stupid furnace

[elaineandmichaelsmommy]

The stinkin pilot light went out again and for some reason we can't get it to light. We turn the knob,hold it down. Hold the match to the pilot and nothing happens. GRRRRR. Any suggestions. the gas co. charges 90 dollars to come and light it.

[ellies mom]

OK, I'm not asking these questions because I think you are stupid but I used to fix machines for a living and these are the things that first came to mind. Basically, you need air, fuel and spark. So you need to look to those things.

Do you see a bit of spark while trying to light the pilot? If you do, move on to gas. Is there another switch somewhere that disables the pilot? Is there a panel that needs to be in place that isn't?

Does the furnace have power- breaker tripped maybe? If the breaker is tripped, check the filter. A dirty filter can cause the breaker to trip. Are there fuses at the furnace itself? Our old house had inline fuses for the air conditioner. Easy to miss if you didn't know about them.

Is gas getting to the furnace- hand valve turned off? gas shutoff?

Is the airflow right? If there is too much air or not enough air, the pilot won't light.

It is kind of hard to give you other ideas without being able to see the furnace myself but I this helps a little. I'm sorry if this is disjointed. DD is tugging at me. So check in this order- power, gas, air.

[elaineandmichaelsmommy]

We tried and tried last night to get the stupid thing lit and nothing happened. so i called the gas co. today and they said they would come on the 11th-excuse me? It's cold now. So dh asked his boss who his furnace guy is and he came today and looked at it and said it was the thermocouple and he's fixing it tomorrow morning. One more cold night and we're done. Whew. I was worried that I was so mechanicly incompetent that I could light the stupid thing.

[ellies mom]

I'm glad you guys figured it out. Hopefully tonight won't be too bad. Here's to a warm tomorrow!