Helpful hints when the Heat won't come

Maybe you are sitting on your couch on Saturday night and you notice it. You notice it's getting colder and then you think it's just your imagination so you get up and turn it up four degrees then you wait and you still feel cold so screw around with it for an hour. Finally you decide you need some help and you start making phone calls but it's 8:30 on Saturday night and your wife yells at you because she told you to call someone 2 hours ago and now you can't get anyone to answer the phone and who you gonna call. HMMM.

Maybe this will help.

jjtritt


Heil Furance Help Needed eletronic ignition

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Hi all I have a Heil furance #ndg1075df01 and my problem is not too serious yet but concering to me.

Sometimes the furnace will try to ignite several times before it lights? My impression on this is that the pilot light is not staying lit so the eletronic ignition is trying to relight it.

Any one have any clue as what to look for? or replace?

I cleaned the main burners out about 3 years ago they had some loose rust blocking the holes.

Thanks
Jim


mike n


Furnace Repair

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Hot surface or spark ignition?
You can take it apart and clean it first then if problem persists you could change out the pilot assembly if you can find your local heil or tempstar distributor but unless you make concrete determinations you are just guessing til you get it right.

titanicslim


Furnace won't stay lit

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Hi-

I've got an old floor furnace (too poor to get central heat yet) and it won't burn for more than a few seconds. The thermostat is OK (new, I replaced it) but when the furnace lights, it only stays lit for a few seconds at most- sometimes just goes off as soon as it lights. Getting a mite cold in here

Any idea what could be causing this?

Thanks,
Dave


Hate to say this but....did you make sure all the covers are correctly closed ? sometimes as a safety feature they will not stay lite.

Did the furnace work correctly before you replaced the thermostat or has this started once you replaced it ?

What brand and model is it ?

Does it have a pilot light or is it electronic ignition?


pushkins


titanicslim


No covers. It just sits there under a grate in the floor. The only brand I can see is "Louisville" and yes, it was doing the same thing before I replaced the thermostat. It seems to work fine.

mike n

Furnace Repair

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There is a safety tripping and telling your furnace to shut off
Fixing a floor furnace is not the smartest mave either financially or from a safety standpoint.
If you feel like you have to get this working I would look at the venting (flue pipe etc.) or whatever flame recognition technology it has
mike n



titanicslim

Thanks, Mike. I'm kind of stuck with it for now, but the plan is to replace it ASAP. And on some of the Winter's coldest nights. It's OK- I got a big dog



Furnace Burners won't ignite

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I have a Rheem Criterion Furnace, Model RGDG-10EAMER that has been giving me problems lately.
The burners will not always light. The igniter comes on and glows red hot, I can hear the sensor trip the value to release the gas to ignite, but there is not ignition of the burners. It will cycle and the blower will start but still the burners will not start. I have cleand the furnace checked the wiring and the IIBC board, the green light comes on to show there is power to the board. After tinkering with it for a while and vaccumming out the furnance and have turned off the gas and the value and the power swith to the furance and then turning it all back on it will light ( I think it has more to do with the time lapse of having everything tunred off and not any I really did), but it will run for the day and cycle several times throughout the day, but it eventually stop again and I go through the same process again and it will ignite again, but of course it will stop again until I go through the same steps. Any ideas of what is causing the problem



HayZee518


ok, you have a hot surface igniter. you may also have a millivolt generator to sense the pilot flame. -or- there may be NO pilot flame - just a flame rod to detect the presence of the main flame. check to see which type of flame sense you have. a flame rod senses a flame by the ionized gas between the rod and chassis ground. if the rod is covered with soot it will not work.


HayZee518


Thanks for your information. How can I tell if it is a Rod or a millivolt generator? I have read something about a flame rod before, but it said it would be in the last burner, I can not see anything in any of the burners ( not sure which one is the last one, or if I am looking in the right place. Is it in the part that delivers the gas or in the part in which the blame burns into? Can seam to see a rod in either place.) There is no standing pilot flame. There is only ignition when the igniter heats up and then gas is released to ignite the burners.



HayZee518



ok, then judgung fromwhat you said the flame sense is a flame rod. the hot surface igniter is set close to the main burner. within a time delay period the igniter heats up and gas is supposed to be released. a flame rod is set close to but not necessarily within the flame itself. if your burner fails to light I would check out the surface igniter - its resistance has to be within engineered limits and the electronic control board for the burner.


HayZee518

mike n

Furnace Problems

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I don't think the problem has anything to do with flame detection as you are describing the flame never lights are you actually hearing gas flow after the igniter heats up or are you hearing the valve click, describe the failure sequence again for me please and is it nat. or LP
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mike n

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The sequence is as follows. The burner will ignite for the day several times durning the day and then suddenly it will not ignite, in fact I believe after a while it does not even try to ignite any more. I have changed the filter vaccummed out the furnance and cleaned it up. In order to get it to ignite again, I turn of the the gas value that set on what in the old days looks like the old pilot light where you would have to turn it and hold it while lighting the pilot, in this case it is just a simple ON or OFF with electrical leads. I also turn off the main value (on the pipe) that goes to the furnace and I flip the electrical switch to off. After it sits for a while, I turn on the gas value in the furnace the gas value leading to the furnace and then the electrical swith. The igniter heats up and you hear the value click (no sound of gas being released) the burners don't ignite and the igniter goes off and it cycle through this few more times and nothing. After letting it for a while longer I try the same process and it will light and will continue to ignite for the day until suddenly once again it will not ignite and the process begins all over.

This is furnance that burns natural gas.

Thanks for your input!

HayZee518

I have a propane gas stove that did the same thing you described. My problem was that the igniter leads weren't making a good connection. The hot surface igniter would glow but the main valve would not open at all. I took out the igniter and squeezed the connector as hard as I could and it worked a fw more times then quit completely. It got red but the main valve would not open. I bought a new igniter and installed it and it fired up immediately. This was five years ago and it's still working.


HayZee518


mike n

Bad Gas

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When you say that you hear no gas that tells me to look there so if you have a meter you can check on the two or three wires going to that valve, if there are two wires easy just check with your meter set to volts ac when the hot surface ignitor is glowing good and red you should read 24 volts across those two leads if you do and no gas is coming out your gas valve is sticking if there are three wires it is a little trickier you have to find the wire to the pilot valve and the common the other valve will be for main gas same deal about the voltage if you dont have 24 volts and no safeties are open then you may have a bad control board or wiring connection you need to follow the wiring back to make sure no loose connection.
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Beer is not just for breakfast anymore...