NCI Member Kathy Townsend of Newington, VA submitted this photo snapped by an on-the-ball service technician. The homeowner had added a room over the summer and for some reason was having a problem keeping the furnace going on the first cold day. When the tech inquired what had happened to the flue, the homeowner flung …
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Kevin Heikkila found this ten gallon duct in a five gallon bucket on a Michigan commercial job. Kevin specializes in hospitals and institutional type buildings. You would imagine this level of work wouldn’t have new construction residential defect like this, but Kevin assures us he finds low quality work on high end jobs nearly every …
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Dale Gibson of Gibson Air Systems in Jamaica, Virginia offers his new invention, a black spotted filtration system that slips directly onto a cooling or heating coil!… Just kidding folks, this cooling coil with a ¾” blanket of yuck. This cruddy coil was pulled from a system two weeks after the building owner paid $250.00 …
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This fine example of advanced sheet metal craftsmanship was found on a rooftop on Las Vegas, Nevada. This is an example of how not to use eight sheet metal elbows to transition from a packaged unit to an existing duct system where the supply and return connections to the equipment were swapped. Additionally this “quality …
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JN Brown of the Jim Brown Company found this wicked 7.5 ton installation in a church. It may have been the good intention of the budget committee to save some short term contributions in this installation, but judging by the size of the single 12″ supply and the 12″ return duct, the previous installer was …
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This photo had to be a winner as soon as we saw it. The photo typifies the type of undersized duct systems that we all are secretly seeking. It appears to be an 80,000 BTU furnace with ONLY one 9″ diameter round metal supply duct and ONLY one 9″ return duct. Although we have no …
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The 2nd floor of this particular home was always uncomfortable in both heating & cooling. After a little investigation, it was discovered that the thermostat wires were run in the same stud space as the supply air duct. Now take a look at the infrared photo taken when heat is on. When the system is …
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Have you ever wondered who could be dense enough to actually need the “Do not store flammable material” notice posted around gas appliances? Well, we now have hard evidence that such people exist. To top it off, this propane cylinder is located in an enclosed closet no less! “But we needed the storage.” Photo submitted …
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Out with the bad air and in with the… bad air again. From the look of the equipment, this has been going on for a while. When David showed this one to Jim Davis, his hair stood on end! Photo submitted by David Richardson, Richardson’s Heating & Air.

Boy, you miss just ONE day of sheet metal class… This was just one of the three “transitions” we found in this duct system. Photo submitted by Dan Paprek – Climate Makers, Inc.