Furnace Not Working - The Most Common Fix

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Kind: captions
Language: en

00:00:06.180
[Music]
00:00:11.990 00:00:12.000 [Applause]
00:00:19.470 00:00:19.480 00:00:25.640 00:00:25.650 hey guys J here with word of advice TV
00:00:28.500 00:00:28.510 today I want to go over the most common
00:00:30.420 00:00:30.430 furnace problem so on average every for
00:00:33.810 00:00:33.820 example every six furnace calls one of
00:00:36.060 00:00:36.070 them is guaranteed to be this problem so
00:00:38.760 00:00:38.770 to begin with take off the top door on
00:00:40.890 00:00:40.900 your furnace sometimes it'll be held in
00:00:42.840 00:00:42.850 by some screws other times like on this
00:00:45.210 00:00:45.220 American Standard which is the same
00:00:46.530 00:00:46.540 thing as Trane the doors will just pop
00:00:48.660 00:00:48.670 off like this and then once in a while
00:00:52.590 00:00:52.600 on some Trane furnaces you have to take
00:00:55.560 00:00:55.570 the bottom door off before you can take
00:00:57.210 00:00:57.220 the top off but anyways one way or
00:00:59.759 00:00:59.769 another
00:01:00.030 00:01:00.040 get the top door off and then with your
00:01:02.280 00:01:02.290 thermostat calling for heating just look
00:01:04.710 00:01:04.720 and see what your furnace is doing
00:01:11.050 00:01:11.060 00:01:12.710 00:01:12.720 and while it's turning on here I just
00:01:14.360 00:01:14.370 want to go over briefly how it works the
00:01:16.940 00:01:16.950 very first thing that starts will be
00:01:18.590 00:01:18.600 your blower PAH your inducer motor right
00:01:20.330 00:01:20.340 here so this thing will turn on and
00:01:23.330 00:01:23.340 after the inducer motor turns on these
00:01:25.190 00:01:25.200 pressure switches if you have a
00:01:27.440 00:01:27.450 two-stage furnace typically you will
00:01:28.850 00:01:28.860 have two an easy way to know if you have
00:01:31.220 00:01:31.230 a two stage or a 1 stage is you'll have
00:01:34.010 00:01:34.020 a red in the black and a white whereas
00:01:36.170 00:01:36.180 if it's just a one stage wire you'll
00:01:37.550 00:01:37.560 have two wires coming out of here and
00:01:38.870 00:01:38.880 that's it but anyways if deucer comes on
00:01:41.060 00:01:41.070 pressure switches closed then the
00:01:43.430 00:01:43.440 igniter starts to glow we should see
00:01:46.430 00:01:46.440 that start to blow in a little bit here
00:01:48.700 00:01:48.710 the igniter is the one with two wires
00:01:51.050 00:01:51.060 going to it right here usually has a
00:01:54.380 00:01:54.390 plug so right there you see the igniter
00:01:56.570 00:01:56.580 glowing that bright orange glow
00:02:03.490 00:02:03.500 then the gas valve opens and the flames
00:02:05.890 00:02:05.900 turn on and notice how they only stay on
00:02:08.560 00:02:08.570 for a couple seconds and then they turn
00:02:10.810 00:02:10.820 right off if you're seeing your furnace
00:02:13.060 00:02:13.070 burners doing that when they only just
00:02:14.980 00:02:14.990 come on for a couple seconds and go off
00:02:16.600 00:02:16.610 it's almost guaranteed that your problem
00:02:18.970 00:02:18.980 is a dirty flame sensor and the flame
00:02:21.280 00:02:21.290 sensors on this side right here and
00:02:22.780 00:02:22.790 generally you'll have one wire going to
00:02:25.000 00:02:25.010 it it'll be on the opposite side of the
00:02:27.040 00:02:27.050 igniter so it's right here as held in by
00:02:30.520 00:02:30.530 one screw so to remedy this problem is
00:02:34.180 00:02:34.190 actually very easy all you gotta do to
00:02:36.190 00:02:36.200 begin with is turn off your furnace
00:02:37.840 00:02:37.850 power switch and while I'm turning this
00:02:41.140 00:02:41.150 off I also want to mention that
00:02:42.810 00:02:42.820 sometimes not sometimes but almost all
