Furnace Problems

[cmerry]

Our Armstrong Ultra 80 with ultra zone control panel worked beautifully for about 6 years. Now for the last year during cold temps, we wake up to a very cold house. Two different services companies have worked on this and replaced many parts including the zone control panel. During mild temps, the heat works fine. During cold temps, the furnace will intermittently shut off. Hitting the reset button, it immediately starts back up. In the morning, the furnace will run for an hour or so before it switches off again. If we push reset right after it has turned off, it will only run for 10 – 15 minutes. One company has completely given up. Several people have suggested something electrical but the service companies ignore this suggestion. Any experience with this?

[HKestenholz]

If service companies go through the whole preventive maintenance procedure:
+Clean and tighten all connections, sometimes meaning removing molex connectors and direct solder-wiring the connections.
+Replace the flame sensor.
+Measure and adjust the gas, chamber, vent and blower pressures.
+Check the power wiring and polarity.
If the entire procedure is done with all the jobs checked off the list, and it still has the problem, replace the unit.

http://www.heatpro.info heat/cool right-sizing

The Senate and House can not find a suitable health plan for the nation; they should open their own exclusive health plan booklet and start reading.

[Unregistered-edwin301]

Sounds like your draft inducer pressure
switch, or even a temperature safey are
the likely cause.

[Unregistered-www.spokentokens.com]

We had exactly the same problem last January with one of our two Ultra SX80 furnaces–at just under 5 years old.

We suffered intermittent problems seemingly related to extreme cold (-40 here), 24-48 hours of stress and cold each time trying to get somebody to come (you never have furnace problems in warm weather), numerous service visits involving cleaning and various other attempts to fix it, and them thinking I was nuts when it worked fine every time they tried to start it, and I explained how allowing it to ‘rest’ before trying to restart usually helped.

Finally, I saw others like myself on the internet (it’s a wonderful thing). The part we finally had replaced (that worked!) at no charge under warranty was the Smart Valve 43166/44479-001. Apparently some of them were manufactured in a different country and they later discovered they weren’t the proper quality.

Now we’ll see if they’ll do the same on the 6 year old furnace.

Good luck to you.

[Author]

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