Excellent and educational! I knew nothing about how a furnace worked until now. I appreciate the simple explanation and how to determine if my furnace has a problem.
Hi I live in England and we have Kerosene oil system as we live in a rural area, I service and repair my own oil fired boiler, self taught with the help of the Internet and tutorials on RU-vid at times. As an electro / mechanical engineer I am always interested to learn about anything thats working in our home. I often wondered about the furnace system as its a big beast and floor standing, here most of our boilers (furnaces) are wall mounted and much smaller, our system heats water and that gets pumped around the house via copper pipe and radiators. Many similar operations between your furnace and our boiler system ... really thought your tutorial was worth posting on just to say that anyone could follow it ... great video.
Here comes the cool weather! Is your #heating system ready? Get a refresher on how your #furnace works and what you need to do to keep it running well and efficiently this winter! #heatingandcooling #hvac #furnacemaintenance
Yes, either side is acceptable. We discuss humidifier locations at the beginning of our "How it Works" video for humidifiers. If you do a RU-vid search for "How it Works: Humidifier" it will pop up.
Outstanding quality video! The content is just the right amount of information - no fluff. The graphics and video shoot are crystal clear. I had to pause and watch it multiple times to absorb all the information. Very educative. Thanks Repair Clinic!
Natural gas is odorless, however, they put trace amounts of a chemical called mercaptan into the gas which has a distinct "rotten egg" smell. We're looking into whether or not there is a good natural gas detector on the market and we'll get back to you when we have an answer.
so I'm getting a new house and it's gonna likely have a gas furnace and I'm quite paranoid about them since I keep seeing videos on the news of some blowing up and leveling 5-20 house around them and the damage being quite catastrophic. I plan on having an inspection done when buying the home and yearly. I will get a CO2 detector as well. My ultimate question is A) what does natural gas smell like? B) Is there a such thing as a natural gas detector in case you have a leak.
I just moved into a new place with a gas furnace and I am terrified every time it turns on. The clicking and the igniting it just terrifies me. How did you end up liking having a gas furnace? I also have a carbon monoxide detector.
Very comprehensive! Homeowners should not attempt these repairs however, unless they are comfortable with the consequences of incorrectly repairing their furnace.
We're just going off of what the manufacturers say. The person who advised you may just have a personal opinion, but there are really no additional benefits to be gained either way.
hello. recently my furnace burner would not turn on. I checked all the signals and even replaced the gas valve. Finally, I discovered a way to make it operate by disconnecting the 12way connector on the main board and reconnecting it back again. Unfortunately, I have to repeat that every morning now !!. The main board LED would not blink indicating any issues it shows "normal operation" indication. !!. I have Goodman furnace "GMS8 90". Any tips on what to do next?
I have a Fraser forced air furnace that stopped working properly at the beginning of spring. A repairman came by today and found that the reason the furnace was not getting past the initial start up process was because there is a dead bird where the exhaust vent and the motor housing meet. It's not inside the motor wheel (because that was spinning enough to generate a weak exhaust flow), just at the exit of the motor housing. I thought all he had to do was remove to bird, vacuum out any dust, feather, etc. but he's insisting that the whole draft inducer motor needs to be replaces. Keep in mind the motor is working, it's just running too slow for the vacuum switch to close and the ignition sequence to begin (thank you for the "How Does a Furnace Work?" video - very helpful!). The repairman claims that he won't be able to get the bird our without it falling apart. And when it falls apart, he's concerned that it will "contaminate" the rest of the system and cause further problems. I asked if he could remove the motor assembly, clean it out and reinstall it since it's working. He insists that won't work, the whole thing has to be replaced. My questions are: is that a reason to replace the draft inducer motor? Could the bird be removed, the motor cleaned and house reinstalled w/o causing any damage to entire heating system? I'm going to get a second opinion as well as get the chimney cap inspected for openings but I would like your advice on the what my next step should be and if I'm getting good advice from the repair guy. Thanks!
I would assume if he cleaned it all and there was no damage to the draft inducer, the unit would run fine. Maybe he was afraid that the inducer motor might fail in the near future or something.
He might just not want to clean bird out of a motor assembly. You might be able to clean it yourself and put it back in. Worst case scenario it stops working and you have to replace it anyway and I just realized this is a two year old comment and the situation has probably passed
Hello, I work with Altierus Career College to develop online course content. In developing our HVAC Program, we came across this video and would like to include a link to it in the online course for student viewing. Please respond whether permission is granted or otherwise. Thank you! Maggie Lee
Hello. Great video. I live in an apartment and the gas furnace stops working during a power outage. Can I connect a vehicle battery or some other power source to the furnace so that it will run during power outage? Thanks
Thanks for this video!!!! You demystified this labyrinth, which helped me troubleshoot... which saved me $$$ in service call. In my case, I just had a clogged inducer fan vacuum port.
