Interesting Jem.. Well just have to wait and see what shows up. Although, the heat transfer from aluminum heater cores and evaporator cores, compared to similar size copper ones has proven to be much greater IMO. Greater even to the point where we had a company making copper heater cores to replace the aluminum ones that GM had in their cars the 80's that we ended up having to take back out and go back to the aluminum ones, because the customers simply didn't get enough heat from the copper ones, and there was nothing else wrong.

My friends I'm convinced that there is a problem of evaporator/condenser durability in HVAC equipment made in recent years until now. The question is: What is the industry doing to rectify it? We've talked a bit about the aluminum alternatives - Spine Fin and Micro - Coil. But as sktn77a pointed out, it may take some time to know their reliability. Yesterday, I came across several articles that talked about Pre-Sealers (at manufacture) and Post-Sealers(after manufacture) which were applied to the coil/fin assemblies. They ranged from baked on chemicals & E-Coat (electrocoat) - as Pre - Sealers, to sprayed on Silane and one using polyurethane with metal pigmentation - as Post -Sealers . All were said to help seal the coil/fin assembly from oxygen and corrosion (both galvanic and formicary types) - without significantly dampening heat transfer. And the E-Coat, through testing, was found to hold less air born dirt. Does anyone know of any manufacturers currently utilizing sealers in their condensers and evaporators ( meant for the homeowner market) as a means of addressing the corrosion problems we've discussed? Any info or expertise you could share about them would be great. And if so, mabey you could abbreviate the names or Email me directly - so they won't get censored out here!

>>galvanized metal must be painted and maintained so that it doesn't rustThat's false, good galvanized metal should last a very long time, if the time comes when it breaks down, [several generations down the road] you can paint it over for prolonging live. If you do it before, it's a waist, in the contrary, paint will peal/lift and moisture will build up under there and corrosion starts earlier. Unless you hardly ever clean gutters and moisture is there all the time, then painting might improve life. Copper is best.

Sounds like a pretty typical inspection report for a home built in 1930. Seems to me that this wanna be buyer doesn't have a clue about old homes and thinks they are being cute by posting this report. For a price in the ballpark of 150,000-165,000, I'd think this is a very fine house!