Furnace Problems - Blowing cold air - Please help

[Noon-Air]

I wonder if you have a clue

[Old Hvac Dude]

What a damn genius, you frickin nailed it! If you need a job I heard Stormy is hiring a helper.

[Bubba]

Damn, Einstein. You think maybe thats because you haven't miraculously stumbled into the free HVAC help line? Bubba

[<kjpro]

Are you Stormy&#39;s long lost brother???

[Stormin Mormon (on backup com]

Look for a very pale shade of green to tell if you&#39;re seeing 24 vacs.

[Stormin Mormon (on backup com]

I&#39;d go with a furnace repair man. For whatever reason, the gas valve isn&#39;t opening. That might be an easy electrical problem (which a furnace guy can find), or a gas valve that&#39;s defective.

Furnace guy can fix either electrical problem or gas valve defective.

[Stormin Mormon (on backup com]

Didn&#39;t you know? Termosta is Italian for frozen ice desert. Voltage comes in different colors. Vacs are one color, ohms are another, and.... never mind.

[Stormin Mormon (on backup com]

So, tell us. What happens when the thermocouple goes bad? The... doesn&#39;t stay.....

Fill in the blanks. No looking at the answers at the back of the book.

[Stormin Mormon (on backup com]

Is that the guy wearing the dress who says the furnace is the wrong color, and doesn&#39;t match the decor?

[Stormin Mormon (on backup com]

I know that feeling.

[Stormin Mormon (on backup com]

You have to ask? I decided several minutes ago.

[Stormin Mormon (on backup com]

Pay top dollar for guys like that. I like a tech with creative thinking. Doesn&#39;t matter if it fixes the problem, as long as the thinking is creative.

[<kjpro]

That&#39;s why you like yourself so much...

You fix nothing, yet you come up with fiction statements to *try* and cover your tracks.

[<kjpro]

Unless his name is Christopher A. Young

[trytobreak]

Ok guys, so here is an update. And a quite a weird one.

I listened to your suggestions and checked the furnace and tried to figure this one out. I tried to see if it&#39;s dirty inside, and it is, dirty. Not entirely hideous, but &#39;hey&#39; it&#39;s 20 years old and I doubt it was ever cleaned. I can&#39;t post the picture here, so just imagine, that the level of dirtiness inclines more to the negative side, if you know what I mean :)

So, it&#39;s not very clean, dust everywhere inside, but I doubt that it is less dirty than it was this March (when it was still running).

In my opinion this has nothing to do with how dirty it is.

Then I checked the electric box and as Edwin Pawlowski said in this thread, voltage is low. It&#39;s not enough, only 14volts... why? I&#39;ve no clue, because I don&#39;t have much knowledge of the topic.

In the mean time, pilot is still working, everything else seems ok, except the burned never goes on. And that is probably caused by not enough voltage, thus gas valve is not opening.

Anyhow, so because I know sh*t about what to do, I called an electrician/furnace repair man.

This guy walks into our basement, kneels next to the furnace, doesn&#39;t do anything just looks at the burning pilot, shakes his head and says, that we should immediately turn it off, if we don&#39;t want to die. I am looking at him, trying to figure out, how the hell he could find the problem so quickly without checking anything. So I asked him if he could check the electric box and the voltage. He said, that gas valve is not controlled by it and we need to replace the whole unit immediately and if I don&#39;t have the money, I should get a loan or financing. I repeated if he can take a look at the box, that there is not enough voltage and that from my point of view, if there are going electric cables from the box to the valve box, it is probably controlling the valve.

This got him really upset, but he checked it and said, that there is a problem with the box, it has only 14volts :) So, I asked if the transformer is not working. He said: most probably not.

So, he was a bit shaking at this point and told me that it&#39;s old, dirty. That cleaning will cost me $600 and the new unit $2000. That he won&#39;t repair electric box, because even if it worked, he doesn&#39;t want to have anything to do with the fact it will kill us afterwards... and so on and on... wouldn&#39;t let me say one word.

When he eventually stopped, I asked if he can clearly tell what the problem is. He said: electric box and that it&#39;s dirty. I said: I will clean it up, you repair the box. He said: No, got pissed, closed the gas going to our furnace and left totally pissed. I was walking right behind him, asking: "And, how much do we owe you?" He replied: "Nothing, if something happens here and you died, cheque/ bill would be a proof I was here and they could put me to jail!

Ufff... so he gave me a scare at the point where he would accept any cash, until then he seems only like a regular asshole, trying to sell me a unit without even wanting to take a look at what the problem is.

Can someone tell me what my next step should be? Should I call another electrician and let him repair the transformer from 120 to 24volt and run the unit, or forget it and buy a new furnace?

I am kind of worried now, because of what he said and he is definitely a bigger expert than I am, but I have to think logically too...

What do you suggest?

[<kjpro]

Look for someone that&#39;s competent and knows WTF they&#39;re doing. From your story above it sounds like you got a salesman that uses scare tactics to make sales. If that doesn&#39;t work he walks.

Just where in the hell did you find this guy anyway? (big yellow page ad?)

[Bubba]

Judging from his posts, Id say the OP is just another tightass. I mean, come on. He found a electrician/heating guy? WTF is that? Now he wants to call the gas company? TIght, Tight, Tight is all that squeaks. Find a competent guy and company. Then when you find the true problem and it turns out not to be a life and death need a new furnace problem, make it your mission in life to ruin that asshole that came in and scared you to death. If you dont, he will just keep on doing it. Call that company, call your local news station, write to the Better Business Bureau, call your state HVAC inspection dept, etc, etc. Bubba