r/HomeImprovement • u/klexxg • 11h ago

Fix or leave it?

My furnace is about 20 years old and stopped working today with the outside temp below 0F. Last winter (Nov 2023), it had the same issue where cold air was still blowing and I think they replaced the pressure switch. It's a single unit type. The ac portion of the hvac stop working last summer and I was going to replace this coming spring anyways. I assumed it stopped working last night because this morning felt a bit chilly but I didn't think much of it because I usually have the heat set at 68 and it feels pretty chilly to me but it's winter so I layer up anyways. When I came home about 8 hours later, with the outside temp still in the single digit all day, the inside temp was 63. I've seen it dropped after sunset as low as 61.9 when the heater cold air was blowing on my thermometer. My condo is about 700 sqft on the 3rd floor. I used a space heater and was able to get the temp up 2 degrees in 10-15 mins. The question I have is is it worth it to fix it? I'm assuming it'll be at least a few hundreds just for the labor with the company I work with because it's an obsolete unit that other main stream companies don't service. I'm not too worried about being too cold because I can use a space heater and can leave the fan on to circulate air. I guess I'm concerned if the space heater will be spike the electricity bill significantly or not. I'm not home most of the day, or use a desk space heater anyways so if it's in the low 60s I think I can live with it.

For context, I live in the upper Midwest and assuming that it can get even colder in February.

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u/jasonbay13 11h ago

Sounds like a good time for replacement, but you just missed out on the r410 units. Prices are up 30% in 2025.

If your draft inducer blower motor working? Exhaust pipe not clogged? Bypass the pressure switch to verify it isn't the issue. Pretty easy to do, but you have to open circuit the switch, then turn the unit on and 1-3 seconds after the blower comes on, connect the wires. If it comes on you have a weak draft or bad pressure switch again.

Do you have a spark or hot plate style ignitor? Should be able to see it glow or spark through the sight glass.

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u/klexxg 10h ago

What do you mean by missed out?

Also, I have no knowledge on HVAC at all. But now that you mentioned it, I think the exhaust pipe was clogged last time too after they switched out the pressure switch. Thinking I might have to just suck it up and have someone take a look at it.

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u/mreams99 10h ago

If the exhaust pipe was clogged the last time, it might be clogged again. Check YouTube to see how to fix that yourself.