Any furnace guys here?

4Gas$

Club Member


I’ve had the local furnace guys out to my place twice now in the
last 3 days…..$216 later, I still have a malfunctioning furnace!

Service call #1 – Replaced ignitor. System worked fine for half a day.

Service call #2 – Cleaned flame sensor. System worked fine for half a day.

What is happening is the furnace will cycle & maintain temp just fine –
for about half a day. I can then “reset power” simply by turning off power,
then back on to the furnace by the thermostat switch, the power box to the
furnace or even the cabinet safety panel switch – and the furnace will fire right
back up and cycle for hours – then simply stop working completely, until I
manually reset the power to the unit again.

Seems like this should be a simple & fairly straight forward fix. I really
don’t want to keep dumping money into this thing playing a guessing
game or have to replace it (seems that is all most companies want to do).

Any ideas?
 
Does it display any codes? It'll be a flashing led sequencing a number of flashes with a pause in between.
Brand model number?
 
Could be a fouled/dirty flame sensor.
Most are L shaped and one wire. L part is the sensing probe in the furnace.
Power down the unit.
Remove the sensor and use steel wool to clean it.
Power up and run the furnace.
 
Does it display any codes? It'll be a flashing led sequencing a number of flashes with a pause in between.
Brand model number?

Non-digital unit, no "codes".


Could be a fouled/dirty flame sensor.
Most are L shaped and one wire. L part is the sensing probe in the furnace.
Power down the unit.
Remove the sensor and use steel wool to clean it.
Power up and run the furnace.

This is what was done on service call #2.
 
Did they check for a cracked manifold? Debris covering a valve? Condensation built up and needing drained at valve?
 
Did they check for a cracked manifold? Debris covering a valve? Condensation built up and needing drained at valve?

Pretty sure they checked most of the above, not sure about
any condensation issues however.

I put in another call to them tonight. I'll get a call Saturday.
I'm betting they're going to get tired of coming out & either
list a bunch of replacement parts or quote me a new one.

It just seems like this one is more than fixable. If I do have
to get a new one, I'm going to get a few estimates.
 
Condensation is often overlooked.
In a 90%

That's a 80% he has. One pressure switch on the draft motor and that's one of the first things they should have checked.


The repair place just needs to be there when it shuts down, hard to do I know, but.

So it will run nonstop for half a day?

Or it will cycle on and off for half a day? Big difference in figuring out what's going on.

id wait till it shuts down, then jump out safeties till it starts again.

Or there's a short in the control board.

Tons of things can cause this.

The dte home protection plan. $19 a month I think for furnace and water heater.
No service fees. No parts fees. They can change out every single part in the furnace. And there is no extra fees.
 
I would find a different furnace guy. The guy sounds like he will happily just keep swapping parts like a bad mechanic.

-Geoff
 
In a 90%

That's a 80% he has. One pressure switch on the draft motor and that's one of the first things they should have checked.


The repair place just needs to be there when it shuts down, hard to do I know, but.

So it will run nonstop for half a day?

Or it will cycle on and off for half a day? Big difference in figuring out what's going on.

id wait till it shuts down, then jump out safeties till it starts again.

Or there's a short in the control board.

Tons of things can cause this.

The dte home protection plan. $19 a month I think for furnace and water heater.
No service fees. No parts fees. They can change out every single part in the furnace. And there is no extra fees.
just did this at my sisters place pressure switch hose was cracked
 
In a 90%

That's a 80% he has. One pressure switch on the draft motor and that's one of the first things they should have checked.


The repair place just needs to be there when it shuts down, hard to do I know, but.

So it will run nonstop for half a day?

Or it will cycle on and off for half a day? Big difference in figuring out what's going on.

id wait till it shuts down, then jump out safeties till it starts again.

Or there's a short in the control board.

Tons of things can cause this.

The dte home protection plan. $19 a month I think for furnace and water heater.
No service fees. No parts fees. They can change out every single part in the furnace. And there is no extra fees.

As I stated, the furnace is cycling & maintaining temp - when its running!
How do I identify this "pressure switch"?



I would find a different furnace guy. The guy sounds like he will happily just keep swapping parts like a bad mechanic.

-Geoff

This is what I'm thinking. I did get two different tech guys for the 2 services calls.
I left a message last night for them. I don't really trust them at this point.



just did this at my sisters place pressure switch hose was cracked

Again, any idea how I can identify / locate this "pressure switch"?




Thanks guys, I appreciate the help!!!!
:ty:
 
Next time furnace shuts off, increase the heat at the thermostat and check if there is input voltage at the furnace from the thermostat. It could just be the thermostat going bad, not calling the furnace to turn on. I had to replace our thermostat from 1952 two years ago.
 
Next time furnace shuts off, increase the heat at the thermostat and check if there is input voltage at the furnace from the thermostat. It could just be the thermostat going bad, not calling the furnace to turn on. I had to replace our thermostat from 1952 two years ago.

Funny you say that, I just thought of that today. The furnace
ran all last night just fine! But I simply don't know for how long?

But yes, I'm going to do exactly as you said next time the furnace
goes dead. I don't know how to check the voltage (I'm an idiot) but I
can see if this changes any thing with the furnace performance.
 
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