Question: What are City Inspection Stickers on Furnaces and Water Heaters?
We get this question from many owners who have never been a part of a City Rental inspection. The City wants to see a “sticker” on appliances which is Grand Rapids term for a water heater or furnace. So today I just wanted to show you what those look like or describe them to you, so when you do have a city inspection you understand what to look for and what your HVAC technician is going to do.
Let’s take a look at this furnace here. This furnace is a little bit older, but it does have two stickers on it and that’s why I chose it. The first one is the old style and that would be the red sticker. That’s what they use to put on appliances. Stickers are good for 3 or 4 years. It shows the initials of the HVAC inspector that came and the date the inspection was performed. The updated stickers are these white ones. The city now has a new system in which they can go in and see that the appliance was looked at and meets code by a HVAC professional. They used to keep track by those serial numbers on the red stickers, but now they do it all online based on what the HVAC company reports.
Another good tip is writing down the filter size and the direction of airflow on the furnace, that way tenants know what size air filter to put in if by chance they threw the old one away without looking or there was no filter in it to begin with.
Moving over to the water heater, we see the city sticker on it. A few things they look for on water heaters is to make sure that the drip tube meets proper lengths and make sure the venting is good and has the correct amount of drop and rise so no carbon dioxide fills the basement.
Thank you, and let us know if you have any questions. Access Property Management Group.