Furnace running but no heat


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Old 10-29-08, 07:59 AM
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Furnace running but no heat

We have a Carrier Weathermake 8000 gas furnace. At the start of the season, it was working and the house was still pretty comfortable. Now that it is getting colder, our house is only at 59 degrees even though it is set at 70 (we have a brand new thermostat from last year)

Currently, I hear the furnace running, it just clicked on. I can feel warmth, not super hot, on the duct coming from the furnace (and have many times) but no air is coming out of the vents and if it does, it is cold, not warm. We also have an electric air clearer from Carrier that my husband says does not stay on. Not sure if this is connected. We have washed out the filters so we know it is not that.

Please, can you give us some direction? I have two kids and we are all tired of freezing and no extra money for someone to come out and look.

Thanks.
 
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Old 10-29-08, 09:14 AM
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Turn up the thermostat, take off the cover on the unit, hold the button with your finger and see if the fan motor is running and if the gas is igniting.
 
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Old 10-29-08, 09:41 AM
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I turned up the thermostat and hit the button on the furnace. I heard a fan blowing but nothing ignited or anything like that.
 
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Old 10-29-08, 10:36 AM
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I saw your other post about the water heater...

I'm sure the HVAC guys are busy all over the country right now, but I'm sure some may be on later.

I have a question...
Is this Natural Gas or Propane?

It sounds like you have some sort of supply problem. If Natural Gas your supply company may come out and check pressures and flow at no charge...I don't know that for certain.
If you have a contract for Propane, the same thing may apply.

As I said, you should get some more expert responses soon.
 
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Old 10-29-08, 10:57 AM
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We have natural gas. Ya, we are having trouble with the hot water heater too. Our gas dryer also takes longer to dry-we need to run it twice to dry. Could a low flow be causing trouble with all three?
 
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Old 10-29-08, 01:06 PM
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Sure, if you have 3 gas items that are all having problems, gas flow or leak could be the problem.
 
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Old 10-29-08, 04:06 PM
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Do you have one or do you have two, white plastic PVC pipes that come out of the furnace and go to the outside (either to the roof or through the wall to the outside)?

Open up the largest (usually top panel) of the furnace, and look inside, and describe exactly how many tubes and electric wires lead into the compartment that burns, and describe where the tubes come from.

When you look in the top panel of the furnace, keep the bottom panel closed. Then turn up the thermostat. Then stand by the furnace and tell us if the fan that is running is the one that is connected to one of the white plastic pipes.

Then shut off the furnace switch or turn down the thermostat and wait for the fan to stop running. It should shut off right away, actually.

Now go outside by your gas meter and look at the dials. Usually at the bottom left dial it will say 1/2 foot. Make sure it is stopped and that none of the other gas appliances are making it spin. Make sure nobody in the house runs the hot water or uses anything else with gas.

With that 1/2 foot dial stopped, now go back inside and turn on the furnace, or have someone else turn up the thermostat or turn on the furnace, to make it run again, while you either wait at the meter or quickly run out there to watch that one dial. Stare at it for about 2 minutes, to see if in that interim, that suddenly it started to turn for a few seconds and then stop.

IF it does do that, wait again about 30-45 seconds and see if that meter starts up and tries to spin again for a few seconds again. And this time, if it does it, tell me how fast that needle turns on the dial; how far it rotated, so I can try to find out if the gas flow is about right.

Then on the inside large panel of the furnace, on the inside- side of the furnace, you should see the mfg. plate that tells who makes the furnace, and has all kinds of information on it. See what the "input btu's" are, and tell me.

These clues will help a lot.
 
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Old 10-30-08, 06:23 AM
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Won't the gas company check the flow for free?
 
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Old 11-30-08, 05:37 AM
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I have the same furnace and it's doing the same thing. We came home yesterday and the furnace had been working fine in the morning. I noticed the house to be a bit cold and checked the thermostat and it was only 2 degrees below what it was set for. Then, this morning I woke up and I was freezing! It was down to 18 degrees. I turned the temp up and pressed hold, then came downstairs..I heard the furnace click on and then I checked inside it to see if I could see the flame or anything and I could not. Put my hand over the vents and there was no air whatsoever.

Big winter storm coming today..

Should I just call Reliance Home Comfort (I recently purchased 'furnace insurance')? Or should I keep trying..
 
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Old 11-30-08, 10:58 AM
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Furnace insurance. Hmmmm. I wonder if they make same day or next day service calls, reliably.

We have to know what makes your furnace ignite, and then you need to stand down there and see if at least the ignitor part first tries to come on. We need to know if yours ignites by use of a direct spark to the burner(s) or if it relies on a spark to set off a pilot light, which you would then see burn a small little flame. Or we need to know if you have the kind of furnace that uses this HSI glow coil that gets real bright yellow glow. And we need to know if a small blower motor that exhausts the gas, comes on first.
 
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Old 11-04-14, 04:48 AM
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I know this thread is old, but I did not see a resolution to the original problem and we are having two of the issues listed in this reply: furnace runs continuously even when thermostat set to "off" and there is no heat when it is set to "on;" and, our gas dryer needs to be run twice on most loads in order for the clothes to dry.

I've noticed the dryer issue for a couple of weeks and thought it was just something going on with the dryer until a couple of days ago when we turned the heat on, but the temperature in the house kept getting colder. I don't think its a gas leak because there is no gas smell. I contacted our gas company yesterday to find out if they will come out and test the flow without a charge, but I haven't heard back from them on this issue yet.

If anyone can share how (or if) this problem was resolved in 2008, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks in advance!
 
 

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