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Garage furnace

My house furnace would not keep the pilot light lit one year and the furnace repairman took out his screwdriver and hit the thermalcoupler a few times then charged me 80.00 bucks for the service call.
 
Johnwa said:
No, it gets white hot and then the gas turns on and lights.
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My garage furnace has a two wire igniter that is separate from the flame sensor. High voltage sparks dance between the wires lighting the gas. The house furnace has the white hot ignitor. Different ways to the same place.
 
I prefer the spark gap igniter, as it is easier to maintain. Those pyro heaters have given my friend a lot of trouble in his over the years (he has pyro igniters in both of his furnaces, and both have failed multiple times)
 
Furnace trouble again. I went in to the shop this morning and it was +14.5C instead of 20C as it should be with the thermostat timer. Same as last time - almost a year to the day and I'm taking the damn furnace apart again, cursing the designers, busting knuckles. I have to use about 3 wrenches and a flex shaft to back out the screws holding the sensors in as the access is so poor. Right angle behind pipes with mounting brackets in the way too. I cleaned the ignitor and the sensor as both were dirty - same problem as last year. Seems to be working again. :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
 
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Janger said:
Furnace trouble again. I went in to the shop this morning and it was +14.5C instead of 20C as it should be with the thermostat timer. Same as last time - almost a year to the day and I'm taking the damn furnace apart again, cursing the designers, busting knuckles. I have to use about 3 wrenches and a flex shaft to back out the screws holding the sensors in as the access is so poor. Right angle behind pipes with mounting brackets in the way too. I cleaned the ignitor and the sensor as both were dirty - same problem as last year. Seems to be working again. :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
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Hey John, on a brighter note have yourself a fantastic 2022 and a wee sip of the good stuff for old Dusty.
 
Janger said:
Furnace trouble again. I went in to the shop this morning and it was +14.5C instead of 20C as it should be with the thermostat timer. Same as last time - almost a year to the day and I'm taking the damn furnace apart again, cursing the designers, busting knuckles. I have to use about 3 wrenches and a flex shaft to back out the screws holding the sensors in as the access is so poor. Right angle behind pipes with mounting brackets in the way too. I cleaned the ignitor and the sensor as both were dirty - same problem as last year. Seems to be working again. :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
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Oh man, furnaces seem to have a way of giving trouble at the most inopportune times. I have a brother that has had various furnace problems (not all same furnace) over the years and it always seems to be around Christmas time and/or the coldest snaps of the year.
 
DPittman said:
Oh man, furnaces seem to have a way of giving trouble at the most inopportune times. I have a brother that has had various furnace problems (not all same furnace) over the years and it always seems to be around Christmas time and/or the coldest snaps of the year.
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No kidding Don. My house furnace motor packed it in on Christmas Day a few years ago. I think these furnaces are testing me.
 
Janger said:
No kidding Don. My house furnace motor packed it in on Christmas Day a few years ago. I think these furnaces are testing me.
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I think my time for trouble is about due. I salvaged a furnace from an older house that was to be demolished and installed the furnace in my house. The furnace was only about 6-7 years old at the time but that was 20 years ago. I had one flame sensor go bad o it once but that is it. I'm now 500 miles away at the inlaws and hoping my furnace doesn't pick this as the time to fail.
 
I have two overhead radiant furnaces in the barn. I set the thermostats so one is a backup for the other. No problems in 10 years. Hopefully the backup will kick in when/if needed. If not, I have a third level of backup - me! I have a closed circuit alarm trigger for temp and humidity that will wake me up before bad stuff happens.
 
Man I hate repairing furnaces. I never seem to get away with less than $200 and ten cuts from the blasted sheet metal enclosure.

On a similar vein, this morning I decided that I need to insulate the ceiling in my garage. Tricky as it's a flat roof.
 
Janger said:
Furnace trouble again. I went in to the shop this morning and it was +14.5C instead of 20C as it should be with the thermostat timer. Same as last time - almost a year to the day and I'm taking the damn furnace apart again, cursing the designers, busting knuckles. I have to use about 3 wrenches and a flex shaft to back out the screws holding the sensors in as the access is so poor. Right angle behind pipes with mounting brackets in the way too. I cleaned the ignitor and the sensor as both were dirty - same problem as last year. Seems to be working again. :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
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Sorry to hear about your furnace problems again John. You seem to be carrying an unreasonable portion of the bad luck with respect to furnace karma on this forum.
 
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