C-c-c-c-cold ~solved, please lock~

Jaded

So... last year we had an issue with our furnace come winter in Manitoba...
It would keep cutting out, we would break away an ice plug outside the house and it would keep cutting out... we would routinely wake up to the house being around 13 celcius...

Now it's about -31 celcius here in the mornings (it was this morning anyways) and the house was at a balmy 14 when I woke up. It looks like the furnace kicked out again over night. There is no iceplug outside and everything seems to be fine inside (to my untrained eye).

So I fired it back up and it lit in a moment when I flicked the reset switch.

My wife was home all day today and she said it kept kicking out until she set it at 17 celcius... any higher and it dies out...

Thoughts? I don't wanna walk around in a snuggie all winter!

Thanatos

Think of all the money you'll save on heating bills...?

-Phil-

Flicked which switch, the furnace or from the breaker? If its from the fuse, is it possible that the fuse is under rated and pulling too much power to trip it (or maybe just a short)?

Goofball

The best thing you can do at this point is contact a HVAC service provider and have them come troubleshoot it and fix it. Contact your landlord/management company if this is a rental and have them fix it. If it is a rental and you have it fixed out of pocket save the receipts and ask to be reimbursed for your costs.

Don't wait for it to break completely and be SOL and freezing your ass off. HVAC companies are busy this time of year fixing this exact type of thing. The sooner you call and get an appointment the better.

Where is the outside exhaust for your furnace located that it can ice over? You might want to look into having it extended or re-routed so that doesn't continue to happen. Shouldn't cost too much in the way of materials or labor.

Foomy

it could be a dirty thermocouple on the furnace, I know our furnace would keep cutting out when it got too much carbon build-up. turn off your furnace (don't want to be poking things and have big flame singe you eh), than look for a little rod in front of one of the burners. You should be able to unscrew it from above and take it out, rub it with a bit of sand-paper, than stick it back in. if you can't unscrew it, you should be able to just get a strip of sand-paper around the sides of it and just clean it in place.

if that doesn't work, guess you'll have to call in a hvac guy, but might as well try and save yourself the cash.

GothicLargo

-Phil- wrote: »

Flicked which switch, the furnace or from the fuse? If its from the fuse, is it possible that the fuse is under rated and pulling too much power to trip it (or maybe just a short)?

If it's a fuse then it would blow and it wouldn't work again. I think you mean breaker. There's a difference. Breakers can be reset, fuses have to be replaced.

Gonna need to know a little more about your setup here. Is it a forced air furnace or boiler-radiator setup? Natural gas or fuel oil? How new? I'm assuming you're venting out the side of a wall since you mention ice accumulation. I ask because generally (not an absolute rule) there tends to be less that can go wrong the older your equipment is. House I lived in had a boiler furnace that had been converted from coal to fuel oil to natural gas, had virtually no safety systems and would run as long as the pilot was lit, the blower was running, and the water pump was on. But these newer forced air furnaces tend to have electronic gizmos that may make them safer but tend to be just another thing that can break.

-Phil-

GothicLargo wrote: »

-Phil- wrote: »

Flicked which switch, the furnace or from the fuse? If its from the fuse, is it possible that the fuse is under rated and pulling too much power to trip it (or maybe just a short)?

If it's a fuse then it would blow and it wouldn't work again. I think you mean breaker. There's a difference. Breakers can be reset, fuses have to be replaced.

Gonna need to know a little more about your setup here. Is it a forced air furnace or boiler-radiator setup? Natural gas or fuel oil? How new? I'm assuming you're venting out the side of a wall since you mention ice accumulation.

You sir, are correct. My apologies.

Mom2Kat

I also suggest getting an HVAC guy to come out and check what is wrong with it. We had the heat box on our develop a crack in the middle of winter a few years ago, it was letting exhaust leak into the house and making us puke. You can look up furnace repair in your phone book.

In the mean time get your but to Rona or some place like that and pick up a couple of the sealed oil registers. They do a damn fine job and you can put one in your room, one in the main room, and close doors to the rest of the house as needed. Just one keeps my house toasty on med.

zhen_rogue

Call the HVAC business in your area, and ask if any of them give free diagnostics/estimates.
If you find out exactly what the problem is for free, you can then decide how best go about fixing the problem and shopping the solution for the best possible price.

I'm assuming this is an electric furnace and not a gas-fired furnace?

Jaded

Problem solved... furnace filter covered in cat air and not drawing in enough air.
Filter replaced and all is well!