I called Mr Furnace based on great no of ads when our Furnace stopped heating our house. Phone respondent extremely/excessively friendly and advised yellow Mr Furnace truck would arrive at Noon. Punctually, which did happen. The youngish "Repairman" very neat well spoken and seemingly knowledgeable & competent. Put on shoe covers to avoid tracking dirt into our house. I led him down to furnace room.
Repairman accessed Furnace interior and performed a few - in his words - disconnect, by-pass and retest start circuits and valve and gave me the bad news! The `Pump Control module (Smart Valve) had failed, needed to be replaced and was a quite-expensive-prone-to-failure component which would cost $690.00 plus 13% Tax to correct since it was considered a major Category problem.
He recommended, I consider completely replacing the Gaz furnace and helped arrange an appointment with a `Technical Advisor `who would lead us through a 90 Minute assessment process and facilitate our repair-or-replace decision. I paid the $110.00 app Service call fee on the understanding that it would be rembursed if I used `Mr Furnace for the replacement. He was confident that Mr Furnace would promply restore both heat and safety for our home
After a lot of Second Thought, decided to get a 2nd opinion and arranged to have the Problem looked at by an unknown to me alternate technician `Pat` on the recommendation of a different local heating firm that had installed a Heat exchanger a couple of years ago. Pat agreed to come at 5 PM after his scheduled calls, the same day since the outside Temp was cooling down uncomfortably.
Pat, opined that failure to light was not always caused by the `Smart Valve` and proceeded to look at a couple of different areas. After trying a few procedures he found that the tiny aperture in the `Pilot Light Gas supply Conduit` had become plugged rendering the light-up mechanism inoperative. He ` blew into the pipe`as if it was a drinking straw, felt it come clear and expressed the hope that this simple procedure might have cleared up the furnace problem.
After re-installing the pilot light pipe and reconnecting various connecions, he attempted to restart the Furnace and. After 35-45 seconds SUCCEEDED, after this simple fix! He then repeated the start-up process several times under different Thermostat settings and the furnace started up EVERY time.
I arranged to have Pat return to perform a thorough and more complete two days later. After a complete diagnosis, he discovered that the `Heat Echanger`was leaking combustion fumes into our home and while the vented Carbon Monoxide was still within the safe range this critical part should be replaced ASAP. He agreed to install a new replacement unit provided on the Mfgr`s Warranty at an agreed on installation fee as tis is not covered by the Warranty.
The total cost of the 1st and 2nd Housecall, and the Labor cost to install a new Heat Exchanger (A much more critical part than the `Smart Valve`) will still be some $200-300 than the cost of Mr Furnace would have charged for the wrong replacement and a likely $3-4,000 cost that would have been entailed if I had continued with the recommended replacement of the Furnace itself
I am thankfull that I followed my gut feelings and decided to invest an extra $100 dollars for a 2nd Opinion, rather than believe and follow `Mr Furnace`s expert advice and upsell con job. Paying a few hundred dollars for the apparently wrong & unnecessary repairs are the least of my experience `with `Mr Furnac`. But the possibility of having left a terribly hazardous condition undetected and uncorrected is, in my layman`s opinion, unforgiveable.
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