Furnace is not working :-(

[Coleus]

Woke up this morning and feel a little bit cold. No heat come out of the vent.

Call around and seems everyone is busy with Xmas. Anyone know a reliable furnace repairer in Calgary that can come today?

Thanks

[Nano]

Thats terrible. What timing too.. Hope you find some one to fix it!

[Delphinus]

Here's something to try in the meantime (you have nothing to lose to try this .. maybe save yourself $200 in an emergency callout).

A lot of times problems with furnaces are dirty flame sensors. Open up the unit and look for what looks like a barbecue starter probe, a metal rod that goes to one of the burners. On mine it's on the far left burner. Undo this, take it out, and take a dry sponge or something midly abrasive and scrub that sucker. Maybe take some really really fine sandpaper if you see actual carbon scoring on it. But don't scratch it, you want the metal intact but any buildup or residue on it gone.

Put it back together and see if the furnace works properly after that.

Good luck!

[Nano]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Here's something to try in the meantime (you have nothing to lose to try this .. maybe save yourself $200 in an emergency callout).

A lot of times problems with furnaces are dirty flame sensors. Open up the unit and look for what looks like a barbecue starter probe, a metal rod that goes to one of the burners. On mine it's on the far left burner. Undo this, take it out, and take a dry sponge or something midly abrasive and scrub that sucker. Maybe take some really really fine sandpaper if you see actual carbon scoring on it. But don't scratch it, you want the metal intact but any buildup or residue on it gone.

Put it back together and see if the furnace works properly after that.

Good luck!

+1 Rep point for you!

[jorjef]

^^^^^^^ +1 on that one, done it a few times and works like a charm.

Damn too late again...

[The Codfather]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Here's something to try in the meantime (you have nothing to lose to try this .. maybe save yourself $200 in an emergency callout).

A lot of times problems with furnaces are dirty flame sensors. Open up the unit and look for what looks like a barbecue starter probe, a metal rod that goes to one of the burners. On mine it's on the far left burner. Undo this, take it out, and take a dry sponge or something midly abrasive and scrub that sucker. Maybe take some really really fine sandpaper if you see actual carbon scoring on it. But don't scratch it, you want the metal intact but any buildup or residue on it gone.

Put it back together and see if the furnace works properly after that.

Good luck!

Do not use sandpaper. Just regular paper will do, if you scratch the flame rod the signal receiver by the module will be changed and it will not work. Although a good point Tony.
Tai, if you need a hand give me a call or pm me, I might be able to walk you through it if you feel like tackling it. I do this for a living(I teach plumbing/gasfitting and heating at NAIT), unfortunately I do not know anybody in cowtown to recommend.

[Coleus]

Thanks for the tip but there is no flames come out of burmer at all. So what should i do?

[The Codfather]

Ill pm you my number.
First I would do a hard reset on the module, there should be a power switch near your furnace. Just shut it off and turn it back on. This should reset the module, and the furnace will start through a cycle.
If a safety switch was tripped it will try to fire again, if the manual reset switch was tripped(flame rollout switch) it will have to be manually reset, this off course is telling you a bigger problem though. I would watch the furnace, just to get the temp up in the house but would definitely call someone in if this happened, as there is a problem that has to be solved.
Make of furnace and age will help me as well.
Furnace should go through a pre-purge from anywhere from 30-90 secs before trying to fire.
It may be something as easy as the door has vibrated loose and it cut the power to the gas valve.
On newer furnaces there is a troubleshooting led light that will flash the problem, might be worth a look as well.

[Coleus]

Originally Posted by The Codfather

Ill pm you my number.
First I would do a hard reset on the module, there should be a power switch near your furnace. Just shut it off and turn it back on. This should reset the module, and the furnace will start through a cycle.
If a safety switch was tripped it will try to fire again, if the manual reset switch was tripped(flame rollout switch) it will have to be manually reset, this off course is telling you a bigger problem though. I would watch the furnace, just to get the temp up in the house but would definitely call someone in if this happened, as there is a problem that has to be solved.
Make of furnace and age will help me as well.
Furnace should go through a pre-purge from anywhere from 30-90 secs before trying to fire.
It may be something as easy as the door has vibrated loose and it cut the power to the gas valve.
On newer furnaces there is a troubleshooting led light that will flash the problem, might be worth a look as well.

Thanks everyone for your help especially Tony and Bob . It is awesome to have member like this on this board. Anyway, a furnace guy called me back and he came.

Well, the problem is the safe switch has burned out because i did not replace filter soon enough ( i only replace filter when my thermostat tell me Lol) apparently you have to replace those stupid expensive 3M filter more frequently than the cheaper one. So he advised me buy a cheap filter and replace it more frequently.

So now he is going to get part and get it replaced.

Total damage: 200 bucks :-)

Lesson learned: replace your furnace filter frequently and don't buy expensive filter.

Also, i think it also part of the HRV, I did not have to replace my furnace like 6 months and it was still kind of clean before i got my HRV installed. So if you have HRV installed, i think you have to replace filter more frequently. Bob, what do you think?

[jimbo222]

If you still cant find anyone i can get one of our techs to come out this evening
we have no overtime charges
or i can help you on the phone
403-457-1188/ HighTemp.ca
Jim