# For all you Lennox owners



## ibwahooka (Dec 28, 2006)

Hey everyone,
Just thought I would chime in on a recent experience I had with my Lennox furnace. I will not say that this will work in all situations and I am by far no expert when it comes to heating and cooling systems. As always consult with a heating/cooling expert before attempting any work yourself.

I have a G26 series furnace that was running fine until about 10 days ago. Suddenly the furnace was not heating the way it should have been, since the thermostat was set at 71 and was barely reaching above that. Occasionaly the furnace would heat all the way to 72, the thermostat's cutoff point, and then stop, but would never continue to function normally.

Symptons were as follows:
1. Furnace would not reach desired temperature.
2. Furnace would kick-on and then stop after 2 minutes.
3. Furnace would sometimes reach temperature, but not consistently.
4. Gurgling sound coming from area of the combustion blower motor.

Now, most of the heating experts on here will probably look at #4 and say, "Ah ha! That's your problem!". But what exactly is the problem. Since I've heard of multiple people on several forums talking about this, I decided to investigate. Now I know that the furnace needs to get rid of the condensation that it produces from drawing in the cold air from outdoors. So what does this lead the average joe to do? Why snoop around of course!

I turned off all power to the furnace and begin to look at all the connections concerning the condensation draining. I found that first, a furnace is a very complicated and scary thing, but I also found that sometimes that easiest fixes are right in front of your eyes.
I disconnected a small rubber tube, I would guess approximately 1/4" in diameter and carefully drained any water to a waiting bucket on the floor. I then looked at the end of the hose that I had disconnected and saw a very dirty end of a hose. I did what instincts told me to do and I blew into that hose! Guess what hit me!? Resistance! That's right there was something in the hose! I blew with all my might and lo and behold something got loose and went into the main drain pipe of my furnace. Not sure what it was, and I don't want to know, but my guess is that is was dirt, or maybe a bug. 

I then very carefully disconnected the condensation trap to see if my query had gone in there. However, I was met with more dirt and lots of water, so be careful if you ever disconnect this thing! I cleaned out the remaining dirt from the trap and put the whole thing back together. 

After turning the power back on the furnace and setting the thermostat to a blistering 72 degrees, I waited to see if my handy work helped my problem at all. Well, it did! After letting the furnace run for about 20 minutes, the gurgling sound slowly disappeared and the furnace began to operate normally. 

So what is the moral of the story?
1. Have faith in the fact that you can do anything.
2. I'm no HVAC expert, but I found my problem and fixed it.
3. I saved myself a $200 service call from the local Lennox guy.

I'm sticking with #3 myself. Just an interesting story and useful info for all you Lennox owners out there.

-Shawn


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## trollmastergeneral (Dec 19, 2006)

Hey good job on fixing your furnace.I just wanted to let you know that even if your furnace draws its fresh air from the basement you will still get acidic moisture from the combustion process. I just posted this to help understand burning process.


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## acefurnacefixer (Nov 24, 2006)

When the flue gasses are introduced into the secondary heat exchanger is when they condense to water..........has nothing to do with the colder outside air. You should rinse all of the condensate parts out with hot soapy water (the ones you can remove).


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## trollmastergeneral (Dec 19, 2006)

very good explanation ace :thumbup:


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## ibwahooka (Dec 28, 2006)

Thanks for the information guys! I'm now even more deadly when I absolutely need to talk to the local Lennox guy!

-Shawn


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## trollmastergeneral (Dec 19, 2006)

Looks like his kids wont be havin steak tonight.
:no:


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## abutcher (Oct 8, 2008)

*It Worked!!*

This is great, I had the gurgling sound too on my Lennox 90+ 2 stage, removed the blower and drained the water out and dried it out with a hairdryer. I cleaned out the drain hose and wala! It works!

Thanks much :thumbup:
Anthony Butcher


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## ibwahooka (Dec 28, 2006)

Anthony,
Glad to hear that my explanation was able to help you fix your problem! 

-Shawn


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## ROLAND1955 (Nov 22, 2008)

Shawn... that's interesting but confusing to me as well. Like you said, I am no hvac expert.. in fact my hvac knowledge is next to zero, but I just recently had a complete new heat pump system installed and within the first couple of days I noticed a "gurgle" sound as well.. called my contractor and he told me it sounded like a "dry" trap. Had me pour a cup of water into the drain line.. problem solved... you removed water, I added water... I don't understand... but then again, the unit's working fine and that's all I wanted to begin with.

Roland


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## ibwahooka (Dec 28, 2006)

Roland,
Hard to say. I know that my system is probably on the cheaper end of the lennox line since it was installed several years ago before I bought the house. Either way something that I will leave to the experts to argue.

-Shawn


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