Well this is actually what I dove into yesterday, and will continue to do today. My Big Maxx heater has been giving me fits for quite some time, and rather than getting an HVAC tech out here to work on it, I chose troubleshooting via you tube….
Talk about a rabbit hole…. After a week or two of studying, and watching countless videos. I slowly eliminated all the possibilities and ran into a brick wall…. I finally contacted a gas furnace tech hoping I could get him to come look at it. But after our conversation, and I explained in detail everything I had checked, he told me that i obviously had a crack in my heat exchanger, and it would need to be replaced.
Well the good news is…. That $200 heat exchanger was covered under warranty, and they sent one to me without even charging me for shipping.
The bad news is…. You have to pretty much tear the whole furnace apart to get this heat exchanger out.
So that’s where I’m at right now. I have the old heat exchanger out, and will begin reassembling it today…. But….. and there are always those butts in life….
There is a gasket I do not have that goes between the air circulation fan and the heat exchanger. The old gasket came apart when I took it off.
Now I need to find some gasket material that will seal this fan to the heat exchanger, and be able to hold up to 200 degree plus temps…. I haven’t a clue where to find it either….