# Heater starts...then stops. Help!



## hvaclover (Oct 2, 2008)

First off have you put a new filter in recently. And beyond having the so called tech (if one is to take your facts seriously. Personally i would never wait two weeks for a tech if my furnace was broke.) Do what he did does not strike me as a trained person. 

Sounds to me like the igniter/sensor is gone or you may be going out on a safety. This furnace does not have an individual sensor you can clean.

It senses the flame thru the igniter itself. I would star with that (wish I could tell you more but I don't have a lot to work with here.)

Some other less common problems are a bad press switch and the inducer could be weak.

The igniter/sensor should be cheap enough and you have the guy's new board so just from what you told me I suspect either one of them.

Check back with what you find or if you have more questions.


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## beagan (Oct 14, 2008)

Just wanted to post an update in case anyone else runs into this problem as it was a very bizarre fix. I went to a couple repair shops and asked for advise. Everyone seemed to offer a different suggestion. The last guy, said to not bother and to just call "his" guy. I was hesitant, but he promised me that he was real honest and would have it fixed. I called him up and he happened to be near my house and stopped by. It took him and a friend about 90 minutes to figure it out with much troubleshooting. Turns out it was a polarity issue. The solution was to just swap the black and white cables. I have no idea how this could have got messed up. Only possibility was that about six months prior the a/c guy came back to replace the fan he put in my attic because it stopped working. Could he have messed with the electrical outlet. I have no idea. But it's fixed now and he only charged me $90. I'm happy.


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## pbservano (Nov 11, 2008)

beagan said:


> Just wanted to post an update in case anyone else runs into this problem as it was a very bizarre fix. I went to a couple repair shops and asked for advise. Everyone seemed to offer a different suggestion. The last guy, said to not bother and to just call "his" guy. I was hesitant, but he promised me that he was real honest and would have it fixed. I called him up and he happened to be near my house and stopped by. It took him and a friend about 90 minutes to figure it out with much troubleshooting. Turns out it was a polarity issue. The solution was to just swap the black and white cables. I have no idea how this could have got messed up. Only possibility was that about six months prior the a/c guy came back to replace the fan he put in my attic because it stopped working. Could he have messed with the electrical outlet. I have no idea. But it's fixed now and he only charged me $90. I'm happy.


That happens a lot. I just did a repair from a neighbor that the last tech perform a HVAC maintenance, some wires were swapped causing the 5 amp fuse to open on the indoor unit when thermostat is on heating mode. The 5 amp fuse blows when temp goes below 35F, which indicates to me that the aux heater wire connection 24vac control circuit has a short or grounded. Wires were incorrectly wired at the indoor unit, causing a direct short at the control board.


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