Terminology Tuesday (Tricks of the Trade) – Fixing and Replacing a Furnace

(Note: I think it’s important to know the terminology and words used when learning any new business including mobile home investing. I came up with ‘Terminology Tuesday’ as a way to go over the terminology used in the mobile home business. It’s important to know the terminology when talking to people in the business so you’re all on the same page).

**** Tricks of the Trade is a new series I have started that will be included with “Terminology Tuesday” posts. The goal of this series is to share with you the “tricks of the trade” I have learned in the mobile home business.

When buying used mobile homes, there will be times where some of the major systems may need to be repaired and/or replaced. In my experience, the HVAC is one of the major systems that will need to be monitored on a regular basis.

(Note: This is why it’s so important to have a good team so you know who to call when things go wrong!)

In any case, I had a furnace in a home that just kept blowing the fuses out. I had my HVAC guy come in to assess the problem. And, guess what? We found out the evaporator coil was the cause of the problem — it had been leaking fluid into the electrical system causing the fuses to go out. This was definitely not a good situation at all!

So we had to take apart the entire unit and here’s what we found:

Electrical area where fuses are located

Area where evaporator coil and drain pan located

(Note: Notice the rust stains, not a good sign!)

Removal of evaporator coil from unit

Overhead view of evaporator coil

(Note: More rust stains!)

Evaporator coil with holes where leaking occurred

(Note: Definitely not a good sign!)

After assessing the situation, the only thing we could do to stop the problem was unfortunately put in a brand new unit. Since the evaporator coil was leaking, the problem would continue to occur until it was replaced.

Unfortunately, finding a new evaporator coil to go with an older model system can be difficult as well as costly. Most evaporator coils can cost up to half or almost 3/4 of the price of a brand new unit! Not good.

Now, if the evaporator coil was not leaking and the problem was the drain pan just overflowing (rusted, etc.) and/or needing to be cleaned out — it would have been just a matter of fixing and/or cleaning the area. Unfortunately, this was not the case.

(Note: For those interested in seeing the details of a drain pan issue, feel free to check out this video below. Thanks for reading!)

Video Link

So, I ended up getting a new unit. Here it is:

New evaporator coil

(Note: Notice the black colored plastic drain pan. This prevents rusting. The older units used metal drain pans which caused rust stains to form more easily.)

Removal of old unit to make room for new unit

Old unit

New unit installed

Though it was a big expense, I know this is a cost of doing business. In my experience, this is the first time I’ve had to replace a furnace. The only other major system I’ve had to replace in the past has been the outside condenser unit. In most cases, these units have continued to work with enough care and maintenance.

I hope this “Terminology Tuesday” post has been helpful and has given you some useful information – it definitely has for me.

Happy investing!

p.s. Feel free to leave comments on any post either here and/or my Facebook Page. Comments are always welcome, thanks for reading!