A winter prep

[Valvestate]

My inlaws have had some bad luck with they're furnace and water heater. I had to fix them quite a few times in the last two years. Maintain your stuff, or you could be stuck with no heat and cold water. If you're not comfortable, call someone you can trust for a check-up.

So we have a high efficiency condensating furnace. It's on a zone controller that had a short delay between switching zones. If you have a zone controller, make sure it's either tuned not to short cycle your air handler or allows switching zones without shutting it off first. Short cycling the handler wore out the starter capacitor on the main blower and blew the copper pad right off the control board because it was trying so hard to start with a bad starter. Check the starter cap by pulling out and shaking it. If it swishes like it's half empty, replace it with the same rated cap. Around $30 shipped. Not changing a bad one risks frying the control board or blower, which either will run 3-4 digits installed.

next is the condensate trap. HE furnaces make water that turns acidic with the carbon exhaust. It grows bacteria in there that can clog it. Every one in a while, pull it out and flush it out. Remember where the hoses go, and you'll have to reprime it or it won't hold pressure and cause a pressure lockout. There's different designs, ours was cheap, so it caused lockout for us. If you have an iron pipe for a drain, put a neutralizer in line with the condensate or the acid will eat it over time.

More coming later.

 

[Valvestate]

Flame sensors. Modern gear use a little metal rod poking through the flame to prove flame. These can soot up and trick the controller to think there's no flame even when there is and it'll shutdown and try again. If it doesn't prove after a few tries, it locks out. The more attempts made, the faster the components wear out, or worse, no heat. First, the basics on how it works. The controller sends a signal to the rod over the single wire going to it which when there is flame, it grounds through the flame to the burner assembly and the controller sees that to prove flame. Use, dirty air (lint, laundry detergent fumes, dust, etc.), bad intake pressure (clogged intake) or high manifold pressure will cause sooting of both the rod and burner breaking the circuit. Some scotchbrite pads from the dollar store will clean it up in a few minutes. Don't ever use sandpaper or it'll ruin the finish of the rod. Steel wool is okay, but I think pads would be better. Adjusting manifold pressure is probably something better left to the pros.

Flame color. Should always be blue for natural gas. If it's yellow, it needs service, and could be dangerous to run. Could be dirty, a clog on intake or exhaust pipes, or high manifold pressure. So check for dirty/clogs and clean it out. Sometimes birds will try to nest in the vents. Someone actually found a dead animal in the pipe, so they should always be screened off. If you can't find anything, call a pro.

the flame stuff applies to water heaters, too. Ours was locking out due to a dirty burner and flame sensor. I had to pull the whole burner out and clean it, but it was running like a champ in a half hour.

one thing to note, if you are to open the combustion chamber of anything, you may need to purchase a new sealant. If it has a foam tape, once you break the seal, it may need to be replaced.

I'm not a pro, I just fix things instead of paying someone else. Use the above at your own risk. If in doubt, call a pro.