House moving time. Saw one yesterday with warm air heating. What do we need to know/avoid?

Warms the house up quicker than rads but also looses the heat quicker as it’s the air that is hot not radiant heat. You will most likely have big void space with air ducts in that reduce the size of room, storage space etc.

Last I saw the boiler/fan was huge, they may have moved on since then though.

Its the norm in the US.

Avoid like the plague, unless you have the money to replace it with a wet system.

I had it in my flat and not only is it remarkably inefficient, it also creates a poor environment.

Also, and this depends on its age, but they aren’t installed much any more so it could be that the main unit is on its way out and they are very difficult to find parts for; or at least mine was. Mine also contained asbestos.

Wondering is there might be asbestos hidden within or whether or not it’s hard to find a service engineer in the UK with it being a bit oddball.

Is it noisy when the fan is going full bore?

We had one in our last house and loved it. Heats the rooms up fast. The heater failed a couple of years after we moved in and we bought a new rreplacement. The heater unit was very quiet and there was a separate water heater in it. Clean the filter occasionally as it attracts a lot of dust (but there is therefore less elsewhere). No asbestos anywhere in the house / system.

Mine was very noisy.

Depending how old it is and make (most are Johnson & Starley) then you should be okay for spares. Just make sure you look for someone with warm air gas tickets when it comes to fixing it. New units are quite expensive, supplied one last year with a HW kit and flue it came out to around £1700 +vat.

As mentioned above, it’s the norm in N America, having the benefit that you can run both heating and cooling through the same ducts, and from one thermostat.

I haven’t previously been a huge fan of it – it really dries things out in the house, and I figured it was pretty inefficient.
I’ve gone back to a house with radiators, and there are advantages, but I think my next place will have forced air heating instead.

Bloody awful.
Air as dry as anything.
And always stinks when it comes on.
Rads all the way.

Had a mate who lived in a flat with it fitted, noisy when the bearings strted going on the fans, huge box in cupboard to heat the air, and steel vents above each door and vents in wall at low level.And even if you didnt use it you could still hear the neighbours system next door , upstairsand below working, like a demented hamster in a wheel.

also worked in a bungalow which had the system de activated and a water system being installed, i had the job of ripping out the huge trunking that went under the floor and then appeared in the room as floor or wall vents, probvided a good space to fit a hiden safe and deposit area for valuable stuff.

Finally with the flor vents stuff can be dropped doewn the slots by small kids, and also if a vent cover is left off , then rodents can crawl in and die with the resultant pong.

But then the above was 10 to 15 years ago and never heard of systems being installed nowadays, because basicly it was crap expensive and needed to be built into the house not retro fitted like water, underfloor , storage etc.

I have recently ripped my warm air out and replaced with a wet system. I did like warm air, it was quick to warm up, great for drying clothes in the winter, but ours didn’t heat the bathroom and only one of the 3 bedrooms. Also a bit noisy as the fan was in the lounge and heating was very erratic, either hot as the fan kicked out heat then cold till you waited for it to come back on. Sorry to see it go but the new wet system makes the house so much more comfortable..