Is it Wise Buy Furnace and Other Parts in Case Pandemic Cuts Supply Chains?

[NateW]

I'm concerned that if the pandemic gets worse (and all signs seem to indicate it will), critical replacement parts for home systems and cars will be unobtainable.

I perform all maintenance and repairs on everything in our house and cars and am seriously considering purchasing replacement parts for some of the home systems and cars to keep them up and running.

For the furnace (it's 8 years old) I am considering stocking a replacement blower motor, draft inducer, main control board, electric gas valve, all sensors, igniter, a couple of switches and a few gaskets. Cost is approximately $1400 for these parts. In researching prices, I discovered the blower motor superceded to a new part number twice and takes 3+ weeks to get (special order). This is the part I am most concerned about because we run the fan continuously to cut down on house dust (and use a 5 inch thick MERV 11 furnace filter).

Also, the water heater could fail any day (8 years old, 6 year warranty and water softener in use, anode rod never replaced). I could buy a replacement water heater at the big box store and keep it in our basement, along with an assortment of cpvc pipe and fittings (I've replaced water heaters before).

For the car, I'd replace the 6 year old battery and get a few filters and oil.

The downside to buying these parts is the majority of them may not be used (I am confident we would use the replacement water heater at some point).

If you were able to replace these parts yourself and had ample funds to purchase them now, would you, knowing you may not need them?

Also, any other items or parts you would keep on hand?

Any input appreciated; thanks.

 

[SecondCor521]

I would not do so.

I do not have small children at home any more. So if the furnace went out, I'd dig out the sleeping bags and make hot chocolate in the microwave and hot food in the oven. My water heater is one of the newer inline types and it basically doesn't fail. If my car failed, I'd either not go anywhere or walk until I could get it repaired.

While I do some DIY, other stuff I leave to the experts. In either case, my strategy is to let places like rockauto.com, Lowe's, and the local HVAC stores maintain spare parts rather than keep them on hand myself.

So to me the cost of having parts on hand in advance is high, the risk is low, and the consequences are low. If you view those differently, you could come to a different conclusion.

All that being said, if I were in your shoes and had more dependency on my car or water heater and/or had little kids or a spouse relying on me or those systems working, I'd probably replace the anode rod in the water heater and the car battery now. These seem like cheap and easy things to do that would lower your risks preemptively.

 

[retire-early]

Now you are making me nervous.

My water heater is at least 9 years old.

We do have two older cars so if one goes bad, hopefully the other one is still useable.

 

[Car-Guy]

Whatever you get for backups might/may be used at some point, but you can almost bet, that something else will break that you don't have a backup for.... Stuff happens.

Now with that said I was panning on having my central air replaced this winter because it's 12+ years old and I hope I can get a deal while the AC people aren't so busy... (not because of the CV.) It still works well but it's getting up there .. Sort of like me

I would think (hope) that most companies have worked through their supply chains issues and should be better prepared now than they were 9 months ago... Plus we have one or more vaccines about to be released so hopefully the light at the end of this tunnel that I'm seeing isn't an oncoming train....

 

[OldShooter]

... I am considering stocking a replacement blower motor, draft inducer, main control board, electric gas valve, all sensors, igniter, a couple of switches and a few gaskets. Cost is approximately $1400 for these parts. ...

I wouldn't be doing this but if I were looking at that much $$, I'd price a new furnace and at least get everything.

I am not for building a huge parts stock. First, Murphy pretty much guarantees I'd have the wrong stuff anyway. Second, I don't have the storage space.

I did, however, have the furnace's induced draft blower replaced in August. It was working fine but one of the bearings had developed the death whine. I didn't want that to turn into a winter emergency.

 

[NateW]

Thanks for replying. I do agree I'd rather have businesses be my parts warehouse.

No kids at home and we do have a natural gas direct vent fireplace (I may want to replace the ignitor and thermocouple, as they are quite rusty). The fireplace would enable us to get by and prevent pipes from freezing.

