Benjamin FS 140 wood/oil furnace

[TWP36]

I have a Benjamin FS 140 wood/oil combination furnace that is 5 years old and it has a burned out heat exchanger. I have actually only used the wood burning feature for 4 winters with a total of 16 cords of dry hardwood burned in it. For now I will not get into the details of the customer service I have received so far but I would really like to hear from anyone that has had similar problems with Benjamin furnaces.

I will be following up this discussion at a later date once the Manufacturer and Dealer have had time to think about what their responsibility is.

 

[webbie]

Maybe they had a bad batch of the aluminized or other steel used for that run....I bought some of their products decades ago and they didn't fall apart. They've sold stuff for a long time, so I doubt they all fall apart like that.

There are, of course, a lot of factors involved - humidity and dew point in the basement/chimney, cleaning, etc. but these are present in most cases. Sound to me like they should cheerfully replace the heat exchanger.

 

[TWP36]

You would think they would show some customer appreciation wouldn't you. They did offer to sell me a new heat exchanger assembly for $1900 plus tax and $100 shipping. I declined. More later.

 

[webbie]

You are correct that there should not be any smell in most cases.

are your feeds and returns very well sealed? If they can get air from the basement, this can make smells migrate.

Also, have you carefully checked your chimney draft? A chimney with not enough pull could contribute to this also. Make sure plenty of combustion air is allowed into the basement.

 

[maple1]

If I turn on the oil I smell oil, if I make fire, I smell smoke/creosote. In my opinion, there should never be a smell escaping the heat exchangers

Most definitely. But I'm not sure what you can do from here, aside from upping your complaining to the installer and dealer who sold it to you? BBB maybe? Lawyer?

 

[webbie]

Make certain you have a good CO detector! Many of them have digital readouts, so you can definitely test for the presence of CO, which likely would be present if your HE was leaking....

This thing is very cool and cost less than the combustible gas detectors we used to use for gas work....
http://sensorcon.com/sensordrone/

Looks like some of the older style are getting more reasonable too.
http://www.valuetesters.com/uei-cd100a-combustible-gas-detector.html

Point is...some of these things can prove what you say. Just saying you smell something may not be enough for a court, etc.