When my furnace wouldn't work, I called the local gas company (Excel
Energy -- Minneapolis) figuring they would come out and look at it for
free, like PG&E did in CA. But no, they wanted $80 for the first 15
minutes just to look at it, and I think it was $80 each half/hour after
that, and so did all the private repair places I called. I fixed it
myself and thought I would pass it on.

The symptom was, when the thermostat went on, I could hear a fan run for
a while, but no heat. Then this would repeat.

My son Joe suggested I take the furnace panels off and look for a
switch, and sure enough, there was a switch operated by vacuum from the
stack, and the short vacuum hose was cracked and letting air in. But
shorting out the switch didn't make the heat go on either, unless I let
the fan run for a while first.

I should mention that the front of the furnace contains a circuit board
with ICs and a bunch of electronics on it, including diagnostic lights.
To make it short, what happens is this, (at least on my Lennox.)

1) When the thermostat goes on, the furnace computer requires that the
vacuum switch be open (no vacuum). If so, then the stack fan is turns on.
2) After the stack fan is on for a few seconds, the computer requires
the vacuum switch be closed. This is to test the switch every time it
goes on. (A faulty switch could be stuck in the closed position, then
if the stack fan also failed, the system would work without it, causing
possible CO problems.)

So only if there is both no vacuum and then vacuum in sequence, the
computer allows the gas to go on. All I had to do was replace the 1/4"
vacuum hose and it worked fine. I spent $2 instead of $80+.

"slowhands" wrote in message
...
When my furnace wouldn't work, I called the local gas company (Excel
Energy -- Minneapolis) figuring they would come out and look at it for
free, like PG&E did in CA. But no, they wanted $80 for the first 15
minutes just to look at it, and I think it was $80 each half/hour after
that, and so did all the private repair places I called. I fixed it
myself and thought I would pass it on.

The symptom was, when the thermostat went on, I could hear a fan run for a
while, but no heat. Then this would repeat.

My son Joe suggested I take the furnace panels off and look for a switch,
and sure enough, there was a switch operated by vacuum from the stack, and
the short vacuum hose was cracked and letting air in. But shorting out
the switch didn't make the heat go on either, unless I let the fan run for
a while first.

I should mention that the front of the furnace contains a circuit board
with ICs and a bunch of electronics on it, including diagnostic lights.
To make it short, what happens is this, (at least on my Lennox.)

1) When the thermostat goes on, the furnace computer requires that the
vacuum switch be open (no vacuum). If so, then the stack fan is turns on.
2) After the stack fan is on for a few seconds, the computer requires the
vacuum switch be closed. This is to test the switch every time it goes
on. (A faulty switch could be stuck in the closed position, then if the
stack fan also failed, the system would work without it, causing possible
CO problems.)

So only if there is both no vacuum and then vacuum in sequence, the
computer allows the gas to go on. All I had to do was replace the 1/4"
vacuum hose and it worked fine. I spent $2 instead of $80+.

I am happy for you that you fixed your furnace, but I think you got lucky.
There are SO MANY other things that can go wrong. What if your hot surface
igniter was bad? What if the gas valve was faulty? What if the cicuit board
was fried? Sure you can replace it, but WHY did it fry? What if the switch
(that you hooked the rubber hose to) was bad? PLUS, even if you figure out
what IS wrong, where are you going to get the proper part to fix it (if it
NEEDS a part)?? Gas and electricity is nothing to "experiment" with!!!

I agree that a customer should check the simple things in order to save
themselves a service call. But if they don't know what they are doing, they
can burn their house down and/or casue harm or death to their family.

It's not rocket science, but you are better off leaving some things to the
pros.....

Good for you and your do it yourself fix.

As always on this newsgroup and others like hvac
some will try to persuade you to not do it yourself. They'll
say that you should "Leave it to the pro's" I say you,
me, and others are just as capable as the pro's and
as long as a newsgroup is available we should use
it to further our knowledge on do it yourself fixes.

Thanks for the info.

On Thu, 03 Feb 2005 09:02:18 -0500, wrote:

Good for you and your do it yourself fix.

As always on this newsgroup and others like hvac
some will try to persuade you to not do it yourself. They'll
say that you should "Leave it to the pro's" I say you,
me, and others are just as capable as the pro's and
as long as a newsgroup is available we should use
it to further our knowledge on do it yourself fixes.

Thanks for the info.


You are just as capable as the pro's? Get freakin real you idiot. You
could only hope to be 1/1000th of what a pro is even in your worst
nightmare of a wet dream.
Bubba

Thanks for the info.


You are just as capable as the pro's?

