3 Furnace Repairs That Impact Your Family's Safety
Posted on: 19 January 2022
Modern furnaces are safe and reliable, but that's only because of years of engineering and design to ensure that failures don't create dangerous situations. Much of this modern design revolves around using sensors to detect problems and shut the furnace down in conditions that may threaten your health or property.
While these protections keep you safe, it's still critical to realize when your furnace may not be working due to one of these problems. Repairing these issues as soon as possible is vital, especially since continually trying to operate a furnace that's triggering a safety shutdown can be hazardous. If your furnace has one of these three issues, you should schedule a repair immediately.
1. Failed Draft Inducer
Modern furnaces use draft inducer motors to pull exhaust gases away from the combustion chamber and into the outside environment. High-efficiency furnaces extract so much heat from combustion that the exhaust gas will not naturally rise and escape, requiring manufacturers to include draft inducers that create negative pressure. Even newer standard-efficiency furnaces have draft inducer motors.
Your furnace uses a pressure switch to prove proper inducer operation. A failed inducer can allow harmful exhaust gases to remain in the combustion chamber, where they can potentially enter your home. If your furnace's pressure switch triggers a shutdown, always have an HVAC professional repair the issue before trying to use your heat again.
2. Flame Rollout
Flame rollout is similar in some ways to a draft inducer problem. Your furnace produces controlled combustion to create heat, but there's a relatively small area within the unit where the flames should remain. Flame rollout sensors help detect any situation where the fire leaves the combustion chamber and enters other areas.
Flame rollout can be related to failed draft inducers since combustion gases remaining in the burn chamber can cause the flame to "hunt" for oxygen. Other potential causes include damaged heat exchangers or blocked exhaust channels. Whatever the reason, flame rollout is a dangerous problem that can damage your furnace or cause carbon monoxide to enter your home.
3. Cracked Heat Exchanger
Your heat exchanger plays a crucial role in keeping you safe. Combustion gases travel through the heat exchanger, allowing them to release their heat into your home without exposing the air you breathe to carbon monoxide and other gases. Unfortunately, cracks in your heat exchanger can allow these gases to escape, and your HVAC blower will rapidly distribute them around your home.
Checking the condition of your heat exchanger is part of any routine maintenance procedure, and you should never operate a furnace with damage to this critical component. If you suspect your furnace has a heat exchanger issue, stop using it immediately and contact an HVAC professional to conduct an evaluation and repair.
Reach out to a company like Central York Corp if you need a repair.
Share