Our furnace wont stay on..have you ever used "Just Answer"?

[infomama]

http://www.justanswer.com/
I can't even wrap my head around a service call right now.

[Snow mom]

No advice on the justanswer, but what do you mean by "won't stay on?" What type of ignition/pilot does it have?

[infomama]

It's a Carrier Weathermaker 9200 gas furnace. It kicks on for about a minute, shuts off and then a fan starts up followed by water coming down a pipe (condenser?). I don't know if the pilot light is out or what the H is going on.

[Penny's Pappa]

Can't say I can help you with your problem, but I did find the manual for your unit (I think):

http://www.docs.hvacpartners.com/idc/groups/public/documents/techlit/om58-67.pdf

Pages 9 and 10 discuss troubleshooting and diagnosing system problems by way of LED status lights within the unit. Hopefully they'll be able to tell you where the problem is. Good luck.

[Snow mom]

Okay, I did a quick google to check whether your furnace has a pilot and it appears it doesn't. I was curious because we had a similar problem with our furnace which also doesn't have a pilot. Basically what happens when the thermostat triggers the furnace is there is an ignition that starts up the furnace and a flame detector (it's basically a wire) that allows the gas to stay on. In our case the flame detector was dirty. We payed about $75 for someone to come out and look at it and all they did was take a long pair of forceps and a bit of steel wool and clean off that wire. Now we know what to do ourselves in the future. If you and your DH are both home take the front off the furnace and look to see what happens when the furnace is starting up. If the flames come on but then go out it might be the sensor.

Another possibility is the vent is clogged. If it was iced up maybe that would explain the water trickling sound? I don't really know anything about this possibility except that of course if the vent is potentially clogged I hope you have a carbon monoxide sensor somewhere.

Not sure if any of this helps at all. I'm really not someone who should be in charge of furnace fixing so hopefully someone else will jump in with their experiences.

[infomama]

Thanks Penny's Papa...I was just reading that before I switched back to the BB. I think I am going to try a restart.

[infomama]

I'm solo tonight..DH is working. Just checked the pipes and they aren't iced over/blocked as far as I can see.

[infomama]

Well I didn't blow up the place but the reset didnt work. Plugged in the space heater and put an extra blanket on dds. It's cold in here.

[Penny's Pappa]

You might want to shut down your furnace then. Cut off the gas and the electrical just in case.

[HannaAddict]

Check your furnace filters, seriously. One $300 service call later (the fee just to come to the house), on our coldest night in decades (15 degrees), the filters were dirty on the gas furnace. Didn't even think of it since it was serviced and filters all changed during the summer and we haven't had to use it much before this cold snap. It would come on but no heat, just blow cold air. There is a trip on it and it shuts off the furnace if the filters are dirty. Then, the day after Thanksgiving and three days or so after the service call, it wasn't on in the morning. They didn't charge us anything for the call itself (normal fee just to come is $100), but the burner went out. Great. They told us the previous owners had them out all the time, that they knew this furnace. Not disclosed on the Form 17 real estate disclosure. I was just glad we could afford to have it fixed since this would have been catastrophic when I was growing up.

Good luck and change the filters to see if that helps.

[infomama]

Filters are ok...checked those last night.Called for service but wont be here till late in the day. Thanks to everyone who responded.

[infomama]

It was a cracked igniter. Apparently it is very common....no way I would have been able to figure that one out. Back in business!