You know the story, it's 5° outside, the furnace is running, the house is nice and warm, everything's just dandy. Then.., at 2 oclock in the morning it takes a shit! Well that's what happened to me last night. I was dozing off around 2am, and noticed the furnace sounded funny not HA HA. Our furnace ain't no spring chicken. I 'thought' it was a 1989 model, but after cleaning the label I noticed it was installed in 1985,.. uhhh 31yrs ago. So, I busted out the tools and a multimeter, and stayed up most of the night tearing it apart and troubleshooting it. The induction motor would kick on, but I didn't hear the ignitor relay clicking, and the gas valve was off. I searched Google & Youtube, found out how to test the components, and came to the conclusion that the ignitor module/pilot control had gone south. I was able to manually light the furnace with a BBQ lighter so we'd have heat for the rest of the night. Today I called my friends brother who has an account at a local supply house, and ordered the part through his company. My friend, who did HVAC work with his father for over a decade, helped me wire in the new control module. It took us 3hrs to figure it out, but I have a warm house again. Those guys saved my ass on this one..
Here's what we had to deal with...
The furnace: Lennox G16R down draft unit circa 1985. It's been a good furnace.
The failed ignitor module: Johnson Controls G600-AX1. It lasted 31yrs so I can't bitch too much.
The replacement 'universal' ignitor module/pilot control: Honeywell S8610U. It cost $115 and did the trick.
The finished product: We found a 'safe' place to mount the new module, extended a bunch of wires, and had to wire it 6 ways from Sunday to get it to fire.
My friend gave the furnace his blessing, he says it should be be ok for the rest of the season. I'm very fortunate that I got off cheap, and didn't get butt raped by a HVAC repairman on this deal. My friend said they likely wouldn't fix the furnace, and would've tried to sell me a new furnace for sure. In the meantime I'm gonna start looking at new furnace/ac units.
It's time....
Here's what we had to deal with...
The furnace: Lennox G16R down draft unit circa 1985. It's been a good furnace.
The failed ignitor module: Johnson Controls G600-AX1. It lasted 31yrs so I can't bitch too much.
The replacement 'universal' ignitor module/pilot control: Honeywell S8610U. It cost $115 and did the trick.
The finished product: We found a 'safe' place to mount the new module, extended a bunch of wires, and had to wire it 6 ways from Sunday to get it to fire.
My friend gave the furnace his blessing, he says it should be be ok for the rest of the season. I'm very fortunate that I got off cheap, and didn't get butt raped by a HVAC repairman on this deal. My friend said they likely wouldn't fix the furnace, and would've tried to sell me a new furnace for sure. In the meantime I'm gonna start looking at new furnace/ac units.
It's time....
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