I guess if it gets bad to the point the supply chain stops, mechanical parts will be a lesser concern. Food and medical supplies and care will preempt that.

 

[powerplay]

I don't think I'd stock repair or replacement parts. I would suggest keeping an adequate supply of furnace filters, maybe a year or so.

 

[NateW]

I wouldn't be doing this but if I were looking at that much $$, I'd price a new furnace and at least get everything....

I actually considered buying a new furnace complete, shipped, same make and effeiciency) as a parts source. Cost is not a whole lot more than the parts I priced out. My only concern is many of the parts are not interchangeable and I would be challenged to install the furnace, mainly due to sheetmetal fabrication.

 

[Car-Guy]

This thread reminds me of the days, not so long ago, when I was heavy into restoring old cars. I'd occasionally buy a donor car for parts on major rebuilds... Basically using the parts from one old car to restore the other exact same year/model car... It actually was worth in the end, but I was always needing more parts... Sometimes the replacement part was already bad/broken and sometimes it would get broken "all by itself" while I was "fixing it" So I was off looking for "another" replacement part... Those were days...

 

[CRLLS]

I do a lot of my own service on cars and most everything else. I am not planning on stocking up parts that I may not need. That being said, I just replaced my last Automatic Air Vent on my HW heating unit last month. My unit requires one vent for each of 2 zones. These usually last a few years before starting to leak a bit. I just ordered 2 pcs just to have on hand. I keep a universal thermocouples on hand for the occasional late night problem that occurs every 5-10 years. I also keep a taco zone valve head. That is all I keep on hand as spares. My heating system is 33 years old.

I really do not expect any significant shortages. My biggest concern is power outages. This year I purchased a gasoline generator that can power the heating system, refrigerator and a few electrical things. All I need is gasoline.

 

[Bigdawg]

I

For the car, I'd replace the 6 year old battery and get a few filters and oil.

Rarely ever had a car/truck battery last much more than 5 years. I would be proactive and replace the battery COVID or no COVID.

 

[RetMD21]

I actually considered buying a new furnace complete, shipped, same make and effeiciency) as a parts source. Cost is not a whole lot more than the parts I priced out. My only concern is many of the parts are not interchangeable and I would be challenged to install the furnace, mainly due to sheetmetal fabrication.

Buy two, install the first (with sheet metal help) keep the second as a backup. I considered doing this with garage door openers. In the case of the GDO, they are cheap and replacing just the motor/control part would have me some effort.

 

[pb4uski]

I wouldn't... it likely that some of the parts you order will not fail before you replace the furnace and will be wasted money.. and conversely, some part will fail that you didn't think would.

I think you would be better off to order the parts if and when you need them and if necessary pay for expedited shipping and delivery.

 

[Aerides]

I wouldn't. The odds are you won't have a need for the parts, and if things do get really dire, someone else actually would, but now can't.

 

[Sunset]

Here I am thinking about testing my furnace igniter resistance to see if I should spend $25 buying a spare, and OP brings up buying all this stuff.

I discovered something last year, when I had the furnace cleaned for $69. It was the first time in over 15 yrs to have this cleaned. The company guaranteed my furnace for the next 6 months after the cleaning, they would come and fix it if it stopped working for free.

At the time, the fellow did pull and check the ignitor as I wondered if it was "good", since it's original, and he said they could replace it for $250, I declined.

I could see OP keeping an spare igniter for the furnace as those do go out commonly.

 

[davismills]

My DW would never allow me to stock a bunch of parts for various systems as she's a minimalist and is constantly trying to pilfer my garage artifacts. I do keep capacitors for the system as these are most prone to failure.

If the heat goes out, we'd have to vamoose to the "Bat Cave" ... our motorhome, until said parts arrive.

 

[Nick12]

We have a Generac generator that can power the whole house. It is the best 12K we ever spent. When we lost power for a week we were good to go. We even ran a electrical cord to our neighbor house so they could power their light and fridge since they did not even had a small generator.

