Natural Gas Furnace and Black Soot

[SagaLore]

Isn't natural gas supposed to be one of the cleanest fuels to burn?

Last few weeks I have noticed that the filters we put in the floor vents are getting dark, and our sharper image ionic filter was full of black soot. We didn't have this problem last year when we were on propane.

But, I don't want to jump to conclusions yet, because my wife was burning a large candle all day and forgot to put it out when she went to bed, so when I put it out I could see it blowing off a lot of black particles. So maybe this sudden soot problem came from that.

We're changing a vent filter to see if it gets darker, and we're calling a furnance technician tomorrow.

In the meantime, do we have much to worry about?

 

[T2T III]

You should replace your standard air intake vents at the wall level with vents that allow you to install filters. This eliminates the need to have a filter at the furnace level - and also prevents dust from entering your air intake vents. I did this installation/modification earlier this spring and it has cut down on the amount of dust that gets circulated around our house.

 

[Yzzim]

Your furnace could have puffed, that would definitely cause a soot problem.

Does your wife burn a lot of candles? Cheap ones? They will cause a soot problem as well.

You might want to look into getting your air ducts cleaned. If your furnace did infact puff, you're gonna want to get them cleaned because now you're breathing in all the soot.

Can you wipe the soot off with your finger easily? What happens if you take soap/water to it?

I work for a cleaning service and we see this problem quite a bit. LMK what you find out from the furnace technician, I could set you up with some cleaning products to get rid of that soot.

 

[Yzzim]

Originally posted by: Tiles2Tech
You should replace your standard air intake vents at the wall level with vents that allow you to install filters. This eliminates the need to have a filter at the furnace level - and also prevents dust from entering your air intake vents. I did this installation/modification earlier this spring and it has cut down on the amount of dust that gets circulated around our house.

I hope you got your air ducts cleaned before you took out your furnace filter. Otherwise you're still circulating the dust that's already in the cold air ducts.

 

[T2T III]

Originally posted by: Yzzim

Originally posted by: Tiles2Tech
You should replace your standard air intake vents at the wall level with vents that allow you to install filters. This eliminates the need to have a filter at the furnace level - and also prevents dust from entering your air intake vents. I did this installation/modification earlier this spring and it has cut down on the amount of dust that gets circulated around our house.

I hope you got your air ducts cleaned before you took out your furnace filter. Otherwise you're still circulating the dust that's already in the cold air ducts.

Actually, I'm still running a 2nd filter at the furnace level to assist with the filtering - until I get the ducts cleaned.

 

[db]

Do you have a CO2 monitor in the house?

BTW, I find it hard to believe that "having the air ducts cleaned" does anything more than remove money from your wallet. Unless the ducts become squeaky clean after a "duct cleaning", I think it's a ripoff service.

 

[cavemanmoron]

Originally posted by: db
Do you have a CO2 monitor in the house?

BTW, I find it hard to believe that "having the air ducts cleaned" does anything more than remove money from your wallet. Unless the ducts become squeaky clean after a "duct cleaning", I think it's a ripoff service.

Get a CO detector.

Carbon Monoxide kills people silently.

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: db
Do you have a CO2 monitor in the house?

Yes, it's registering 0 ppm fortunately.