exhaust wont ice up, or shouldnt. Dont extend intake though. 

 

Any issues just pm me ! 

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RatherBeFishin

Best practice is to put an accelerator on the exhaust and just 45 the intak downwards. . Then your clearence is closer and u have less exposed pipe. But. In order to get proper clearences when installing furnaces the intake is just terminated right away with a 90 or 45 once it exits house and the exhaust is snorkeled up and then pointed outwards with a 90 on the end. Extending an intake is not the way

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RatherBeFishin

Your exhaust should have a 1/4” per foot slope back to the furnace. Thus the condensate that is produced should run back to your secondary heat exchanger. Intake does not have to be sloped back to furnace so condensate will just lay in there and could cause ice up and blockage. 

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RatherBeFishin

Make sure also. If u snorkel up your exhaust it isnt to close to a window that opens. Its 1ft for under 90,000 btu for natural gas. Cant remeber propane. But can check if needed. 3ft for over 90,000

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Some Old Guy

 

The exhaust is on the top and the intake at the bottom. They are only 3 inches apart. So this is what I did: I extended my intake off the 90 about 24 inches then added another 90 pointing down. The intake is pointing to the left. I had to separate the two farther apart. 

 

Roger


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RatherBeFishin

we always terminate exhaust and intake about 5” horizontally apart, then snorkel exhaust . In that instance i would leave the intake and snorkel up exhaust. I mean the way u did it sounds like it will be fine and get u by. But to be proper exhaust is the only one to be extended on the outside of the building. 

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RatherBeFishin

its best to have an accelerator on the exhaust. To minimize pipe outside. But. Many of installations exhaust is snorkeled for clearence. And is fine. This stuff was designed in southern ontario or somewhere warmer. They dont realise the temps we get. So sometimes stuff like this happens. But not often ! 

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Some Old Guy

It only happens when we get these cold snaps. It's been happening to me for 17 years when I had this house built!

 

Ill take the extension off once it warms up to the balmy -20 degrees!

 

Roger


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RatherBeFishin

Bahaha ! 

For sure ! Wont hurt for time being ! 

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Bubba John

Wow. I wish I would have read this 3 days ago. My furnace went out and cost me 250 plus tax for the exact same thing you guys are describing. Well at least I know how to fix it now.

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