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Furnace issues (HVAC) again!
Figgy
Fighter of the night manChampion of the sunRegistered User regular
Fighter of the night manChampion of the sunRegistered User regular
Furnace is a Carrier, forced-air, natural gas. It's about 12 years old; the same age as the house.
Last year, it wouldn't kick in even though the thermostat on the wall said it was sending the signal. I would kick it in manually by flipping the switch beside the furnace when it got too cold. This went on for a couple days (it was a weekend) before the blower motor finally blew and I called someone out to have a look. $600 for the blower motor and installation, and he left. The furnace did the same thing it did before he replaced the blower motor, so I cleaned the flame sensor myself (guy said it couldn't possibly have been the flame sensor before he took off... it is a huge bitch to get at).
Around December, I had the yearly cleaning. The guy says the furnace is a mess, and it looks like it has rarely been serviced. The previous owner was a bit of a tool, so I wasn't surprised. After the general cleaning, it wouldn't fire up. He sprayed some compressed air into the burners and then it eventually worked.
Now, the other day, the furnace has stopped working again. The thermostat is sending the signal to turn on, the blower motor actually does kick in, but the burners do not ignite. It is giving a 31 error code. I've pulled the PVC piping going into and coming out of the blower and everything seems clear. Looking into the blower itself, it's clean as a whistle. Condensation buildup is apparently another cause for this code, but aside from pulling the rubber tube out from the bottom of the furnace and looking through it, I'm not sure what to do to check that.
Update: Had a friend of a friend of a friend come take a look. He pulled a tube off the switch and fired some compressed air down it to clear an apparent carbon build up, and the furnace started right back up!
Last year, it wouldn't kick in even though the thermostat on the wall said it was sending the signal. I would kick it in manually by flipping the switch beside the furnace when it got too cold. This went on for a couple days (it was a weekend) before the blower motor finally blew and I called someone out to have a look. $600 for the blower motor and installation, and he left. The furnace did the same thing it did before he replaced the blower motor, so I cleaned the flame sensor myself (guy said it couldn't possibly have been the flame sensor before he took off... it is a huge bitch to get at).
Around December, I had the yearly cleaning. The guy says the furnace is a mess, and it looks like it has rarely been serviced. The previous owner was a bit of a tool, so I wasn't surprised. After the general cleaning, it wouldn't fire up. He sprayed some compressed air into the burners and then it eventually worked.
Now, the other day, the furnace has stopped working again. The thermostat is sending the signal to turn on, the blower motor actually does kick in, but the burners do not ignite. It is giving a 31 error code. I've pulled the PVC piping going into and coming out of the blower and everything seems clear. Looking into the blower itself, it's clean as a whistle. Condensation buildup is apparently another cause for this code, but aside from pulling the rubber tube out from the bottom of the furnace and looking through it, I'm not sure what to do to check that.
Update: Had a friend of a friend of a friend come take a look. He pulled a tube off the switch and fired some compressed air down it to clear an apparent carbon build up, and the furnace started right back up!
Figgy on
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