Home furnace issue??

[tudizzle]

My main house heater is not working???


The fan turns on....the ignitor fires...the jets fire up for about 3 seconds then they turn off. Fans stays on...a minute later it refires...jets light up...then they go off...cycle repeats about 3-4 times then the whole system shuts down?

Anybody got the knowledge to know whats going on?


Got to run a few errands but will check back in a few hours.....

thanks in advance for any info or assistance provided

-diz

 

[NorthMNSledder]

Sounds like what mine did when the thermocoupler (sp?) went out.

 

[Mark's RMK]

Furnace

I ended up with an expensive service call last winter when my furnace at the lake had done this. The circuit board keeps track of attempts and then goes into alarm. I figured it was the igniter/glow plug and in my attempt at removing it I broke the little carbon glow portion. Called the service man. He came out, installed an igniter and procalimed my problem all along was the furnace hitting the high limit due to a clogged air filter.

That was one expensive air filter and I've never had experience with a furnace locking out like that. Short cycling is what I would have expected when hitting the high limit, not going into some kind of alarm status and having the place be cold.

Your might be different but try it without the filter and see how it does. You might need to reset something by powering off?

 

[Superjag]

About a year ago, mine was doing pretty much exactly what you described. Turns out it was a bad or dirty flame sensor. I had someone come out and change it, but I watched him and it looked super easy to clean/change. I read somewhere you can just hit it with a bit of steel wool to clean it off.

May not be your problem, but certainly worth a shot.

 

[tudizzle]

thanks for the ideas....will do a little trouble shooting and see if I can get her going

 

[tudizzle]

I ended up with an expensive service call last winter when my furnace at the lake had done this. The circuit board keeps track of attempts and then goes into alarm. I figured it was the igniter/glow plug and in my attempt at removing it I broke the little carbon glow portion. Called the service man. He came out, installed an igniter and procalimed my problem all along was the furnace hitting the high limit due to a clogged air filter.

That was one expensive air filter and I've never had experience with a furnace locking out like that. Short cycling is what I would have expected when hitting the high limit, not going into some kind of alarm status and having the place be cold.

Your might be different but try it without the filter and see how it does. You might need to reset something by powering off?

tried a hard reset...no luck same results

pulled out the air filter...which didn't look that dirty...bingo!!!!!

Must have been restricting airflow causing the gas to cycle off?

I owe you a beer sir
....thanks

 

[ruffryder]

For units that draw from outside air, a restriction there will cause similar symptoms as well. Just a little FYI.

 

[NorthMNSledder]

It's always nice to get an easy (and cheap) fix to a problem!!

 

[beer gut]

Furnaces are always fun - I've been working on mine the last couple days. I have a 40-year old boiler (hot water radiant heat). A couple buddies of mine work for an HVAC company, they told me my recirculation pump was bad. I got a new pump and was getting ready to replace it, but I replaced a drain spigot first. Decided to run some water through it, so I turned the inlet valve on -- nothing came out. Took all the old plumbing apart, and the damn steel pipe was COMPLETELY blocked with rust. Replaced all the old plumbing with copper, new inlet vavle, and pressure reduction valve, and voila -- good as new!

 

[dragon12]

You have a future in this sport kid!

Furnaces are always fun - I've been working on mine the last couple days. I have a 40-year old boiler (hot water radiant heat). A couple buddies of mine work for an HVAC company, they told me my recirculation pump was bad. I got a new pump and was getting ready to replace it, but I replaced a drain spigot first. Decided to run some water through it, so I turned the inlet valve on -- nothing came out. Took all the old plumbing apart, and the damn steel pipe was COMPLETELY blocked with rust. Replaced all the old plumbing with copper, new inlet vavle, and pressure reduction valve, and voila -- good as new!

 

[SNOW JW]

A few sensors on the units so first the air induction motor has a sensor that keeps track of the small air pump if this is not working or the sensor is bad it will not fire right. There is most times a small 3/16 hose going to the sensor.

Also the igniter has a sensor that tells the system if it is working so I would clean it or replace and try that as well. Most these parts are very cheap thus they tend to give problems here and there.

Then some have a flame sensor on the pilot and on the main jets and then some just have a pilot sensor if it does not show a flame or this sensor is bad it tells the system to shut off because it thinks it's dumping raw gas without any way to burn it.

 

[m8magicandmystery]

Furnaces are always fun - I've been working on mine the last couple days. I have a 40-year old boiler (hot water radiant heat). A couple buddies of mine work for an HVAC company, they told me my recirculation pump was bad. I got a new pump and was getting ready to replace it, but I replaced a drain spigot first. Decided to run some water through it, so I turned the inlet valve on -- nothing came out. Took all the old plumbing apart, and the damn steel pipe was COMPLETELY blocked with rust. Replaced all the old plumbing with copper, new inlet vavle, and pressure reduction valve, and voila -- good as new!

you should run some descaler through the boiler itself..a spigot on the supply and return side ..valves shut off from the rest of the system..and a small pony pump with a bucket of solution and two short hoses and your done...your might be surprised at how much faster your system gets up to temp saving you alot in fuel

 

[wrtmani]

X2 on furnaces being a pain---

One Christmas morning when I was a teenager our furnace went out. It was right about 0 degrees and snowing, and my dad had to go plow snow. Had a repair guy come fix it while Dad was out. A while later, the furnace didn't seem like it was shutting off. Mom went to get a garbage sack for the used wrapping paper from the furnace closet.

The front of the furnace was glowing orange behind the panel where the tech had replaced some sensor or regulator. Mom hollered to my brother and I ran to dad's shop and got a fire extinguisher. My brother got the fire out with the extinguisher but needless to say the wiring on the furnace was toast. What away to remember a Christmas!

 

[Grounder]

Light up the charcoal grill and put it in the living room!

 

[BigAl]

My main house heater is not working???


The fan turns on....the ignitor fires...the jets fire up for about 3 seconds then they turn off. Fans stays on...a minute later it refires...jets light up...then they go off...cycle repeats about 3-4 times then the whole system shuts down?

Anybody got the knowledge to know whats going on?


Got to run a few errands but will check back in a few hours.....

thanks in advance for any info or assistance provided

-diz

If the burner goes out after a few seconds, that leads me to think flame sensor. Usually a little steel wool will do the trick.

 

[rmkrazi]

What kind of furnace is it? I was at a friends house the other day and he was having issues with his furnace. I think it turned out to be the flame sensor. Furnace was a Lennox...

 

[tudizzle]

Update.....


so the original problem was the filter...swapped it out and everything good.


But since I was in there I though I would give it a good dusting and cleaned up the inside a bit. In doing so I did tripped the 3 flame sensors.

I reset two but guess I did not see the third.

Long story short I ened up having a tech come in. He reset the flame sensors...showed me a few things to check, before calling next time. Then he did a quick check of of the gas on both of my furnaces, both of which where high. Adjusted and put a new filter in the second furnace.

80$ Seemed like a fair price..learned a few things and got them adjusted to run more effeciently...he could have easily milked me for more.

 

[NorthMNSledder]

That does seam like a fair price for what you learned plus it sounds like you may save a couple bucks running them now too.