Hello -

My furnace broke down yesterday and this is the issue, my thermostat says the unit is on but no actual air is coming out, upon further revision, I found out that the unit outside was not working, no flame or nothing.

The status light stays solid when the unit is off and it blinks twice when the unit is on, according to that little guide on the back of the cover, if the light blinks twice it means an end switch is open and the venter end switch needs to be checked. The problem here is that I have no idea where to find this venter end switch. Can someone please help! I am attaching pictures for easy reference.

Goodman model #: PGB30075-1

Thermostat model: Honeywell RTH9580WF

 

The following picture is the draft inducer motor. The orange wires are the end switch.



Is this blower running on a call for heat ? If not it's either not getting power or is bad.
Is it warm/hot ?

 

Hi PJmax - First of all thank you for taking the time to help me!

No, the blower is not running at all, when I try to turn on the TT, I can hear a click in the furnace but nothing actually comes on. When I was looking at it this evening it wasn't warm or hot, I would say it was cold since nothing was actually running. I assume there's no way to replace only the wires and I'm going to have to replace the whole draft inducer motor, correct?

 

The following is the manual for your package unit.
TechDocs/Goodman/Package Cooling/PGB/Manual/RS6300004.pdf

Do you have a voltmeter ?
You may need to check for voltage to the draft inducer. The motor could be ok and the control board has an issue.

 

I suggest you check the part circled in red in the attached photo. It looks like it has burn marks. Do the orange wires from the draft inducer motor PJmax mentioned plug into that part? In your third photo it looks like there are also burn marks on top of the inducer draft motor.

 

Even if the switches were open.... the inducer should still start. You're right.... that stat looks like it's been running hot. Could be normal though.

At this point I feel that the voltage to the inducer motor needs to be checked. It will probably be 240vac. You will be checking the Red and Brown wire where the connect at the control board.

Page 104 in the manual discusses heat operation and flow.

 

I see, now that I think about it, I never actually left the TT on for more than 5 minutes today since nothing was actually working I thought there no need for it, should I let it on longer to see if the motor gets hot?

I do have a voltmeter. I will check the voltage to the draft inducer; assuming there is power going to the draft inducer, what should I check on the control board to determine what's wrong with the unit?

 

Red goes to D1 and Brown goes to L2. After the thermostat calls for heat...... there needs to be 240VAC on those two wires/terminals. If the voltage is there..... the inducer needs to be replaced. If there is no voltage..... the control board is suspect.

My guess is you'll find the voltage present. It looks like the motor may have overheated and fried.

 

I want to clarify that what looks like "burns" marks on top of the inducer is actually me trying to clean the unit because it was full of dust

 

Oh... we thought you were using it as an ashtray.

 

I want to share a quick update to let you know that the problem was indeed the inducer motor. 200 dollars and 1 hour later and the furnace was working again. Thank you so much for the help!

 

I think I spoke too soon last time. I am having problem with the vent motor again, the difference now is that I am getting the status light to flash 3 times which corresponds to the code "END SWITCH CLOSED WITHOUT INDUCER ON" I read somewhere that probably the drain on the vent motor needed to be cleaned but this unit does not have a drain. Could the motor be defective or is it something else affecting the unit? Please help!!

 

The purpose of the end switch is to verify the vent motor is running. The switch is normally open and closes when the vent motor comes up to speed. I have attached two excerpts from the manual that was linked in an earlier post that outlines testing procedures. The switch is nor replaceable and if it is bad the motor has to be replaced.

 

Hi Firedawgsatx - I do not have a voltmeter with me at the moment. What I did though is disconnect the end switch (two orange cables) from the control board and set my thermostat to call for heat, nothing happened and the status light kept flashing 3 times. Should I assume that the switch is bad and I need to replace the whole motor again? I am wondering if I just got a bad unit or something else is causing the motor to go bad?

 

Without a meter here is what I would do as a test to see if the is end switch is the problem:

Turn off power. Disconnect the two orange wires coming from the control board that connect to the end switch wires. Then connect the bare ends of the two orange control board wires together. Turn power back on and call for heat to see if the vent motor starts up. That would at least tell you if the end switch is bad.

 

I wasn't able to connect the two bare ends of the two orange control wires together because they have a plastic cover and they do not fit into each other. What I did again though was to see if the vent motor would turn on if the end switch was disconnected from the control board and to my surprise it did (I guess I didn't let the thermostat on enough time the first time). I guess I will be replacing the vent motor again and hope that the end switch doesn't go bad again, if it does I assume I have a bigger problem than a bad motor.

 

You can use a small piece of wire to connect the two ends together. The reason the vent motor started up with the two wires from the control board disconnected is because the control board sees this the same as the switch being open at start up. However, the ignition sequence should not start unless the control board sees the end switch closed. You could leave the two wires from the control board disconnected. Call for heat and after the vent motor starts up connect the two wires together using a jumper wire and see if the furnace will ignite. Maybe the plug is loose where it plugs into the control board. Check that before replacing the vent motor.

 

I will check that tomorrow morning, anything else I should check before returning the part to the store? The reason that I ask is because the store I got the part from is closed Saturday and Sunday and if I am returning the part, it has to be tomorrow. You don't want to be without heat when a 1 year old baby is living at your house. The fireplace seems to be helping for now but I really need to get this taken care of. Thank you so much for all your help tonight!!

 

Without a voltmeter to check the end switch to see if it is actually stuck closed and causing the 3 flash code there is not much else you can do other than checking that plug where the orange wires connect to the control board. Inspect it carefully for any signs of corrosion and to see if any of the pins are sticking further in or further out than the others. Also make sure the plug is fully seated onto the board.

 

I recently encountered similar problem and resolved it mainly from reading this post. The LED light stays solid when the unit is off and it blinks three times when the unit is on and remains like that. I went through various diagnostics/service steps described in the manual referenced above and it seemed to indicate the venter end switch was failing because the switch tested closed using an ohm meter. Since the switch is enclosed within the motor housing the manual says to replace the entire motor. Before I invested that kind of money I check all the wiring and contacts, cleaned the flame sensor, igniter limit control, and rollout switches to no avail. I ran out and picked up a replacement Fasco electric motor and paid nearly 70% markup for what I could have paid online but I needed the part ASAP. It took about 10 minutes to replace and when I turned it on I got the 2 Blink LED code. I looked over the wiring diagram and realized the brown motor wire was plugged into the UNUSED pin instead of the L2. Once I made the correction my unit was running fine. Thanks for all posts.

Bill
Goodman Model PGB024050-1