Just had a home inspection go sideways over a furnace issue

I was looking at a 1970s bungalow in Mill Woods last week and the inspection flagged the furnace as a fire hazard. The heat exchanger had a crack you could see with a flashlight from three feet away. Seller wanted to just patch it but I walked from the deal. Anyone else run into sellers trying to hide big problems like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

nina1802mo ago

That's one of those things where "patching it" just means "let me sell you a ticking time bomb." A cracked heat exchanger isn't something you slap some tape on and call it a day. Funny how sellers always think a flashlight and some duct tape will fool the inspector. Good on you for walking away, that furnace was basically begging to turn into a carbon monoxide party. People get so creative when they want to hide expensive problems. Honestly, a new furnace is way cheaper than a hospital visit.

ryanprice2mo ago

Begging to turn into a carbon monoxide party" is a bit dramatic don't you think? Plenty of those old furnaces run for years with a tiny crack and never cause any issues at all, you're acting like every single one is a death trap waiting to happen.

nora5351mo ago

My buddy's a firefighter and he told me they get calls for CO poisoning way more than people think, especially this time of year when everyone's firing up their heaters for the first time. He said one house they went to had a crack so small you could barely see it with the naked eye, but it was leaking enough to make the whole family sick. The thing about those old furnaces is that metal gets stressed over decades, not just one season, so a tiny crack today can be a big one tomorrow. I read somewhere that like 400 people die a year in the US from CO from home stuff, and a lot of it is from these aging furnaces nobody wants to replace. People act like it's a scam until they're the one getting woke up dizzy with a headache that won't quit.