HVAC folks? Furnace won't kick in - thermostat clicks?

Art Mulder

Member
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3,383
Location
London, Ontario
Hey, Folks. Have got any HVAC people here who might have an idea what is going on with my furnace?

- We have a forced-air natural gas furnace - mid efficiency, probably 20yrs old
- have a Honeywell Chronotherm III thermostat

- tonite the furnace won't kick in. The thermostat seems to keep trying - instead of a single click, when the heating cycle starts, it gives a double-click and nothing happens.

- I can manually turn the fan on.
- I have been down and pulled the cover off the furnance and it is just sitting there - the pilot light is not kicking in.

- I think we changed the batteries recently, but I'm not 100% sure. (and as soon as my wife gets home from her errands I'll pop out for a new set just to be sure.)
 
Hmmm, 20 years old, it might be time for a new one. We had that problem with ours a couple of years ago and the furnace guy came out and replaced some tray that wrapped around something (I'm no furnace expert). It worked OK and then this fall the furnace wouldn't kick in again. This time we just replaced the whole thing. Seems that 20 years is an average life for these things.

In order to get the old one started my wife would shut everything down, electricity and gas, and let the furnace sit for about 10 minutes. Then she would turn everything on again. Sometimes it came on others she would do it all over again.
 
The solution to my problem like that was a new starter. I do agree, though, 20 years of work has probably taken it's toll.

A lot of new engineering has happened, and a new energy effecient unit could make a noticable difference in your heating bill.
 
Art, it sounds like an ignitor problem, but don't rule out the thermostat. I had a programmable thermostat that caused the same symptoms once on our gas furnace. Most programmable thermostat's aren't protected from electrical surges. Any small voltage variation can cause a small amp surge, and toast the circuit board. After that toasted the one I previously had, I installed a White-Rodgers programmable and it is protected. It cost a bit more than some you see at the big box stores, but the peace of mind is worth it. Good luck with finding the problem..............this is not a good time to be without heat! Let us know the outcome, I hope it's something simple!
 
7am and I've got heat still. It's kept on running since yesterday evenign when I tried resetting the breaker with a 2 minute rest.

I'm glad there is heat, but not happy about not knowing why it was on the fritz.
 
That's good news Art. It may have been something power related, caused by that "dusting" of snow you have up there. ;) Hopefully, the reset did the trick. Sometimes these things just have a "hiccup" and need a reset. Stranger things have happened. As long as you're warm, that's all that matters at the moment! :)
 
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