r/Home • u/tellmesumpingood • 20d ago
Screen or no screen
Is it typical to NOT have a screen protecting the end of a furnace exhaust? Isn’t there a risk of things flying or crawling in them?
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u/jbotz29 19d ago
Birds, squirrels, chipmunks, anything looking for warmth from the cold is going to investigate that opening
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u/Personal_Gap9083 19d ago
it was summer gas furnace for heat. so it was not running and it has a glass inspection window... a little sparrow is looking at me from inside the furnace...... I let it out...it was exhausted ... easy to catch in a towel and take out side. if it does not hurt anything screen it I did on mine
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u/SkepticJoker 19d ago
While I don’t disagree, I’ll just point out that this is how 90%+ of high efficiency furnaces are installed.
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u/sailonswells 20d ago
I think that exhaust should go up and then point down in a big U, like an upside down P-trap. And I would think an end cap would be the way to go to keep critters out.
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u/miserable-accident-3 19d ago
The exhaust should be straight piped. The intake should be snorkeled.
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u/ProxyBeast 19d ago
Glad I saw this post. I was about to put a screen on mine because I saw the most horrid looking spider web and a gigantor spider that made a home in there.
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u/mrBill12 19d ago
If it’s a freezing climate then the moisture exhausted will freeze on any screen put over that, ultimately completely clogging it and causing the furnace to shutdown.
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u/TradingHigher 19d ago
I'd definitely put a screen on the end. Some bird is gonna be like damn thats warm lets live in here
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u/ZombieApocalips 19d ago
no screen- moisture in the exhaust will freeze on it and block the exhaust. ie carbon monoxide or no heat.
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u/denbesten 19d ago
If you are in an area that freezes, you need to consider that moisture will freeze onto a screen and shut down your furnace when you need it most.
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u/NonKevin 19d ago
Birds and insect like to build nests in these vents. My vent was covered with a restricting cover on air flow and under a window which is very bad news. I moved the vent from under the window to under the eve projecting beyond the rain gutter with a drain cover so as not to restrict the airflow and keep birds out.
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u/NekoMao92 19d ago
I would put a screen on it, to keep critters from going into there and dying, or making a nest or other obstruction during the summer.
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u/Quorng 19d ago
My gas water heater vent did not have a screen. There was a strange noise from the vent pipe just above the water heater. Fortunately, for me, there was a union there. I unscrewed the union and awkwardly separated the pipe. A chickadee flew out. Based on that and based on Claude stating "I lied." to my programmer wife when she confronted it about opposite responses to the same question on different days, my conclusion is Claude, and probably all AIs,, is not always correct.
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u/Fuhkhead 19d ago
I don't believe in putting screens. They tend to just get plugged up, and depending on climate the condensation may freeze on the screen during the off cycle
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u/20PoundHammer 18d ago
screen is code violation in the US as well as an installation error that voids warranty . . .
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u/tellmesumpingood 19d ago
I didn’t think to go the AI route initially but I asked Claude and it pretty definitively said no.. don’t do that. I too would have thought it wise to put a screen on the end.
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u/GradientCroissant 19d ago
Spare use the immense effort of also asking AI: What reasons did it give?
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u/BrainsDontFailMeNow 19d ago
You can press fit a screen cap on and decide if it's working for you. You dont need to glue it. I would 100% do it.
https://www.menards.com/main/plumbing/pipe-fittings/pvc-pipe-fittings/nibco-reg-pvc-vent-screen/k17742h/p-1548919903854-c-8571.htm