Furance went no heat all night long !

[chiefalen]

2 forced hot air furnaces in my house, one for downstairs and one for upstairs with matching compressors outside.

Downstairs don't give no heat, so i throw wood in the fireplace and keep it livable.

If the up stairs one went i could have gotten away with turning up the downstairs one to keep it warm upstairs.

Anyway call someone and they say 150 a hour min. one hour, if it takes longer, 65 a half hour till it's fixed plus parts.

I say to my self, today i become a expert on Trane furnaces.

Pull out the papers from the file sitting 15 years in.

And the diagrams, pull out my tester, and 30 minutes latter i pull the glow plug out.

Got a crack on the element, call my buddy he says yea they got them down the road a piece about 7 miles.

Get there 28 dollars thank you very mush, back home install it. Got heat.

And now my wifey when she gets home from work won't be giving me the fish eye, like i got a crystal ball and could have looked in it to see the furnace was gonna go on the blitz.

And why i didn't have a spare one laying around like all the other junk i keep.

Thats what she asked when she called on a break.

Can't win for losing.

 

[UnregisteredUser]

Re: Furance went no heat all night long !

Wow must have been pretty cold in your house last night, at least you have two units.

Props of figuring it out your self. I was raised by a Do-it-Yourselfer, so thats what my wife expects from me in return. When I was gone on the road trucking, she'd call the repair guy, now that I am home, it's my job.

With the advent of the internet, there is no limits to what one can learn. Loads of informations at your fingertips.

I do recall our first winter in this house, my wife called the heat and air guy, (Mitch and I are great friends), to turn on the gas and light the pilot light. It turns out we have a self-igniter too, and he spent the full hour fixing our mailbox and a piece of siding that had blown loose to justify his min charge.

 

[chiefalen]

Re: Furance went no heat all night long !

What bothers me is my other house had a, pilot that kicked on thats what lite the burner. And no computer to run it.

My cousin is in the business, and if i called him he would have to drive at least a hour to get here.

And he never wants to take my money.

This way now i know this furnace, first reason i had to get in it's guts.

 

[JB]

Re: Furance went no heat all night long !

No spare glow plug? What? What if you need one in the middle of the night once every 15 years?

Of course, if you had a spare everything that might break in 15 years you need a bigger garage and a lot more toys. Maybe we could use that to justify a new, bigger boat.

 

[OldePharte]

Re: Furance went no heat all night long !

Glow plug? So you've got a diesel furnace?

Seriously, what does the glow plug do? My furnace (NG) has a pilot light. Same principle?

 

[chiefalen]

Re: Furance went no heat all night long !

It is like a diesel glow plug the computer tells it when to light after a whole series of events occur.

First it verifys that it has exhaust, one fan comes on, opens a switch, than another blower comes on, than the glow plug gets hot fast, and than gas is allowed to enter the burner.

And it tries this 3 times before a red light starts to blink with the code informing you of what is wrong.

Was gonna buy a spare for the upstairs one, but like i said, i can give heat upstairs by turning up the downstairs one.

In the summer i can just leave on the upstairs ac and cool the downstairs also, under 90 degrees, than i turn on the downstairs ac.

Don't want to over work the compressor. Or if it's really humid, than i turn it on.

 

[wajajaja02]

Re: Furance went no heat all night long !

Did U Buy And Install A Glow Plug On The Other Furnace, Like The Head Lamps On A Car, They Were Installed And Used Together And Thier Life Is About The Same. It Is Due. Proubly The Downstairs Is Used More As It Heats The Upstairs.

 

[chiefalen]

Re: Furance went no heat all night long !

Guy says they always have them in stock, nice guy said never worry he will have one for me.

Was going to buy a spare one for the upstairs, maybe when i go to napa ill buy another one he's right next door.

Nice guy didn't stick it to me to bad. Wants repeat business.

And a reasonable price in my mind, cause i thought it would be worse.

I would go back to him again, and recommend him to others.

 

[mthieme]

Re: Furance went no heat all night long !

