Trane furnace doesn't want to turn on

Options
Posts: 1,585
edited October 2007 in The Clubhouse
One month into home ownership and my 20 year old Trane furnace decides it doesn't want to work. Joy. At first I thought it may be a bad thermostat (at least, I hoped it was) so I replaced it with an identical 20 year old Trane thermostat I took from our townhouse (replaced it with a Hunter digital but kept the original). No luck. I then reset the breaker twice which didn't do anything. I then decided to try to measure voltage on the four wires that go into the thermostat and I can't read a thing.

I talked to my Dad and he had me take the two doors off the front and open the black box that houses a transformer. That was a few minutes ago which was on his lunch break and he had to go. He said to try to read voltage on those wires to see if any of that is getting juice. I would measure at the breaker box but I don't want to have to open the whole thing up and potentially kill myself.

One nice thing, I think, is that our house came with a 1 year warranty. The downside is that we have to pay a $55 service fee for them to come check out the problem. I can understand why they do this as they would probably get 10x as many calls if they didn't have an upfront charge.

So, with that, can you guys suggest anything? I'll post back with what I find with the volt meter.

Thanks!
Post edited by Mazeroth on

Welcome!

It looks like you're new here. Sign in or register to get started.

Comments

  • Posts: 4,415
    edited October 2007
    well no reply yeat u alright over there?
    HT setup
    Panasonic 50" TH-50PZ80U
    Denon DBP-1610
    Monster HTS 1650
    Carver A400X :cool:
    MIT Exp 3 Speaker Wire
    Kef 104/2
    URC MX-780 Remote
    Sonos Play 1

    Living Room
    63 inch Samsung PN63C800YF
    Polk Surroundbar 3000
    Samsung BD-C7900
  • Posts: 7,350
    edited October 2007
    Electric? Gas? or Oil?

    If it's a combustion unit, my guess is the fan limit switch. It it's electric, it's probably in the controls.

    Sorry to hear of your woes Christian, good luck!
    Carl

  • Posts: 10,735
    edited October 2007
    I guess something can stop a trane.
    -Cody
    Music is like candy, you have to get rid of the rappers to enjoy it
  • Posts: 4,415
    edited October 2007
    LOL I gues so or at least Mazeroth
    HT setup
    Panasonic 50" TH-50PZ80U
    Denon DBP-1610
    Monster HTS 1650
    Carver A400X :cool:
    MIT Exp 3 Speaker Wire
    Kef 104/2
    URC MX-780 Remote
    Sonos Play 1

    Living Room
    63 inch Samsung PN63C800YF
    Polk Surroundbar 3000
    Samsung BD-C7900
  • Posts: 1,585
    edited October 2007
    schwarcw wrote: »
    Electric? Gas? or Oil?

    If it's a combustion unit, my guess is the fan limit switch. It it's electric, it's probably in the controls.

    Sorry to hear of your woes Christian, good luck!

    It's natural gas. How do you fix a fan limit switch or is this something a tech will probably have to do?

    Thanks.

    EDIT: Yeah, I'm fine. I'm going to check it right now. Something else came up. I'll report back. Over!
  • Posts: 25,576
    edited October 2007
    You should measure voltage at the breaker box. Unless you have metal hands, and a overwhelming need to poke your fingers in things filled with electricity, instead of a VOM....you will be fine.

    Just utilize caution.

    If your getting voltage at the breaker but not at the unit, it's probably fused and they are blown.
    CTC BBQ Amplifier, Sonic Frontiers Line3 Pre-Amplifier and Wadia 581 SACD player. Speakers? Always changing but for now, Mission Argonauts I picked up for $50 bucks, mint.
  • Posts: 2,101
    edited October 2007
    If you have a hot start ignitor (no pilot light) I'd start there. We went through three in nine yrs in our furnace in Seattle. I replaced two in our old gas oven that we just got rid of.

    They don't last forever.
    My equipment sig felt inadequate and deleted itself.
  • Posts: 7,350
    edited October 2007
    Mazeroth wrote: »
    It's natural gas. How do you fix a fan limit switch or is this something a tech will probably have to do?

    Thanks.

