Re: Plastic was sucked into the furnace return in Home Repair & Improvement http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r21492952 en Mon, 30 Nov 2009 08:15:28 EDT Mon, 30 Nov 2009 08:15:28 EDT Re: Plastic was sucked into the furnace return http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21494302 TheMG :
said by tp0d See Profile :

Its possible the plastic stopped over top the motor itself and the heat melted the plastic. If that is the case, the motor could be heat damaged ($$$)

Either way, definetly dont run that thing, theres not only the risk of breathing plastic fumes, but the blower could overheat and catch on fire, destroying the furnace, and possibly more.
All of the blower motors I've seen had built-in thermal protection that opens the circuit should the windings get too hot. Yeah, running it like that with the thermal protection tripping all the time certainly can't be good for the motor in the long run, but you'd be hard pressed to cause a motor to self destruct or even catch fire.

Think about it - if the motors didn't have thermal protection what would happen when the start/run capacitor fails (very common problem)?]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21494302 Thu, 27 Nov 2008 18:42:27 EDT Re: Plastic was sucked into the furnace return http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21493850 dolphins : Had a similar incident some years ago when mom bought some high efficiency filters. They were supposed to stop a higher percentage of allergens.

It did it's job so well that it stopped the airflow altogether and was sucked into the blower. I spent an hour or so pulling chicken wire and the rest of filter from the blower with needle nose pliers. After I left mom called PSE&G to give it the once over since she was covered under their maintenance plan. As it turns out no damage was done.
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Its possible the plastic stopped over top the motor itself and the heat melted the plastic. If that is the case, the motor could be heat damaged ($$$)

Either way, definetly dont run that thing, theres not only the risk of breathing plastic fumes, but the blower could overheat and catch on fire, destroying the furnace, and possibly more.

Expensive lesson methinks..

-j]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21492952 Thu, 27 Nov 2008 11:44:30 EDT Re: Plastic was sucked into the furnace return http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21491933 TODarling :
said by SandShark See Profile :

If you can access the blower compartment (with the unit off), see if you can see if the plastic is caught in the blower. It's hard for me to believe the plastic made it past the blower.
It depends on how is air handler is made. Mine goes thruogh the filter past the heating and cooling units and then the blower.
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]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21491933 Thu, 27 Nov 2008 05:10:01 EDT Re: Plastic was sucked into the furnace return http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21491609 SandShark : If you can access the blower compartment (with the unit off), see if you can see if the plastic is caught in the blower. It's hard for me to believe the plastic made it past the blower.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21491609 Thu, 27 Nov 2008 01:04:20 EDT Re: Plastic was sucked into the furnace return http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21491494 TheMG :
said by ohmy :

Happy Thanksgiving!
Not thanksgiving for us, but happy thanksgiving to you!]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21491494 Thu, 27 Nov 2008 00:26:37 EDT Re: Plastic was sucked into the furnace return http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21491487 anon : Thanks so much!

Happy Thanksgiving!]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21491487 Thu, 27 Nov 2008 00:25:21 EDT Re: Plastic was sucked into the furnace return http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21491483 TheMG : Yeah leave it off. The melting plastic will give off toxic fumes, you don't want to be breathing that!

Looks like the heat exchanger will have to be pulled out and melted plastic scraped off.

That's some really bad luck though. Most of the time plastic would just get caught up in the blower wheel and not make it into the exchanger, but if you're smelling plastic I'd say it did make it past the blower.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21491483 Thu, 27 Nov 2008 00:24:01 EDT Re: Plastic was sucked into the furnace return http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21491463 anon : It's 33 degress outside, but I take it we should leave the heat off until we can get someone to look at (or my husband tries to repair it), right?]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21491463 Thu, 27 Nov 2008 00:16:38 EDT Re: Plastic was sucked into the furnace return http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21491423 nightdesigns : I'm guessing a service call is in order. It has probably melted itself onto the heat transfer tubes. You might be able to do it yourself by popping the side of the unit of and scraping off any melted plastic.
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Even though it's pretty chilly outside, we turned off the heat for now because you could smell the plastic.

Any advice on this?? Do we need to put in a service call? Or will it be okay?]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,21491393 Wed, 26 Nov 2008 23:51:13 EDT