On Wed, 19 Jan 2005 01:37:03 GMT, "Peter Wells"
wrote:

It seems the pilot in our gas furnace doesn't reliably ignite the main
burner. The upshot is that sometimes, say 1 in 4, the furnace will start
with a real boom. The furnace is regularly serviced and works fine apart
from the starting issue, I explain the problem to the tech's and they take
the burner out, look at it but don't seem to fix it. Any suggestions.

Thanks,

Peter

As Greg said, try a different service tech.

You are getting a build up of gas before the pilot ignites the main
flame, and there are several possible causes.

I assume you have a standing (always-on) pilot? If not, you may have
a problem with your flame safety.

In any case, the tech should look for clogged burner holes in the area
of the pilot, misadjusted pilot, mispositioned pilot, and excessive
draft. In addition to cleaning the burner and orifices, they should
remove and clean the pilot assembly, since a partially clogged pilot
can reduce the pilot flame size enough to also cause this.

But get it fixed, those little explosions are hard on the furnace.

HTH,

Paul