Review: Fahrenheit Technologies Endurance 50F
Reviewed January 08, 2009 by
serviceman
Overall Performance:
Efficiency:
Ease of Use:
Fahrenheit Technologies Endurance 50F
I worked as a service technician with many manufacture's and am just giving my perspective. This is a very high maintenance unit. It is pushed as low maintenance however because the burn pot empties itself out. But the maintenance required is extensive, for example every two months you need to remove the exhaust blower assembly to clean it and the way it is designed does not make it easy to do this. Have the sales person go over the weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, and annual cleaning with you showing you in the owners manual where the information is located. Also have the dealer demonstrate how to remove the burn pot assembly for cleaning because it can be difficult.
There have also been many problems with the units installed in this area because the dealer installing them is going against the manufacture's installation requirements. You MUST use 4" venting and you MUST use outside combustion air. This particular dealer has been installing with 3" venting and no outside combustion air which can cause overfeeding and other serious problems. If you have the model that has the built in ignitor read pages 7 and 9 of your owners manual and you will see where venting size is specifies and outside combustion air is specified. If you have the older model with no ignitor your manual is a little different, read page 6 and you will see 4" pipe is required if more than 15ft of venting is used. There is a formula for calculating venting, every 90 degree elbow and every tee is equal to 5ft, every 45 degree elbow is equal to 3ft, 1ft of vertical length is equal to 0.5ft, and 1ft horizontal is equal to 1ft of pipe. Outside combustion air is required on both the original model and the newer one. I advise everyone who owns this model to make sure it was installed correctly.
The ownly other issue I have seen is when it is used as an add-on furnace it may have a difficult time heating because the duct work on the main furnace is oversized for tge 800cfm blower on this unit. Make sure the ductwork is inspected by the dealer and have them sign off on it. Also, make sure to have a back draft damper installed on your main furnace as well as on the Fahrenheit.
Over all this unit can be a great unit if it is installed correctly and the ductwork is sized correctly, just keep in mind the high maintenance level, or rather the difficulty of the maintenance required when purchasing. Hope this insight was helpful.