4 different heat sources in the house, more out in the shop...my wife thinks anything less than 78 degrees in winter is cold. (Anything above 66 degrees in summer is hot!).

 

[Don S]

Re: Furance went no heat all night long !

I have lived with diesel fired furnaces for years. 2 things you keep as spares. Fuel filter and glow plug or electrodes (whichever you have) It saves going out in the cold to get them.
The other thing I found most benificial was to have a trusted company come out yearly (end of summer) and inspect, adjust, clean, and prepare the furnace for winter. When you were on that list, if it broke, some one came to fix it ASAP.

EDIT: The diesel fired furnaces were when I lived in Alaska. No such thing as natural gas, running water, or sewer.
Now I am all electric, which really sucked last year in early December when the storm came thru and killed the electricity for 5 days.

 

[DJ]

Re: Furance went no heat all night long !

Natural Gas/Propane is one thing I NEVER mess with. It has too many tendencies to go: BOOOOM! if you do something wrong.

No thanks, I'll leave it to the pro's. I can mess up enough stuff, on my own. Things that may leak but not EXPLODE.

 

[UnregisteredUser]

Re: Furance went no heat all night long !

Now I am all electric, which really sucked last year in early December when the storm came thru and killed the electricity for 5 days.

We heated with wood for years. Too many years with an inside wood burning stove, I hated the mess.

Then I got a real good deal on a Hardy Outside Stove, it heats two water sources. One for your domestic water, (replaces the hot water heater) and a second that is plumbed through a heat exchanger, (basically a radiator inside your heater) to heat the home.

When we sold that home, I replace the unit with a Natural Gas unit, and gave the Hardy to my father-in-law to use in his body shop, which he used to heat with inside wood heat. This made for extremely dangerous painting, at times when he was painting, the lid on the stove would pop open and there would be a flame of fire jump about two feet up in the air.

The only bad thing now is him with his bad hip, and me with a bad ticker, it now takes us several days to cut a small load of wood.

 

[MikDee]

Re: Furance went no heat all night long !

Hey Chief, I had that happen to me about 5yrs ago when I was living in a rented "double wide". A Propane forced hot air furnace, I spent one night in the cold, then learned quickly what a glow plug was (an electronic pilot) It was reasonable, so I picked up a spare at the time, and quickly replaced it, and got a discount on my rent that month

 

[roscoe]

Re: Furance went no heat all night long !

Have had my ceramic igniter go out 3 times in the 11 years I've had the house.
Learned after the first time, that all you have to do is present a match or lighter to the venturi when the gas valve opens. This will light the furnace and if you crank the thermostat up to 78*, the house will stay above 60* for over 4 hours, when the outside temp is -8*. Then you have to get out of bed and relight it. Good for another 4 hours. Repeat as needed until the repair shop opens and you can get the parts.

And if anyone in the house don't like it, they can go outside and carry in the firewood for the wood furnace.

 

[chiefalen]

Re: Furance went no heat all night long !

I have a brick fireplace only one on the cul-de-sack that has one.

When i first moved in here, i asked the builder of a new cul-de-sac around corner from me what he was gonna do with all the nice fresh red oak wood being piled up.

He said if you can carry it you can have it.

So after the day was over and the builder went home, the backhoe driver was climbing down, i was waiting, in 90+ degree weather, with ice cold 30 pack of bud.

We walked around the corner and sat in my garage watching tv for a hour and he was sucking the cans dry pretty good.

So in a hour made fast friends with him never asked him for nothing.

Next day he drives by i said want a couple more had to come by me only way to the main road.

Sure says he. Gonna be on this job for months says he.

And the assist builder the son in law of the builder a electrician by trade stopped by saw the driver sitting in my garage. He knew how to drain the cans pretty good also.

Long story into a little shorter one.

Never had to lift one piece of wood to bring over to my house. I did it all with a sears electric chain saw and a steel wedge and double handled axe.

Had to cut it and split it took me months at my leisure. So at about 8 cords i told them to stop bringing the wood.

And when i went to install a back up generator, i want it hard wired into the house with a power transfer switch so i don't power all of NJ when i turn on the generator, he bought it for me and hooked it up.

