A 60K BTU furnace for a 700 sq. foot area is very oversized. How big is your main floor? The 80K furnace is probably big enough to heat the whole house.

The noise you are hearing is most likely coming from the duct work. You could spend money making the ducts larger, but you will still have two oversized furnaces. What were the sizes of the old furnaces?

Is the plumber willing to eat the cost of the furnaces and replace them with 2-stage models? Is he going to calculate the sizes you need? Does he know how to install 2-stage thermostats?

I am sorry to say this, but it sounds like you have a hired a contractor who has no clue what he is doing. Any chance you can have the equipment removed and get a refund? If you can then I suggest you start over with a experienced HVAC contractor.

Hi Mike,

Thank you for your reply. This is what I am afraid of. It never felt right to begin with and now its a mess.

My main floor is only a 1000 square feet. I don't know what size the old furnaces were.

This plumbing company has A plus rating with the BBB and in business since 1972, so I thought I had picked a good contractor. But his plumber is young and you are right, I don't think he knows what he is doing. I have talked to the owner and he offered to change out my single stage furnace into a two stage furnace - with me paying the difference for the costs of the furnace. He was just here yesterday and said he took a heat/loss calculation, but I don't know what those are right now.

But at this point, I don't know if I can trust them to do it right. Thinking I should complain to the BBB and see if that will get their attention.

With the weather starting to turn cold, I need to get something done soon. The other part that angers me is that most plumbing companies offered 10 parts and labour warranty but this place only offered one year on the labour.

I'm still waiting to hear from the owner, so we'll see what he says. I will give him till Wednesday and if not I will file a complaint with the BBB and starting posting to Google, Yelp and any place else to warn others of this company.

What is your location?

If he installs the 2-stage furnaces of the same size, the noise will be less when it operates on the low stage. The furnaces will operate in the low stage most of the time. The only exception would be when you are recovering from a temperature set back. In my opinion this is an expensive way to help minimize a problem the contractor solved.

The first floor furnace should have no more than 60K BTUs or possibly even smaller. The second floor should be a 40K BTU which is the smallest size you will find.

Ask to see the heating load calculation. I suspect he will fudge the numbers so it will match your oversized furnaces. If the load calculations come in much smaller than the sizes you have then you should ask for an installation of the smaller sizes. Unless you specifically asked for big furnaces then it is their responsibility in my opinion.

Anyone who would install 140K BTU of heating in a 1700 sq. foot house should be looking for a new line of work.

I still can't believe this so called plumber replaced two furnaces to solve a noise problem caused by a toilet.

Thanks again Mike.

I'm in Western Canada.

Exactly. I feel so stupid now because I should have paid a few other plumbers to diagnose the problem. The fog horn noise was making me so crazy, I honestly thought it was coming from a the furnace. Instead of a fixing the toilet, I end up shelling out more than 10 grand for two new furnaces that are louder than my old furnace.

The owner did offer to switch it out to a two stage. But I don't want them back inside the house until they agree to a 10 year parts and labor warranty. And possibly paying for the difference in furnaces given everything they have put me through.

I should tell you, we didn't even pass the gas inspection the first time. It took 3 appointments to get this guy back to fix those deficiencies. I'm a total glutton for punishment.

There is another plumbing company that has the 10 year parts and labour and a no lemon guarantee - 3 repairs in 3 years and they will give you a new furnace.

So far they have not shown me the load calculation but I can't even be confident they did it right.

I'm feeling very frustrated. I really should of known better because this plumber couldn't even find my house with GPS and he was parked right out in front at the time. I had to come outside and knock on his window.

I'm trying to hold it together. But do you think I should cut my losses with them? Or try to let them put in the two stage at this point?

Thanks for your input.

Why are you calling plumbers for HVAC issues? You should call HVAC companies.

"we didn't even pass the gas inspection the first time"

They could get this right either?

Get the load calculation. You may be able to use it as leverage in negotiating a fix.

As much as I like 2-stage furnaces, I think you should demand properly sized single stage furnaces at no cost to you. This assumes you are willing to trust they can install the new furnaces properly. So far they have demonstrated they cannot.

duplicate post

This post was edited by mike_home on Tue, Nov 4, 14 at 20:29

Nope, they didn't get the gas inspection right either.

Still no load calculation from the visit on Monday. I have emailed the owner again with all my concerns and still waiting to talk to him. He did call me today but I already left the house. I have documented, documented, in case I need to take this further.

Hvtech42, you are absolutely right. I deeply regret hiring this company. I feel stupid. Using this company has costs me time and money.

They did offer to take out the single stage and charge me the difference in units for a two stage furnace. But you were right, I do feel like asking them to take everything out and giving me my money back. But I don't know how successful I would be in that endeavour. I feel stuck. Trying to be civil while I get this addressed.