00:02:45.940 00:02:45.950 the time the newer furnaces have a
00:02:47.290 00:02:47.300 lockout feature so if the furnace tries
00:02:49.420 00:02:49.430 to ignite five times in a row and it
00:02:51.699 00:02:51.709 goes off because of that flame sensor
00:02:54.070 00:02:54.080 it'll go into a lockout for three hours
00:02:56.140 00:02:56.150 or it'll just sit there and do
00:02:57.850 00:02:57.860 absolutely nothing and then in three
00:02:59.560 00:02:59.570 hours it'll come back on and try again
00:03:01.180 00:03:01.190 and in order to reset that lockout all
00:03:03.820 00:03:03.830 you got to do is turn that furnace power
00:03:05.530 00:03:05.540 switch off for maybe five seconds and
00:03:07.900 00:03:07.910 then turn it back on and that will reset
00:03:09.370 00:03:09.380 it but anyways to clean this flame
00:03:12.520 00:03:12.530 sensor just take it out
00:03:23.920 00:03:23.930 it's usually held in there either by a
00:03:26.930 00:03:26.940 quarter-inch nut screw or a Philips
00:03:30.850 00:03:30.860 mine's a quarter-inch so take out the
00:03:34.400 00:03:34.410 screw and wiggle the flame sensor out
00:03:39.170 00:03:39.180 most of the time it'll be an l-shaped
00:03:43.030 00:03:43.040 but there are many different styles of
00:03:45.500 00:03:45.510 flame sensors they can be straight they
00:03:47.750 00:03:47.760 can be l-shaped like this they can be
00:03:49.130 00:03:49.140 long or short if you see my flame sensor
00:03:52.040 00:03:52.050 has some buildup on it and this buildup
00:03:55.010 00:03:55.020 just comes from the carbon inside of the
00:03:56.930 00:03:56.940 flames and also the front don't worry
00:03:59.690 00:03:59.700 here see how it has all these grates
00:04:02.630 00:04:02.640 it's sucking air in for combustion for
00:04:05.420 00:04:05.430 the flames and you know whatever
00:04:06.980 00:04:06.990 particles are in the air dust and
00:04:09.290 00:04:09.300 whatever other debris also settles on
00:04:11.360 00:04:11.370 this flame sensor and with time when you
00:04:13.700 00:04:13.710 have enough of a coating on here it'll
00:04:15.710 00:04:15.720 prevent the flame sensor from sensing
00:04:17.690 00:04:17.700 any flame so to clean the flame sensor
00:04:19.340 00:04:19.350 you can either use a dollar bill or a
00:04:22.400 00:04:22.410 five dollar bill or a ten dollar bill
00:04:23.990 00:04:24.000 depending on how much you have in your
00:04:25.130 00:04:25.140 pocket but just grab it and clean it up
00:04:27.890 00:04:27.900 real good you can use some fine steel
00:04:29.900 00:04:29.910 wool or what I like to use this tends to
00:04:32.420 00:04:32.430 work the best and last the longest is a
00:04:34.370 00:04:34.380 scotch brite pad almost like a
00:04:36.650 00:04:36.660 dishwashing scrubby just grab the flame
00:04:39.110 00:04:39.120 sensor real firmly press down hard no
00:04:41.930 00:04:41.940 matter what you're using sandpaper is
00:04:44.420 00:04:44.430 not really recommended because it tends
00:04:46.460 00:04:46.470 to be too abrasive if you scratch this
00:04:49.190 00:04:49.200 rod then the stuff will stick to it even
00:04:51.620 00:04:51.630 faster so this scotch brite pad works
00:04:55.100 00:04:55.110 the best so just press hard and shine
00:04:59.870 00:04:59.880 this thing up
00:05:02.760 00:05:02.770 I don't know if the camera will be able
00:05:07.020 00:05:07.030 to catch it but it looks a lot better
00:05:09.629 00:05:09.639 than it did when I originally pulled it
00:05:11.640 00:05:11.650 out so once you clean that up you stick
00:05:16.350 00:05:16.360 it back in and put the screw back in as
00:05:27.779 00:05:27.789 well and on a side note I work on many
00:05:41.760 00:05:41.770 furnaces and some of them the flame
00:05:43.830 00:05:43.840 sensor is not nearly as easily
00:05:45.749 00:05:45.759 accessible as this one for example some
00:05:47.700 00:05:47.710 carrier furnaces will have the flame