What this thing does is cut the power to the street and isolates the house, so some guy working on a pole who thinks there is no power don't leave a widow and kids, due to some dummy with a generator,running, killing him.

I couldn't find this switch back than for less than 500 bucks and a electricians i called wanted 800 bucks to hook it up.

He got it at the discount price and hooked it up for me 300 bucks total and beer.

And ran the heavy wire to the garage where i plug the generator right outside my garage door. That wire in home cheapo at that time was over 200 bucks.

The backhoe guy sitting one day goes around the house to visit a tree and get rid of some beer and says you know what you need is a bilco door here to get to the basement.

I said yea whos gonna dig the freekin hole for it, i thought about it and i wink at Kevin the electrician.

Next day after work wola i got a giant hole dug perfect right where the bilco door went.

Kevin put that in also.

Concrete guys after work came over poured the floor, and the cement blocks arrived the day after.

The day after that the guys built the walls and installed the inside steel door and the day after that the steel bilco door went on.

Total Kevin's price for materials was 2 grand he would not take a dime for himself.

Even hooked a light up on the inside of the bilco door.

So after all is said and done finished, the owner of the building company drives by he's not stupid and says so we finished yet ?

I said yes thank you heres my phone # you need anything call me.

It's winter now, snow on the ground bad out, really bad, he calls me, about 11pm, says he don't know if he turned the heater on in the,house around the corner, and they owner is about to close, it's ready he don't want water freezing the pipes and bursting, he lives around 2 hours away, will i walk over turn on the heat, sure says i.

They borrowed my snowblower a couple times, worked out good for everyone.

Now thats a ramblin post. What posses me when i post here ?

 

[chiefalen]

Re: Furance went no heat all night long !

Forgot to mention to Don s to get a generator, as a backup.

This setup that i have only had one problem about 5 years ago with the compressor, the compacitor went on the upstairs one.

Knew what it was cause i ran it down with my tester just couldn't find one to buy.

I called my cousin who the next day was going to a school near me and said he would pop one in for me.

Gave me a spare and i had to force money on him. Gas costs what the parts don't cost ?

I threatened to call his mother if he didn't take it.

The generator came in handy a few times, believe me.

And today i'm gonna pull it out change out the gas and start it up, cause they are calling for snow here today. And i want to be ready.

 

[SS MAYFLOAT]

Re: Furance went no heat all night long !

HSI's (Hot Surface Ignitors) have come a long way in the past 20 years plus. I remember changing those out on many units when they first came out. Some wouldn't even make it a full season before failure. At least they have made them a bit better, but I still like my standing pilot units and then my second favorite is electronic ignition that produces a spark to fire off the burners. However the EI systems are a bit more technical for the DIYers. I personally will not buy or recommend a HSI system because of the frequent failure of said appliance.

 

[chiefalen]

Re: Furance went no heat all night long !

My Trane system has been reliable, 15 years first real problem.

I was gonna try the match trick with the gas i had a long lighter that i use to light my fireplace with.

But i thought it safer to leave it alone, and get the glow plug.

Had a visible crack in the element.

And was going to call someone to come and look at it.

When i heard the prices, i decided it's time i get intimate with the device so to speak.

Will be picking up a spare when i go that way to wal-mart or napa, all in the same area, even though gas is cheaper now a days, don't just want to drive 14 miles round trip for the one item.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Furance went no heat all night long !

i have all electric, here in Fl. but it is expensive. it would take one heck of a generator to power mine. here summer is worse to loose it.

 

[a70eliminator]

Re: Furance went no heat all night long !

HSI's (Hot Surface Ignitors) have come a long way in the past 20 years plus. I remember changing those out on many units when they first came out. Some wouldn't even make it a full season before failure. At least they have made them a bit better, but I still like my standing pilot units and then my second favorite is electronic ignition that produces a spark to fire off the burners. However the EI systems are a bit more technical for the DIYers. I personally will not buy or recommend a HSI system because of the frequent failure of said appliance.

Finally!

Good job on you diagnostics Chiefalen