Gas Furnace Intake Freezup Problem
 

Hi All:

I hope this is the right place to post this problem.

Yesterday morning my 1 year old hi efficiency gas furnace would not fire.
The problem was easy to find and fix. The air intake was plugged with frost
(ice crystals). It would appear that some freak condition caused it to suck
in its own exhaust which condensed and plugged the intake. A call to the
service technician informed me that this problem is rare but can occur
under the right conditions of temperature, wind, humidity, etc, etc. He said
it may never happen again but that I should always be wary of it. I don't
think that there is a problem with the installation as there is about
eighteen inches of separation between intake and outlet.

The technician's explanation makes sense to me but I still think that there
may be something else I can do to prevent this from happening again? I am
going away for a weekend in February and don't want my house to freeze.

Do you have any ideas ?

Note: The furnace keeps cozy a house in Northern Ontario where it has been
bitter cold with temps approaching minus 40. It was also quite frosty the
morning this problem occured. Also, this installation ran trouble free all
of last winter.

Thanks in advance for any and all replies.

John Buffett

"John" wrote in message
...
Hi All:

I hope this is the right place to post this problem.

Yesterday morning my 1 year old hi efficiency gas furnace would not fire.
The problem was easy to find and fix. The air intake was plugged with frost
(ice crystals). It would appear that some freak condition caused it to suck
in its own exhaust which condensed and plugged the intake. A call to the
service technician informed me that this problem is rare but can occur
under the right conditions of temperature, wind, humidity, etc, etc. He said
it may never happen again but that I should always be wary of it. I don't
think that there is a problem with the installation as there is about
eighteen inches of separation between intake and outlet.

The technician's explanation makes sense to me but I still think that there
may be something else I can do to prevent this from happening again? I am
going away for a weekend in February and don't want my house to freeze.

Do you have any ideas ?

Note: The furnace keeps cozy a house in Northern Ontario where it has been
bitter cold with temps approaching minus 40. It was also quite frosty the
morning this problem occured. Also, this installation ran trouble free all
of last winter.

Thanks in advance for any and all replies.

John Buffett


This is Turtle.

With Murphy's Laws in effect now days anything can take place if given the right
conditions. With the two of them a couple of feet apart seem about right but if
it was me and it happen one time. I would come out the side of the building or
roof and run the discharge 5 or 6 feet farther way from the intake in some way
to just try to remove Murphy from the picture here. If Murphy happen one time he
can happen again and so says Murphy's Laws.

TURTLE