00:05:49.379 00:05:49.389 sensor the burner box will be up here
00:05:51.180 00:05:51.190 and the flame sensor will be behind the
00:05:53.370 00:05:53.380 burner box and there will be some
00:05:55.320 00:05:55.330 venting here and some piping and an
00:05:57.300 00:05:57.310 inducer motor all in front of it it's
00:05:59.459 00:05:59.469 super hard to get to your options are to
00:06:01.830 00:06:01.840 either try to take apart the piping or
00:06:03.990 00:06:04.000 the venting or maybe even take out the
00:06:06.059 00:06:06.069 inducer motor just to get to the flame
00:06:07.589 00:06:07.599 sensor or what I like to use is this
00:06:10.200 00:06:10.210 flexible bit extension right here that
00:06:13.200 00:06:13.210 way you can just put it on your drill
00:06:14.670 00:06:14.680 and try to reach in there from the back
00:06:19.830 00:06:19.840 and get to it that way but even with
00:06:23.640 00:06:23.650 this flexible bit extension thing it's
00:06:25.680 00:06:25.690 pretty hard to get to but for that
00:06:28.469 00:06:28.479 reason I also have multiple extensions
00:06:31.409 00:06:31.419 like this I got the 12 inch long
00:06:33.959 00:06:33.969 extension then you got the 4 inch then
00:06:37.469 00:06:37.479 you got the 75 degree bit holder right
00:06:40.290 00:06:40.300 here this comes in pretty handy there's
00:06:43.469 00:06:43.479 also some Rheem furnaces that have the
00:06:45.959 00:06:45.969 burners down here and you have about an
00:06:48.600 00:06:48.610 inch of space between the burners and
00:06:50.430 00:06:50.440 the floor of the cabinet the furnace
00:06:52.320 00:06:52.330 cabinet and it's really hard to get in
00:06:54.269 00:06:54.279 there I usually end up getting some
00:06:55.769 00:06:55.779 needlenose and trying to pry the flame
00:06:58.140 00:06:58.150 sensor out that way
00:06:59.219 00:06:59.229 but those reams do tend to be pretty
00:07:00.870 00:07:00.880 annoying and one more thing I should
00:07:04.170 00:07:04.180 point out that will make a difference is
00:07:05.700 00:07:05.710 your venting if you have a
00:07:07.890 00:07:07.900 high-efficiency furnace you'll have
00:07:09.450 00:07:09.460 plastic venting the PVC pipes either
00:07:12.029 00:07:12.039 white or black coming out of your
00:07:13.740 00:07:13.750 furnace generally that'll be - sometimes
00:07:15.749 00:07:15.759 I'll just be
00:07:16.500 00:07:16.510 or you'll have steel venting like this
00:07:18.840 00:07:18.850 going out or chimney the steel vented
00:07:21.000 00:07:21.010 furnaces are 80 percenters and then the
00:07:23.340 00:07:23.350 PVC vented ones are 90 percent efficient
00:07:25.590 00:07:25.600 the 80 percent furnaces like mine right
00:07:27.870 00:07:27.880 here the burner box is open and you can
00:07:30.390 00:07:30.400 see everything whereas on the high
00:07:32.340 00:07:32.350 efficiency furnaces the burner chamber
00:07:34.830 00:07:34.840 is usually sealed up so it'll have a
00:07:37.230 00:07:37.240 cover over it and generally that's just
00:07:39.120 00:07:39.130 held in by five or six screws you take
00:07:41.820 00:07:41.830 all those screws out and you can pop
00:07:43.260 00:07:43.270 that cover off and then you'll see all
00:07:45.060 00:07:45.070 your burners right there but I am
00:07:46.920 00:07:46.930 totally sidetracking anyways we cleaned
00:07:48.780 00:07:48.790 our flame sensors shined it up now we
00:07:51.330 00:07:51.340 turn our power back on and see if
00:07:54.660 00:07:54.670 that'll make a difference for us so once
00:07:57.540 00:07:57.550 again the inducer comes on the pressure
00:07:59.730 00:07:59.740 switches proof draft the Control Board
00:08:03.270 00:08:03.280 will send 120 volts to the igniter and
00:08:05.130 00:08:05.140 you can see glowing right there then the
00:08:08.010 00:08:08.020 gas valve will open up