This still doesn't answer my question on why i hear a 10-20 ton-LIKE sound when my heat cuts off. Sounding like something is closing inside the furnace.
Hi This is a great video! I am with Carson Dunlop - Canada's most recognized home inspection firm and education provider for home inspectors. Can we have permission to use this video in our training content? Thank you, Andy Tran. Carson Dunlop & Associates Ltd.
***** Thank you very much. Can we include your other videos as well? We have hundreds of home inspection students enroll in our training annually, and hopefully this can gain exposure to your services, and the inspectors can inform their clients as well.
In a high efficiency furnace (2 pvc pipes) is the combustion process completely sealed and separated from the air that mixes into the home? I ask because a new Radon mitigation install has the outflow pipe outside the home within a couple feet of the intake pipe to the furnace.
Quick question. Accidentally dropped a plastic/metal TV cable staple down into the return plenum in a tight furnace closet. I can't reach it or see it because it bounced and went down the bend into the top of the gas furnace. There is no air filter that I can find and all the plenum is taped well. Down flow system. Do I need to get that staple out?
My landlord say he pays gas/heat . But a blower fan is required here with HVAC furnaces. That means I get hit with an electricity bill and resulting me "paying for heat" . Just a heads up guys in case you run into this issue.
This video allowed me to become a 'pro' in minutes, which will under normal circumstances, take a minimum of two years for a student to learn. Thank you.
so it smells like fart? & this is an EXCELLENT video, you've done a fantastic job of making a concise, clear in depth rundown of how a furnace works, you guys are the shit! I'm going to be selling these door to door so I want to know EVERYTHING about HVAC/water heaters, down to every last wire within the next couple months
I just smelled an awful smell of like melting plastic or something in a room by the basement where my furnace is located and not long after that, the furnace shut down. Is this a fire hazard? How was it probably caused?
I think it’s cool how some of the stuff looked like what I did in mechanical and how when the room temperature goes down the thermostat tells the furnace when to come back on
I need to replace a blower motor in a Carrier Weathermaker 8000 but the exhaust pipe/duct is directly in front of the blower motor assembly. How difficult (what are the steps) is it to remove the exhaust duct?
I hope this helps, my furnace was running that red light was on constantly which means there was no error. But it was blowing cold air. If that light is blinking it means there is something wrong with the furnace and it indicates an error code. That light wasn't blinking which means that everything was working properly as far as furnace basic system system. Furnace fan was working also as there was air coming out of the exits/vents. But it was blowing cold air. Which means the heat system of furnace wasn't working, so either gas supply was insufficient or the lighter wasn't working to start the flame. There is a spot where the actual fire burns or you can see the pilot fire burning, there was no light there. I took out the filer and will clean and put it back, but now the fire is burning and I can see the flames. I am not sure that it started working because i took off the dirty filter, I believe its not because of that but at least i was able to figure out what was wrong with the furnace. Now its heating properly, I will clean up the filter and put it back as my filter is a reusable/washable ECO filter.
I have a question: I moved into my house 9 months ago. All gas appliances. Within the last 2 months I've smelled as if something's burning coming from the vents in the house. The first time it was so strong it woke me up thinking it was a fire but I didn't see any smoke. I called the real estate agent in January expressing my concerns. He came over 15 minutes later, looked the furnace over changed the filter and said the unit looks good. Few days ago I smell the same thing only this time very faintly. The function of it is good. Puts out adequate amount of heat. Clicks on and off. at different times. Is this smell normal?? Should I be worried???
carbon monoxide doesn't smell like anything that's possibly the most dangerous thing of CO, it is imperative every home has a co detector in the home it doesn't have to be fancy just any type
Hi very informational video. Just wondering if propane or kerosene vapours enter the return vent and go through heat exchanger would there be a risk of fire?
Great Video! I've never worked on a furnace before, but saved myself a costly repair bill by cleaning my flame sensor as shown in the video. Thank you for such a helpful and informative video!
I agree with Lazy, "rather safe than sorry". Cause you will have stupid kids that want to repair their own furnace that will ask stupid questions like "hey my furnace makes noise, what is the problem?" and try to repair it knowing nothing. Those type of people should just call a repair man.
I was really dissappointd I learn nothing. With all due respect, I really wanted to understand how a blast furnace works. It is obvious to notice nowadays that so many scrap metal/iron are being collected/sold and I am interested to know how these are melted and recycled. Thank you.
Ernesto Garcia This video provides an overview of how a common residential furnace works. We do not create videos for commercial equipment like blast furnaces.
Yes that is true that electrical ones are safer and do not give out deadly fumes but it takes forever for it to heat up(30 minutes or longer) and many people prefer ones that run on Gas as it is quicker.
