A technician kneeling at a KeepRite gas furnace in a garage, opening the sheet metal transition below it

A new furnace can
still feel weak.

Where the furnace meets your ducts, one piece of metal either helps the air on its way or makes it fight. Most installs bolt on a stock box. We shape that piece to your furnace.

How the shape of one piece of ductwork changes the airflow Two cutaway views of the same furnace outlet meeting the same duct, with air flowing from left to right. In the upper one the outlet opens straight into a stock box, so the air cannot follow the sudden step: it carries on as a narrow jet through the middle and stalls in the corners above and below, turning over on itself instead of moving forward. The blower has to push against 0.90 inches water column. In the lower one the outlet is joined to the duct by a piece shaped to fit, so the air spreads gradually and fills the whole duct, and the blower pushes against only 0.45 inches water column — half the resistance for the same air. STOCK BOX air stalls in these corners 0.90" SHAPED TO FIT 0.45" HOW HARD THE BLOWER WORKS

Same furnace, same ductwork, measured both ways: the stock box makes the blower push against twice the resistance. You hear that as noise, and feel it as the room at the end of the run never quite catching up.

Static pressure 0.90" w.c. against 0.45", same blower speed.

Why two stages.

An older furnace has one setting: full blast. It fires hard until the thermostat is satisfied, then stops. You feel that as a warm blast, then a slow chill, then another blast.

This one has two, and on an ordinary winter day it runs on the low one — which is most of the winter. Longer, gentler cycles that hold the temperature steady instead of swinging it, and keep air moving through the filter instead of letting it sit still. High stage is there for the cold snap, and most of the year you will not hear it.

The blower is the part that really varies. It has twenty-five speeds and eases up and down rather than slamming on and off, which is most of why a properly installed furnace is so much quieter than the one it replaced.

The catch is that none of it works if the ductwork will not let it. A furnace fighting a bad transition sits on high stage to compensate, and you have paid for a stage you will never feel. That is why the metalwork matters more than the badge on the front.

Clean copper, inside and out.

Heat copper in open air and the inside of the pipe grows a crust. Bits of it break off, travel along with the refrigerant and end up in the compressor — the one part that is expensive to replace. We push nitrogen through every joint as we braze it, so there is no air inside to burn.

What brazing in air leaves inside the pipe, and what nitrogen prevents Two cutaway lengths of copper refrigerant pipe at a brazed joint. In the upper one, brazed in open air, the inside wall is crusted with oxide scale and flakes of it are travelling along the bore towards the compressor. In the lower one, nitrogen flows through the pipe while the joint is heated, so no oxygen reaches the hot copper, no scale forms, and the bore stays clean. BRAZED IN AIR SCALE COMES OFF BRAZED WITH NITROGEN STAYS CLEAN

What we actually do for two days.

Most of a furnace changeout is not the furnace. Lifting the old one out and setting the new one down is a morning. What takes the rest is everything that decides whether it works properly for the next twenty years.

The supply and return transitions are formed to fit your plenum by a licensed sheet metal mechanic — 308A is its own trade and not one we hold — and we fit them, rather than forcing a stock box into place. Refrigerant joints are brazed under flowing nitrogen. The line set gets vacuumed down and held, to prove there is no leak before any refrigerant goes in. The gas line is sized and pressure-tested. The venting is run to code and checked. Then the whole thing is commissioned: static pressure measured, airflow set, the burner checked against the manufacturer’s numbers rather than eyeballed.

None of that shows in a photograph, which is exactly why it is the first thing dropped by anyone doing three installs a day.

The whole system,
from $13,782.

Plus HST, installed, with a matched air conditioner, the coil, the formed transitions, the thermostat and a ten-year parts and labour warranty. Five questions tell you which size your home needs and what that one costs.

Size my system See the full price list

Furnace specifications

Model
KeepRite G97VTN0601716A · G97VTN0802120A
Series
QuietComfort® 97
Heating input
60,000 or 80,000 BTU/h, chosen to your heat loss
Efficiency
Up to 97.0% AFUE
Heat stages
Two — low for most of the winter, high for a cold snap
Blower
Variable-speed ECM, twenty-five speeds
Certification
ENERGY STAR® certified
Manufacturer warranty
Ten years parts · lifetime heat exchanger · five-year no-hassle replacement. Registered within ninety days, by us.
Our warranty
Ten years labour
G97VTN product documentation PDF · keeprite.com
Call (519) 702-4725
(519) 702-4725