If I can fix the problem then yes. I have outsmarted the "pro's "
quite a few times in the past. Being a "pro" is not any more of
a guarantee of success than being a willing, smart, experienced
amateur. The only problem is finding out how to access the same
information that a money hungry "pro" is unwilling to divulge.

Get freakin real you idiot. You
could only hope to be 1/1000th of what a pro is even in your worst
nightmare of a wet dream.
Bubba

Then you don't know me.

wrote in message
...

Thanks for the info.


You are just as capable as the pro's?

If I can fix the problem then yes. I have outsmarted the "pro's "
quite a few times in the past. Being a "pro" is not any more of
a guarantee of success than being a willing, smart, experienced
amateur. The only problem is finding out how to access the same
information that a money hungry "pro" is unwilling to divulge.

You got lucky. Period.
IF you knew ahead of time, the proper check procedure, and find the problem,
good for you.
IF you go poking around, and find it this time, great. IF you think that a
vac hose will be the issue every time, as per your posting suggests, then
you are wrong.
Just curious...did you run your camera up into the heat exchangers to see if
they had holes, cracks or other damage?
A pro would....and some even give you the vid tape to prove it if they find
something.



Get freakin real you idiot. You
could only hope to be 1/1000th of what a pro is even in your worst
nightmare of a wet dream.
Bubba

Then you don't know me.

And you dont know us.
Its guys like you that have made the lawyers in our state pass legislation
that makes it illegal for unlicenced persons to work or install units.

If you think that makes it easy on the competent licenced persons like
myself, you are wrong.

And if you think that the units of tomorrow will be as user friendly, you
are also kidding yourself. We have Tranes now that if you dont have the
infrared reader, you WONT fix a thing....period. We have RTUs that if you
dont have the software to read them, you wont even get them to fire up.

Just curious...did you run your camera up into the heat exchangers to see if
they had holes, cracks or other damage?

More information divulged. Thank you. Before long I'll gather all the
techniques for working on a furnace.

P.S. You can keep the technique used to pillage the consumer. I don't
use that technique.

On Wed, 02 Feb 2005 22:59:47 -0600, slowhands
wrote:

When my furnace wouldn't work, I called the local gas company (Excel
Energy -- Minneapolis) figuring they would come out and look at it for
free, like PG&E did in CA. But no, they wanted $80 for the first 15
minutes just to look at it, and I think it was $80 each half/hour after
that, and so did all the private repair places I called. I fixed it
myself and thought I would pass it on.

The symptom was, when the thermostat went on, I could hear a fan run for
a while, but no heat. Then this would repeat.

My son Joe suggested I take the furnace panels off and look for a
switch, and sure enough, there was a switch operated by vacuum from the
stack, and the short vacuum hose was cracked and letting air in. But
shorting out the switch didn't make the heat go on either, unless I let
the fan run for a while first.

I should mention that the front of the furnace contains a circuit board
with ICs and a bunch of electronics on it, including diagnostic lights.
To make it short, what happens is this, (at least on my Lennox.)

1) When the thermostat goes on, the furnace computer requires that the
vacuum switch be open (no vacuum). If so, then the stack fan is turns on.
2) After the stack fan is on for a few seconds, the computer requires
the vacuum switch be closed. This is to test the switch every time it
goes on. (A faulty switch could be stuck in the closed position, then
if the stack fan also failed, the system would work without it, causing
possible CO problems.)

So only if there is both no vacuum and then vacuum in sequence, the
computer allows the gas to go on. All I had to do was replace the 1/4"
vacuum hose and it worked fine. I spent $2 instead of $80+.

And your point is?
Bubba

So only if there is both no vacuum and then vacuum in sequence, the
computer allows the gas to go on. All I had to do was replace the 1/4"
vacuum hose and it worked fine. I spent $2 instead of $80+.

And your point is?
Bubba

Some people can get the point.............

Others can't...........If you can't, then you're a candidate for
calling a pro.

"slowhands" wrote in message
...
When my furnace wouldn't work, I called the local gas company (Excel
Energy -- Minneapolis) figuring they would come out and look at it for
free, like PG&E did in CA. But no, they wanted $80 for the first 15
minutes just to look at it, and I think it was $80 each half/hour after
that, and so did all the private repair places I called. I fixed it
myself and thought I would pass it on.

What do you do for a living?

How much do you make?

When my furnace wouldn't work, I called the local gas company (Excel
Energy -- Minneapolis) figuring they would come out and look at it for
free, like PG&E did in CA. But no, they wanted $80 for the first 15
minutes just to look at it, and I think it was $80 each half/hour after

that, and so did all the private repair places I called. I fixed it
myself and thought I would pass it on.


You learned your first lesson!

1. California is a socialist pink commie fag community. Minnesota is in
the running, but they havn't yet advanced to the point where gov't
subsidises home heating costs.

YET.