    The sensor is in the flue box, electrics are mounted with the other controls. I replaced one when I moved into my first house. I can't remember how I diagnosed it.

    Look Here

    Carl
    Carl

  • Posts: 7,350
    edited October 2007
    Rivrrat wrote: »
    If you have a hot start ignitor (no pilot light) I'd start there.

    Another high possibility.
    Carl

  • Posts: 1,585
    edited October 2007
    FIXED!

    I got 120v on the wire coming in and then I saw something in front of me...a safety switch that unless depressed doesn't allow the furnace to kick on. When I was installing the new hot water tank and softener I remember taking the door off to look at the pilot and filters and I must not have put the door back on correctly. Sure enough, when I depressed the switch POOF, the gas ignited and the fan kicked on!

    Thanks guys for all your help. Just goes to show how strong of a community we have here! :)
  • Posts: 849
    edited October 2007
    my next door neighbour had his furnace hooked up to a generator to heat his house during a long 10 day power outage and one evening it woudnt turn on the generator was running and other things were working but the generator would not turn on. it turned out to be the furnace was not getting enough apms from the generator so it was going into protect mode and not turning on. after letting it sit off for a while and turning off everything else hooked up to the generator the furnace started to kick back on.
  • Posts: 5,860
    edited October 2007
    I can understand why they do this as they would probably get 10x as many calls if they didn't have an upfront charge.
    So very wrong. Who's going to pay the technicians wages, insurance, licensing fees, union dues (not a problem here), pay for the service van, the inventory in the van, the insurance for the van, the gas for the van, the maintennce for the van? Rent/mortgage for the shop/office space?

    Would you expect a free visit to the doctors office anytime someone in your family felt ill? No? So why would I as an educated and highly skilled technician give you anything? I have a valuable skill that I busted by **** to get and I'll be damned if I give it away for nothing!

    Not every service call turns a huge profit, sometimes you barely break even, and sometimes you lose money.


    So here's your free service call...last one I'll ever do.
    If there's no voltage at the thermostat, you may have one or more of the following problems:
    1.) Bad Transformer
    2.) Bad control fuse
    3.) Tripped breaker
    4.) Bad line voltage fuse
    5.) Broken wire(s) or bad connection
    9/11 - WE WILL NEVER FORGET!! (<---<<click)
    2005-06 Club Polk Football Pool Champion!! :D
  • Posts: 849
    edited October 2007
    watch out for those home warranties. those guys are weasels that will try to get away without doing any work if possible. once they are at your house they are already garunteed the 55 bucks and so it doesnt matter to them if they are not going to fix your problem. if they can find some excuse to get out of it they will use it. usually means something like
    "oh this unit should be serviced every year. you dont have any records indicating that it was serviced last year so the home warranty doesnt cover it." or "the previous repairs were not carried out by a licenced professional and so the warranty doesnt cover that anymore"
  • Posts: 1,585
    edited October 2007
    Whoa, whoa, whoa, Frank! You took what I said totally wrong, friend. What I said was I have a 1 year home warranty. I can understand why the warranty company charge a $55 fee to come look at the problem (under warranty) because if they didn't charge the $55 people would call and want things looked at constantly no matter how petty the problem. Then the cost of the warranty would probably quadruple.
    Frank Z wrote: »
    So very wrong. Who's going to pay the technicians wages, insurance, licensing fees, union dues (not a problem here), pay for the service van, the inventory in the van, the insurance for the van, the gas for the van, the maintennce for the van? Rent/mortgage for the shop/office space?

    Would you expect a free visit to the doctors office anytime someone in your family felt ill? No? So why would I as an educated and highly skilled technician give you anything? I have a valuable skill that I busted by **** to get and I'll be damned if I give it away for nothing!

    Not every service call turns a huge profit, sometimes you barely break even, and sometimes you lose money.


    So here's your free service call...last one I'll ever do.
    If there's no voltage at the thermostat, you may have one or more of the following problems:
    1.) Bad Transformer
    2.) Bad control fuse
    3.) Tripped breaker
    4.) Bad line voltage fuse
    5.) Broken wire(s) or bad connection

Welcome!

It looks like you're new here. Sign in or register to get started.

Welcome!

It looks like you're new here. Sign in or register to get started.