Good morning!!!!

[mostly_gas]

Good afternoon all. 40F this morning, overcast light wind. High was 44F low tonight is forecast to drop all the way to 39F. Made it to church ok but the Saturn acted weird and needed to be jumped to come home. More cooking for tomorrows trip and watch the Lams loose another football game

 

[murphy1244]

Afternoon all, More clouds and no sun again. Merc lost another battery 3rd on since new.

 

[rswyan]

RSWYAN is still MIA? Hope he is well and not busy welding the furnace repair man into his truck sarcophagus.

I'm about ready to ...

After about a week of the furnace functioning largely without a hitch, it's back to doing the same thing: burner lights, runs for a few seconds, and then shuts off.

Called the furnace dude and told him and he sez: Well, that's different than what it was doing before ... so it must be something else ... we'll be out Monday ...

Ah nooooo ... it isn't really different than what it was doing before ...

(Sometimes the burners would fail to light at all ... but that was less prevalent than than the furnace lighting and then going out after a couple of seconds)

Fortunately, I managed to get the wood stove plumbed into the duct work of the HVAC system of the house ... so it's scavenging more heat off the stove ... even when the fan on the wood burner isn't running.

Seems to me it's either:

1. Another defective gas valve ...

or ...

2. Gas valve was never a problem to begin with, and it's some other component whose faulty operation is intermittent ...

Of course, it could be a combo deal ...

 

[rswyan]

Thanks. Well, that's a full-time endeavor no doubt. :laughing:

A thankless task to be sure ...

 

[rswyan]

I wondered if RS got Cupcake upset then got banned from her computer since he had talk about the backlight dying on his.

Since RS is tech support for Cupcake's computer - and pretty much everything else - that will probably never happen ...

She certainly is squeakin' about it tho' ...

Upside for the 'Cake is that I fixed the Flash video playback problem (found a hacked version of Flash) ... and she's going to get the RAM doubled and a new AGP graphics card installed ...

Might even upgrade the hard drive while I'm at it ... throw a RAID 0 in there or something and see if that doesn't perk up the paging with VM ... mebbe I can squeak another few years out of a 14 year-old machine ...

I guess we don't rate

Nah ... just limited time is all.

And political discourse is way too easy to get sucked into ...

 

[dave1949]

I'm about ready to ...

After about a week of the furnace functioning largely without a hitch, it's back to doing the same thing: burner lights, runs for a few seconds, and then shuts off.
<snip>

What a pi**er.

If the burner lights should mean the blower vacuum operated switch is working, it shouldn't get as far as lighting in the start-up sequence if that switch isn't made. Of course, it can drop out after lighting and it will shut off the gas if it does. I am assuming your furnace does have a vacuum switch-- Small diameter rubber hoses going from the blower housing to a gizmo with wires connected to it. The vacuum switch usually controls a relay somewhere.

Two things you can check regarding the vacuum:
1) Turn on the furnace with a thermostat calling for heat. Just after the blower has started to run, jumper that vacuum switch. You may have to mess with trying different wires to find the right combination. I don't know if it is a normally open or a normally closed switch. There are specs for inches of water vacuum my furnace blower should develop, probably for yours too. That can be tested with a vacuum gauge if you know the spec with just the blower running, don't need the flame.

2) Make sure the air passages for the intake, air plenum around the burner, and exhaust flue are clear of any obstructions, not full of weed seeds and desiccated mice like my burner plenum box was. :laughing:

The other main suspect is still the flame detector, what they call the "roll out" I believe. If the furnace shuts down after truly firing (you see a flame) for ~5-10 seconds, it can mean it senses no flame heat, so it shuts off the gas supply (in the gas valve) for safety.

I just have the feeling that something is not being satisfied in the start-up sequence because it never truly finishes start-up.

 

[bakerg]

I'm about ready to ...

After about a week of the furnace functioning largely without a hitch, it's back to doing the same thing: burner lights, runs for a few seconds, and then shuts off.

Called the furnace dude and told him and he sez: Well, that's different than what it was doing before ... so it must be something else ... we'll be out Monday ...

Ah nooooo ... it isn't really different than what it was doing before ...

(Sometimes the burners would fail to light at all ... but that was less prevalent than than the furnace lighting and then going out after a couple of seconds)

Fortunately, I managed to get the wood stove plumbed into the duct work of the HVAC system of the house ... so it's scavenging more heat off the stove ... even when the fan on the wood burner isn't running.

Seems to me it's either:

1. Another defective gas valve ...

or ...

2. Gas valve was never a problem to begin with, and it's some other component whose faulty operation is intermittent ...

Of course, it could be a combo deal ...

My SNL was having a similar problem with his furnace. Burner would light and furnace would start but then would shut off. Found the flame rollout switch was being triggered because the heat exchange was cracked. Hope that isn't your problem because the SNL had to replace the furnace.

 

[txdon]

Good evening on the shortest day of the year. Ron thanks for the reminder on G2's Christmas gift, he would surly be upset if forgotten. Hope you make it back in time for the Michigan sales tax vote, but since you do most of your shopping down South you probably won't be affected.

I haven't seen the sun for 5 days, however my solar gate is still working so all is OK for now. 55˚ and cloudy and we had an inch of rain last week. Christmas will be 65˚ and sunny!

We had a pre Christmas party at my parent's yesterday and gave them their present - a recliner/lift chair. My parent's love it - and need it. (I caught my Mom sleeping in it after lunch already.:thumbsup

 

[murphy1244]

What a pi**er.

If the burner lights should mean the blower vacuum operated switch is working, it shouldn't get as far as lighting in the start-up sequence if that switch isn't made. Of course, it can drop out after lighting and it will shut off the gas if it does. I am assuming your furnace does have a vacuum switch-- Small diameter rubber hoses going from the blower housing to a gizmo with wires connected to it. The vacuum switch usually controls a relay somewhere.

Two things you can check regarding the vacuum:
1) Turn on the furnace with a thermostat calling for heat. Just after the blower has started to run, jumper that vacuum switch. You may have to mess with trying different wires to find the right combination. I don't know if it is a normally open or a normally closed switch. There are specs for inches of water vacuum my furnace blower should develop, probably for yours too. That can be tested with a vacuum gauge if you know the spec with just the blower running, don't need the flame.

2) Make sure the air passages for the intake, air plenum around the burner, and exhaust flue are clear of any obstructions, not full of weed seeds and desiccated mice like my burner plenum box was. :laughing:

The other main suspect is still the flame detector, what they call the "roll out" I believe. If the furnace shuts down after truly firing (you see a flame) for ~5-10 seconds, it can mean it senses no flame heat, so it shuts off the gas supply (in the gas valve) for safety.

I just have the feeling that something is not being satisfied in the start-up sequence because it never truly finishes start-up.

Check for water in that hose too. I had some I had to install a tee into it with a short piece of hose pointing down with a capped end. Something like a trap.

 

[rswyan]

The outside unit is almost rusted out and leaks freon. This is reason for replacing. By the way both units are Trane

Might want to look at Rheem or Rudd (same thing, different labels apparently)

Despite our recent issues, our air conditioning unit and forced air (gas) furnace have both been largely reliable for a long period of time. I think one unit is circa 1988 and the other is circa 1990 ... so that's 26 and 24 years respectively.

I don't think the AC unit has ever had anything done with it as far as repairs go ... just the normal yearly cleaning. The first major issue with the furnace was the heat exchanger about 3 to 5 years ago IIRC ... and Rheem provided the new parts for free, we just had to cover the labor to install them.