 

[Sunset]

This morning over breakfast, I was thinking about OP's post.

I feel OP is too pessimistic about the life of the house components, while there are no guarantee's , my water heater went for well over 12 yrs, possibly 15 yrs.

My furnance motor, I replaced it at 10 yrs only because water was dripping on it from the A/C pan and ruined it. My replacement motor has run 10 yrs now.

My furnace ignitor is still working at 20 yrs, but that part is so old I'm really thinking of replacing it now (to be sure the new one works) or at least get a new one.

Our fridge is 20 yrs old.

Two years ago, this old guy I know talked to me about replacing his furnace and A/C as they were old. I talked him out of it, and they are still working fine.

 

[grasshopper]

I ordered a cord of wood 2 months ago, I have been next on the list all this time. If I wasn't so lazy I would take my chainsaw out to a couple of downed oaks on the ponderosa. I call them the reserve stock.

 

[gauss]

Can you return the parts if you don't use them (ie. unopened and uninstalled) - say within a year? The place that I have been using for the last few years allows this.

-gauss

 

[Sunset]

I'm concerned that if the pandemic gets worse (and all signs seem to indicate it will), critical replacement parts for home systems and cars will be unobtainable.

....

If cars and therefore trucks no longer have parts, then the food supply is going to stop. If cars don't have parts the planes don't and neither do the trains and buses.

At this point society would collapse, so worrying about your furnace would be the least problem you and everyone else will have.

You would be far better off to store up on 2 yrs worth of food and guns & ammo.

 

[RetMD21]

You would be far better off to store up on 2 yrs worth of food and guns & ammo.

How much ammo is 2 years worth under those circumstances?

 

[brett]

I would not bother.

But having said this our fridge gave up the ghost last month. We found the product that we wanted was hard to come by. Took us some digging to find immediate availability and delivery. Issue was parts...manufacturers could not get the parts to finish WIP. We have subsequently heard that it is the same for freezers and a few other appliances.

 

[NateW]

I do a lot of my own service on cars and most everything else. I am not planning on stocking up parts that I may not need. That being said, I just replaced my last Automatic Air Vent on my HW heating unit last month. My unit requires one vent for each of 2 zones. These usually last a few years before starting to leak a bit. I just ordered 2 pcs just to have on hand. I keep a universal thermocouples on hand for the occasional late night problem that occurs every 5-10 years. I also keep a taco zone valve head. That is all I keep on hand as spares. My heating system is 33 years old.

I really do not expect any significant shortages. My biggest concern is power outages. This year I purchased a gasoline generator that can power the heating system, refrigerator and a few electrical things. All I need is gasoline.

Thank you for your input CRLLS. I probably will shorten my list of parts. Perhaps a spare igniter, pressure switch and fan motor. I suspect I would need the fan motor at some point. I've been running it continuously to cut down on dust.

I agree that power failures are a concern. I have a Honda EU2000 generator, which will run the basics. Theoretically, it could run the house furnace during an extended power outage. The furnace with air handler is on a 15 amp circuit. I'm not suggesting anyone try this, but to do this all one would have to do is turn the furnace circuit breaker off, cut the romex (power cable) to the furnace near the furnace and install a "2 gang" electrical box right where the romex is cut and have both cut ends terminate inside the box, using strain reliefs to secure them. Then you could cut the female end off a heavy duty extension cord and install its end in the electrical box with a strain relief and wire nut the hot, return, and ground wires on the extension cord to the like conductors on the romex leading to the furnace. Plug extension cord to generator output. After the power outage, simply remove the extension cord and splice/wire nut the two romex conductors together inside the electrical box and turn on the furnace breaker.

 

[NateW]

I wouldn't. The odds are you won't have a need for the parts, and if things do get really dire, someone else actually would, but now can't.

Very good point Aerides, thanks.