Kenneth in Toronto

This was a free annual furnace maintenance call placed by Direct Energy themselves. The technician did a lot of measurements on the equipment and outside at the exhaust duct. Then he asked me whether we had problem with our furnace. I replied that we hardly had any problem with it. Then he shut down the furnace and started telling me that there are a lot of these furnace around this area and they all have similar problems of cracked heat exchange. Without clarifying if our furnace is having a problem of leaking CO or according to his measurement, he started removing different parts from the furnace (see attached photo). At the end he pointed to a certain part inside the furnace to me and told me that there was a cracked in the heat exchanger and telling me that could be a very serious problem because there was CO gas leaking out from it. So he provided us the following solution: 1. Replaced the heat exchanger. 2. Get a new furnace. He said that the parts, i.e. the heat exchanger is free, but the labor will cost us $1000, and for a new furnace that could cost from $4000 upwards. I would like to ask Direct Energy: Why didn't their technician inform us of the high CO level if it was so dangerous after he took the readings? We had CO detector installed in our house. I asked him why is it that the CO detector failed to detect such a high level. He did not replied. He just continued performing his work around the equipment. Why didn't he ask us, the customer, if he should take the furnace apart and would not be able to put it back as it was? The photo shown was the state of my furnace when he left. I wish that the skillfully technician was doing his duty ethically. And every customer would start asking questions on these technicians while they were servicing your equipment at home. I wish that the skillfully technician was doing his duty ethically. And every customer would start asking questions on these technicians while they were servicing your equipment at home.