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The Gathering of Handyman Knowledge

Redhunter1012

Senior Member
Supporting Member
It's never ending. Thursday evening we started noticing a little chill in the house. Turned up thermostat, heard furnace kick on, figured we are ok. 20 minutes later notice furnace ain't on, and still cold. I have a boiler system that is around 20 years old. Last year the heat exchanger started leaking and no one wanted to work on it, basically tried selling me a new system. Luckily a friend knew an old timer who came in and took the whole thing apart and re sealed everything. So now the problem is basically it will try to fire a few times, then lock itself out. So I turned it off, turned on the ventless in the kitchen, and plugged in an electric heater for the night. Starting yesterday I did quite a bit of searching the internet and downloaded several manuals and started really reading them. To be honest, my system really isn't as complicated as I first thought. I had a buddy who installs new systems come over last night and with a little troubleshooting, I believe it may be just an igniter, which is a relatively cheap fix. Hoping to find the part at the local place that used to service it. We made a call to an employee last night who said he was damn near positive they had a few of them in stock. I'm keeping my fingers crossed this fixes it, as each step forward gets quite a bit more expensive. I will update later with results
 

giles

Cull buck specialist
Supporting Member
Sounds like you've got a good handle on it! Don't rule out that t-stat being bad either. I've replaced a few flow valves as well. But I'm guessing with what you're talking about, you don't even have hot pipes at the boiler.
 

Jamie

Senior Member
5,691
177
Ohio
until last summer when we replaced our 21 year old gas furnace, I replaced the hot surface ignitor 3 times in 5 years years, and had the thermocouple replaced by a tech. it is very likely one of the two.

it is barely believable how much better our new system works than the old one. more efficient, more quiet and more comfortable in the house when heating or cooling. apparently the technology in these systems has come a very long way in the last 20 years. wish I had replaced that sorry old furnace 10 years ago. both our propane and electric bills reflect a measurable saving.
 

"J"

Git Off My Lawn
Supporting Member
56,741
274
North Carolina
Good news, it was the ignitor. It actually cost me the same at the dealer as it would off Amazon. 15 minute fix

Always a good feeling when you fix it yourself....

One thing I've always said, give it a try, worst thing you can do is not fix it and call a guy that you'd have done all along lol


 

hickslawns

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
39,721
248
Ohio
I think we allow these projects to intimidate us sometimes. Then we try it and think "why am I paying $75/hr for a repair man?" Glad you got it fixed.