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Heating & Air Conditioning

furnace trouble

13 years ago

I'm hoping someone can help me trouble shoot my furnace! I have a ~20yo American Standard gas furnace with a hot surface ignitor. for the last year it has given me an intermittent problem where it will not light. Sometime it works, sometimes it doesn't. The thermostat is less than two years old, and the battery is new, and it doesn't have any issues turning off, so I'm pretty sure (but not 100%) that the thermostat is good. Normally when my heater starts up, the thermostat will "click" and signal the furnace to heat, the furnace will "click," the ignitor will glow, then the gas will come on, then the furnace will go through its normal cycle. However, on the occasions where it doesn't work (now about 25% of the time) the thermostat will "click" on, but nothing will happen at the furnace and the thermostat will keep flashing "heat." The furnace doesn't click, glow, or do anything. Turning the power off and on to the furnace will always get it to start, and turning the thermostat off and on will usually get it to kick on, but not always at the first try. What is going on with my furnace?!?! I am more than capable of replacing parts on my own, i just need help deciding what part it could be. I'm thinking the ignitor control module? But why is the problem intermittent? Replacing the whole unit is not an option, and I'm too cheap/poor to justify calling an HVAC person out to my house if it is something I can replace myself, especially around Christmas time. Sorry for such a long post, and thanks for all your help!

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Comments (3)

neohioheatpump
13 years ago
you need hvac guy there to fix the problem. You can't fix that yourself.
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tigerdunes
13 years ago
scoot or die

when was furnace last serviced? if not recently, now may be a good time with thorough check/inspection of heat exchanger.

as to your issue, one has to think of the hot service igniter. go to Google. However, I don't recommend this unless one is comfortable around gas, electric and are mechanically inclined. take all safety precautions.

IMO
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scoot_or_die
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks for your help! I am very mechanically inclined and have worked with gas and electric many times. I figure, if I can fix a $100k+ lab instrument that runs on hydrogen and is full of delicate electronics, I should be able to handle fixing my furnace. I just don't have a good manual to know all the standards voltages and currents on the boards in the furnace.
I've done a lot of googling on this subject, and so far haven't come up with a good answer. My first thought was a corroded flame sensor, since the problem was intermittent. My second thought was a bad HSI. But since my furnace isn't even trying to even heat the HSI, I'm stumped. If the ignitor control module is failing, is it possible to have an intermittent problem like I am seeing?
And i know I should just call an HVAC guy out to my house, but I won't be able to afford his time and labor until mid January. My time and labor is free, and I'll probably be able to find the parts cheaper online (assuming I can figure out what is failing).
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