00:08:09.270 00:08:09.280 00:08:14.290 00:08:14.300 the flames light
00:08:16.610 00:08:16.620 and now my flame sensor now that it's
00:08:19.070 00:08:19.080 clean
00:08:19.580 00:08:19.590 is sensing the flame and just if you're
00:08:21.770 00:08:21.780 curious how it works basically the
00:08:24.110 00:08:24.120 control board sends the flame sensor
00:08:26.110 00:08:26.120 anywhere from 50 to usually a hundred
00:08:29.960 00:08:29.970 twenty volts mine's about sixty volts
00:08:32.570 00:08:32.580 usually it's about ninety on most
00:08:34.340 00:08:34.350 furnaces it sends voltage to this flame
00:08:37.070 00:08:37.080 sensor and that voltage actually jumps
00:08:39.890 00:08:39.900 from the flame sensor onto the flame and
00:08:42.140 00:08:42.150 to the burner phase to make a connection
00:08:45.050 00:08:45.060 to ground and the control board senses
00:08:47.150 00:08:47.160 that voltage drop and it keeps the
00:08:49.010 00:08:49.020 furnace on now if the flame sensor is
00:08:51.140 00:08:51.150 dirty it prevents that voltage from
00:08:53.630 00:08:53.640 making that jump on to the flame and
00:08:55.430 00:08:55.440 onto the burner so it turns off the gas
00:08:57.380 00:08:57.390 valve and shuts everything out well as
00:08:59.360 00:08:59.370 you can see my burners are staying on
00:09:01.280 00:09:01.290 problem is fixed well guys I hope you
00:09:03.530 00:09:03.540 found this video helpful just so you
00:09:05.330 00:09:05.340 know this video is a condensed version I
00:09:07.190 00:09:07.200 have another video where I talk a lot
00:09:09.080 00:09:09.090 more about this and go into the more of
00:09:11.030 00:09:11.040 the technical issues and other problems
00:09:13.220 00:09:13.230 you can encounter while doing this and
00:09:14.870 00:09:14.880 more tips and tricks involved with the
00:09:17.180 00:09:17.190 flame sensor so if you want some more
00:09:18.800 00:09:18.810 info about the flame sensor and issues
00:09:20.570 00:09:20.580 regarding that do check that video out
00:09:22.640 00:09:22.650 and if you have any other tips or
00:09:24.560 00:09:24.570 suggestions please do share with
00:09:26.030 00:09:26.040 everybody in the comments below for
00:09:27.440 00:09:27.450 everybody else that's viewing this video
00:09:28.880 00:09:28.890 that will be much appreciated thank you
00:09:31.010 00:09:31.020 so much for watching don't forget to
00:09:32.270 00:09:32.280 match that like button on the way out
00:09:33.560 00:09:33.570 and I'll see you next time for those of
00:09:36.230 00:09:36.240 you that watch this video all the way
00:09:37.790 00:09:37.800 till the end I want to share a quick tip
00:09:39.320 00:09:39.330 with you that I learned recently so if
00:09:41.180 00:09:41.190 you have a baby sleeping somewhere in
00:09:42.650 00:09:42.660 the house or if somebody's sleeping in
00:09:44.600 00:09:44.610 the next room and you really don't want
00:09:45.770 00:09:45.780 to wake them up but like always
00:09:47.750 00:09:47.760 you really gotta sneeze one way that's
00:09:50.090 00:09:50.100 been working for me all the time to stop
00:09:52.070 00:09:52.080 the sneeze all you gotta do is rub right
00:09:54.530 00:09:54.540 below your nose or right above the upper
00:09:56.600 00:09:56.610 lip and that will totally interrupt your
00:09:59.030 00:09:59.040 sneeze it's almost disappointing you
00:10:00.680 00:10:00.690 know how its satisfying after you sneeze
00:10:02.450 00:10:02.460 you're like you rub this and it just
00:10:05.330 00:10:05.340 stops and you're like man you know you
00:10:06.830 00:10:06.840 just missed out on that sneeze but you
00:10:08.990 00:10:09.000 didn't wake up the sleeping person in
00:10:10.430 00:10:10.440 the other room so do give this a try and
00:10:12.650 00:10:12.660 let me know how it goes
00:10:16.600 00:10:16.610 you
00:10:27.900 00:10:27.910
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