Deadly Furnaces

There is nothing that irritates and outrages me more than companies who put the bottom line before the safety of their customers. A lawsuit against a furnace manufacturer has just come to my attention. The company that manufacturers Carrier, Bryant, Day and Night, and Payne furnaces is being sued by Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann, and Bernstein. The class action suit alleges misconduct by Carrier Corporation. Beginning in the mid 1980's it is alleged that Carrier began manufacturing its high-end furnaces with inferior materials on their secondary heat exchangers. The inferior material is a polypropylene-laminated mild steel, instead of the industry standard of stainless steel. It is alleged in the suit that the polypropylene separates from the mild steel which then exposes the steel to acidic condensation. In some cases the heat exchanger is corroded to the point of perforation. In the United States the Carrier heat exchangers have a lifetime warranty for the original owner and a twenty year warranty for any subsequent owners. However these parts are failing prematurely well before the warranty. So how deadly is your furnace? Could your furnace have a defective part that is like a ticking time bomb? I asked an eleven year veteran of the heating industry just how worried we should be. Here are his responses to my inquiry.

How worried should I be if I have a Carrier, Bryant, Day and Night or Payne furnace that was installed after the mid-1980's?
If my family was living with one of these furnaces I would be extremely angry. Knowing what a broken heat exchanger can do, I would call for emergency service immediately. I wouldn't wait and have my family at risk.

What can happen when a heat exchanger corrodes?
A broken heat exchanger can have deadly consequences depending on how bad the exchanger has corroded. As a heat exchanger corrodes it could leak carbon monoxide into the house, making the residents ill or if the leak is large enough even death.

So if I have a Carrier, Bryant, Day and Night or Payne furnace can I check my heat exchanger myself for visual conformation?
No, a heat exchanger is inside the furnace. I recommend calling the company that installed the furnace, there should be a sticker on the side of the furnace that indicates which company installed the furnace. Since a broken heat exchanger can have deadly consequences I do not recommend procrastinating, call today, call right now, it is that important.

Will I be charged for the service call?
The company that I work for was told by Carrier to charge the customer for labor in exchanging out the defective part. (Here is where he sighed and hesitated.)

What is the problem, you seem to want to add to that statement?
Well yes, I am disturbed that the customer has to pay to replace a defective part, but more importantly I am disturbed that we will be putting the same exact inferior materials back into the furnace.

So you are telling me that even though there is currently a lawsuit against the Carrier company that they are still installing the same defective part!?
Yes, unfortunately those heat exchangers that we have found to be corrosive are being replaced with the same polypropylene-laminated mild steel heat exchangers.

Why as a respected company would you install furnaces that have inferior materials?
The Carrier furnaces that this company has installed were all requested by the customers. We do not normally install Carrier furnaces, however we or at least I was not aware that Carrier was using polypropylene-laminated mild steel instead of stainless steel. As a service technician for over seven years I do not recommend Carrier to my customers just based on the service records of those I have repaired.

Thank you for your time and honesty. Is there anything else you would like the readers to know?
No I can't think of anything else, but I do want to stress that they should not wait. Please stress that in your article, it may be a matter of life and death for somebody. Also could you not mention me by name, I am not sure if my boss would be happy with my responses and I do not want to be dragged into any controversy or lawsuit. I just think people should know so that the exchangers can be replaced.

Any use of trademarks was specifically for product identification. I am not affiliated with Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann, and Bernstein or with Carrier Corporation or United Technologies.

For the Wisconsin lawsuit:
Lester A. Pines
Cullen Weston Pines and Bach LLP
122 West Washington Avenue, Suite 900
Madison, Wisconsin 53703
608-251-0101

For Ontario lawsuit:
Joel P. Rochen
Rochen Genova LLP
121 Richmond Street West, Suite 900
Toronto, Ontario M5H 2k1
416-363-1867

All other inquiries:
Lieff Cabraser Heimann and Bernstein LLP
275 Battery Street, 28th Floor
San Francisco, California 94577
415-956-1000