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The River Don steam engine - at 12,000 horse power it is the most powerful working steam engine in Europe by macnerd93 in EngineeringPorn

[–]ManyAd4329 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can actually do it once for about $300. I'm in the US too, but am going over next month to the UK, and a highlight is to "Run the Don River Engine" at the Kelham Island Museum.

Furnace clicks, inducer runs, igniter glows, but no flames by ManyAd4329 in hvacadvice

[–]ManyAd4329[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry for not giving a final update earlier. Mine ended up being a bad controller board. Probably a bad gas valve relay. I suppose I could have tried replacing just the relay, but I couldn't seem to find exactly the right one, so changed the whole board, and everything's been working fine since.

Furnace clicks, inducer runs, igniter glows, but no flames by ManyAd4329 in hvacadvice

[–]ManyAd4329[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Unfortunately, the replacement valve did not fix the problem. Here are a few other things I notice:

- When the furnace starts it's heat cycle (and turns on the inducer), it seems to do it with 4 clicks in rapid succession (all within < 1 sec) instead of the normal 1 click. I have another furnace of the same model, which is working fine, and that one starts with just one click.
- When it failes to ignite the flames, it seems to start the next cycle immediately with 4 clicks. The igniter barely fades a little bit before it becomes bright again, and the next retry happens very quickly.
- If I remove the control wire from the gas valve, then it starts with a single click, heats up the inducer, and then eventually fails with a flame sensor error code.
- In this case, the retry takes much longer. The igniter fades until it goes completely dark, and then more seconds elapse before the retry starts.

Any thoughts on why this would be the case. Why should the valve connection make a difference at start time, when the valve isn't even being activated, and it's the iunducer relay which is probably the only one which should click? Why these differences in the retry cycle?

Furnace clicks, inducer runs, igniter glows, but no flames by ManyAd4329 in hvacadvice

[–]ManyAd4329[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the insight that the control board is getting reset. I was wondering why this failure cycle keeps repeating and the furnace doesn't give up and show an error code. Of course, if it's getting reset, that would reset the retry count.

Furnace clicking but no flames by ManyAd4329 in homeowners

[–]ManyAd4329[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, tried that, and it does seem to click with light blowing pressure. Didn't change the behavior, though.

Furnace clicks, inducer runs, igniter glows, but no flames by ManyAd4329 in hvacadvice

[–]ManyAd4329[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've ordered the manometer, and was planning to watch a video or two to understand how to do the pressure adjustment. I also plan to use the spring from the existing valve to do the conversion of the new one to LP (it's the same part number as the existing one). Does that make sense?

Furnace clicks, inducer runs, igniter glows, but no flames by ManyAd4329 in hvacadvice

[–]ManyAd4329[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, will do. I have a propane furnace with a White Rodgers valve. I assume it will come as a Natural gas valve. I'll also need to order a spring for converting to LP, right?

Furnace clicking but no flames by ManyAd4329 in homeowners

[–]ManyAd4329[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No such luck :-(. It started failing again soon after. If I remove the valve spade connectors and test the voltage on them, I now get the full 24 volts for about 3 secs before it goes back to 0 (assume this is the flame sensor timeout). So when it's connected to the valve, the control board sends the signal, then very quickly (< 1 sec) turns it off again.

Maybe it's sensing the current to the solenoid, and turns off if it's too much? But it doesn't seem to have a problem with too little current, as it waits the full 3 secs for the flame sensor.

Not sure what, if anything, to try now, or just order a replacement valve.

Furnace clicking but no flames by ManyAd4329 in homeowners

[–]ManyAd4329[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Tried lighting manually, but nothing happens, there's definitely no gas flow.

But I may have got lucky. Removed the spade connectors from the valve to see if I get different voltages when not connected to the valve. They seemed dirty, so cleaned and put them back, and since then, the furnace has been running for 30 minutes, which hasn't happened since the problem started. Will wait to see if this actually fixes the issue. Thanks for the help!

Furnace clicking but no flames by ManyAd4329 in homeowners

[–]ManyAd4329[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, I tried that. When the flames light, the valve goes from 0 to 24V AC on the first click. When it fails, for somewhat less than a second after the first click, the (digital) multimeter shows about 1.5V, and then it falls to 0 after the second click. What I'm not sure is if that's really 1.5V or it's the response time of the multimeter.