We have a ducane dmr-10a burner in our furnace - which we believe to be about 23 years old. In preventive maintenance, techs have not been able to find the correct electrodes and have 'modified' what they had to fit. They typically have either bounced around or have been fashioned with padding to keep them from doing so. This is due to the parts being unavailable and their best efforts to keep the system running.
Yesterday I was called down for this years cleaning and was shown our retention head which appears to be history. It is cracked in three places around the outer ring and all but two of the smaller tabs are separated.
We have been told to essentially not use it unless we have to and that failure is imminent. We have also been told that getting the part may be impossible and that once the retention head completely fails, the furnace will be unusable. My understanding is that these parts have not been made after 1999.
So, two questions: Is there any resource for this part? And if it is gone, is there any burner unit which could replace the Ducane that would fit into our furnace? We are really not interested in spending 5k to 10k to replace the entire unit. We are in a home which may be gone in 10 years due to local commercial construction.
Thanks very much in advance,
NHAnimator
A home's furnace uses a large barrel-like device called a blower motor that forces the warm air from the furnace to the rooms in a house. The motor itself turns a fan rapidly to move the air out. Download 59 Ducane Furnace PDF manuals. User manuals, Ducane Furnace Operating guides and Service manuals.