How to keep Endurance 50 functional into the future

Howdy all. Sorry if this has been discussed already, but with the recent shutdown of Fahrenheit (no longer providing parts), I'm wondering what others' thoughts are on how to keep these units running long term.

We're actually in heating system planning stages here and are considering a couple heat pumps with the hopes of decommissioning our old oil boiler (for more than a few reasons) and relying on the Endurance as backup/supplement to the pumps. Now it seems we really shouldn't rely on the Endurance into the future, for if a major part (one that cannot be locally fabricated) goes, so goes the unit, no? Like the control board. Or is there a way to limp this along using other parts (control board, auger motors, etc.) Thanks for any thoughts.

 

Here is the pinned thread on the 50F units....lot of info there. Might help.

Fahrenheit Technologies Endurance 50F Information

 

I suspect that more than just them will fold in the future. As the economy contracts, marginal companies will cease business.

 

Yeah its a bummer for sure.

I have a vague memory of folks discussing using off the shelf control boards to power these things. Maybe buried somewhere in that mammoth Endurance 50 thread.

We may opt to not run it as often, but it would be great if it could still operate in some capacity for backup heat (power outages, run off a gennie) and maybe supplemental when really cold.

corncob, what do you mean by marginal? Is that an economic term, or do you just mean companies that are small, struggling, small margins, etc.?

 

Just that. As the overall economy goes south and margins get tighter, smaller outfits will fold up. Look at the price of pellets today for a good example.

 

I hadn’t heard that they shut down, but I left my Fahrenheit furnace behind when I sold the house 4.5 years ago so haven’t been keeping up. Guess I’m not too surprised since their parent company started to focus on pellet grills and (I think) the grill division was sold or purchased by another company a year or so back. Still sucks that they wouldn’t at least stock some control boards for a few years, unless their supplier got hit by the chip shortage and cut them off.

From what I remember, a lot of the parts were common/off the shelf parts, minus the control board. The burn pot and scraper assembly were two of the bigger wear items, and I’d think those could be repaired/fabricated by a shop or someone who knows what they’re doing with metal. Exhaust fan was Fasco, room blower was also Fasco (I think). The actuator for the pot cleaning wasn’t proprietary either and neither was the feed auger. Granted, the furnace I had was first generation and was a bit simpler than the second generation.

Control board would be more challenging, but I’d imagine someone with enough motivation could make something work if needed. The self clean part would be hard to duplicate.

If I still had one, I’d make sure it had clean power/surge suppression (always should regardless) and run it until it died, then break out the yankee ingenuity to figure something out when a component failed.

 

I have a

 

I have a Fahrenheit furnace and was in communication in mid November with tech. My auger motor crashed in January after 10 years and found out they were closed as of December 1st.

I was able to build a parts inventory and many of motors are obtainable. Just would of been nice to have a par5s program for a few years though. Their grill business was the key component in the sale.

 

I was able to find a complete burn pot assembly, along with door switches, igniter, combustion Blower and misc gaskets. Next on my list is spare air pump and backup auger. I got 10 years out of my original burn pot and still in good shape for next year. LCD Controller is the missing part nobody has.