HELP!!! furnace problems

[MattL]

Done Deal.

Wha hoooo..
Ok here's the skinny.. When the gas is shut off at the meter for an extened amount of time the gas in the pipes is consumed by the pilot light. Natural gas is then replaced by oxygen.

My situation/solution, I checked the hot water heater tank and it still had water in it, I decided to attempt to light that. After about 25 minutes of laying on frozen concrete floor and depressing a little red button that said pilot and hoping that something would work, while hearing the auto lighter go click click click, I found out I was doing something right. I got a lil pilot light now.

Luckily I called the furnace man before he left his other job. Wha hoo.. its now warm in the house.

p.s. I am thinking that this is an isolated case, but dont stand too close to the furnace when it lights for the first time as mine went lil kaboom and a small fireball exited the front. I cinged a few hairs but all is well now.

Thanks for all that posted and offered suggestons.

--Matt

 

[kirk86CJ]

p.s. I am thinking that this is an isolated case, but dont stand too close to the furnace when it lights for the first time as mine went lil kaboom and a small fireball exited the front. I cinged a few hairs but all is well now.

Its a right of passage. You're not a real man unless you've singed (sp) your hair/eyebrows at least once.

I'll bet I've done it at least 5 times over the years. It is a unique smell.

 

[MattL]

p.s. I am thinking that this is an isolated case, but dont stand too close to the furnace when it lights for the first time as mine went lil kaboom and a small fireball exited the front. I cinged a few hairs but all is well now.

Its a right of passage. You're not a real man unless you've singed (sp) your hair/eyebrows at least once.

I'll bet I've done it at least 5 times over the years. It is a unique smell.

as long as the smell is of cinged hair and not flesh.

 

[Jeremy]

i shook the walls of our first apartment when i lit my bbq grill for the first time.

oh ya, i lost my eyebrows that day. the smell of burning hair. mmmmmm

 

[grinch]

Damn I just got to the bottom of this thread.... I was going to tell you when you install a new gas appliance or use one for the first time in a long while you have to bleed the gas line by cracking the unioin right in front of the appliance untill you smell the gas.... No this will not even come close to blowing you up. Heck I check the gas lines I install with a match to make sure there are no leaks lol.... and thats not a joke.

 

[chevtech]

i shook the walls of our first apartment when i lit my bbq grill for the first time.

oh ya, i lost my eyebrows that day. the smell of burning hair. mmmmmm

I can proudly say I have had my face fully enveloped in flames at least twice. It's a very interesting feeling, that everyone should try from time to time.

 

[Freelancer]

Star Wars...

Start the heater..........

Is the thurmocuppler (sp) good?

Reminds me of scene in Empire Strikes Back:

"The Power Coupling on the negative axis has been pulverized, I'm afraid it will have to be replaced."

"Well of course it will have to be replaced."

"Chewie, better replaced the negative power coupling."

 

[Brad J]

My own ordeal

Well my wife woke me up at 5AM on Thursday w/ the house only being 63 degree's. Furnace would not light, luckily mine has a easy troubleshooting chart behind the front panel. Fault code saying gas problem or flame sensor, remembered the tips read on this thread so I checked and the water heater lit up fine. I took a lighter / ignitor to light it and accidently hit into the furnaces ignitor (which was black and not working) and w/ 120V running through it it was the 4th of July in my basement. I filled my shorts thinking my life was over since I thought that the gas had lit finally. The furnace ignitor was now in little pieces and I had a burned hole in the lighter / ignitor that I was using. I tried lighting it again and we had heat. Set thermostat to 83 so it would not shut off and need me to re-light it again. I woke back up at 9AM (I had all week off) and started calling around for an ignitor. Every place said you need an account to buy one so you need to pay a tech $65-$85 just to tell you its bad and then pay a set amount to have them replace the part. Finally found the place "Aire-Flo" on 3400 So Main Street in SLC. Great Place, Paid $50 for the ignitor, ran home installed it and it came on and we had heat but the ignitor never shut off. As long as the furnace had power it was lit, Warmed up the house again and went back for a flame sensor ($15) but still no change. Ran a new wire from the new Flame sensor the the Control Board and still no change. I'm thinking it is a control board so I call a tech out and tell him what I have done and he agree's that it has to be a Control Board, he does not have one and it would cost $400 for him to get and replace. I call Aire-Flo and they find one so $150 later it works perfectly. I just felt bad for waisting $65 to be told what I already thought. I was not sure if it needed any caliburating at all w/ the new board so he did clear that up for me. I did find out that I have the cheapest furnace out there, a Goodman, and they have replaced 20 Ignitors in the last few days but none on a Lennox system so I know what my next furnace will be.

Thanks, Brad J.

 

[grinch]

Well, now that were still on this subject one of the most common things in newer heaters to go wrong is the flame sensor in the combustion chamber. A lot of the time they will be covered in soot or the mounting brackets will warp just enough that the sensor will not be properly located in the flame. This will cause the heater to think its not getting enough gas and shut down for an hour or so before trying to ignite again.
Easy fix on this one. Sand off soot and bend bracket so the sensor is back in the line of fire.