Sta Rite equipment good?

[tenax]

my starite sand filter and pump are both at least 10 years old..and i know the prior owners did as little as possible to maintain them.when we bought our house 4 years ago, only thing i had to do was i cleaned out the filter of some gunk..otherwise, i religously clean out the trap basket, backwash and rinse once a week..no problems..i would buy their stuff again if the quality is as good as these were.my furnace on the other hand is the original (1983) hayward. i think it's going south as for the first time since we've been here, sometimes when it fires it up it belches about a 1 to 1.5 foot flame out the front for some reason. i suspect something is rusted out..but the thermostat etc is working fine..i may get a starite heater given my luck with the rest of the stuff next year. on that note, if anyone has any ideas on what the flame is about, let me know i want to get through this season anyways..and there is no smell of natural gas before this happens so it doesn't appear to be a leak persay but...