I'm trying to help my friend fix his furnace. He has an Empire model 7088-2 Floor furnace. The pilot lights, the burners work, everything seems to be functioning properly. The problem is that it will not work with a thermostat. It's a two wire type set up, heat only, it creates it's own voltage. I checked it with a multimeter and it does register about half a volt. Most threads I've read have people complaining about their heaters not working, this one won't shut off. The thermostat seems to have no effect on it whatsoever. I've tried replacing it, I've even tried to completely disconnect it. Nothing I have done seems to have much of an effect at all, no matter what, the burners run at full blast. It would seem to me that if I were to disconnect the thermostat completely, shouldn't that cause the furnace to shut off? Could there be a valve of some sort that's stuck?

http://www.empirezoneheat.com/assets...088,7088-2.pdf


this is a link to the pdf of the manual so that anyone replying to this thread can have a good idea of what I'm talking about.

Thanks

 

Did this just start or was work done recently? If no work done, I assume you disconnected wires at the thermostat, if yes, try removing thermostat wires at control valve.
Sounds like a pinched wire someplace in the circuit.

 

They bought the house over the summer and this is the first time they've tried to use the furnace. I have checked the wiring to the thermostat and it's good. As a double check I disconnected the thermostat wires from the control valve. I also thought that since it was such a low voltage that the wires might be too long and the thermostat wasn't receiving enough voltage at the wall, so I connected a 1' length of wire straight to the control valve. Still no luck, I'm just confused because I would think that if the control valve was bad, the main burners wouldn't come on. I have checked the wiring schematic and everything seems to be hooked up correctly so at this point I'm pretty lost.

 

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Many of your comments are vague, like the one above. You need to describe specifically what you are doing and what happens.

" So I connected a 1 foot length of wire to the MV and MV/PV connections of the gas valve and the valve still wouldn't shut off with the wires connected."


You really need to start over and be a lot more specific about what is happening when you do various things. I really can't follow what you are doing with any degree of confidence.

 

Did you actually expect the burner to go off by shorting where the thermostat connects

If you take the thermostat wires off the valve and the burner is still on then you have a gas valve that is sticking. An extremely rare problem. You'll probably need to get a service PRO in there to check out/replace the valve.

 

Although this thread is old, it helped me fix my heater.
In my case the burners would not go on or off without stomping on the floor next to the heater.

I went under the house and jumped the connector where the thermostat connects to the gas valve solenoid, and heard a click, and the burners lit. I did this over and over until I was convinced that it was working perfectly.

I went upstairs and disconnected the t-stat, jumped the wires, and the heater seemed to come on ok, but wouldn't shut off without the stomp. I finally convinced myself that the t-stat was ok, and the problem was down at the valve.

I went under the house, repeated the jumper routine, but this time I put my hand on the valve to see if I could feel the actuation. The solenoid click was definite, and a slight bump was felt on energizing the solenoid, but no bump on deenergizing, unless I banged on one of the floor joist.

After a bit, I could hear the bump, a slight wumph, it was definite on energize and nonexistant with no continuity.

I banged the valve a few times with a small screwdriver, and the heater has been working perfectly ever since.

The pdf was helpful as well to help me understand where the airflows come in and out of the unit.

g. carter

 

Welcome to the forums.

You may have temporarily fixed the problem but if that was my heater I'd get the gas valve replaced. A sticking gas valve is a recipe for disaster.

That valve is not inexpensive but is still available.