Flame Rods Coleman furnaces.....

[The Henchman]

I have a 13 year old Coleman nat gas furnace with a two stage gas valve and igniter, not a pilot light. I've only owned this house for 4 months but the service records on this furnace seem to suggest the flame rod cause problems once a year and service people are called out in march/april/may to clean the rod after a cold Canadian winter.

Basically the 1st stage of the valve, a low stage kicks in and ignites and it seems to take 7 seconds to kick into the high stage. Once the high stage kicks in, furnace shuts down. Seems this flame rod is a safety device that shuts the solenoid on the valve down. I watched the repair guy take the rod out and clean it, although he seemed to think the valve had unspecified issues, his back-up idea was the rod was car boned up so he cleaned it. He did not read the servicing reports from the prior owners as they are not posted on the furnace. The furnace has been fine since that rod was cleaned. The serviceman I used is different company from the old owners.

Is this rod something I can take out myself and clean periodically? Or is this space age-metal that only a qualified tech can touch. Looks fragile, but it gets serviced every year. No I don't plan on touching the valve or anything else!!!! The rod only sends a signal to shut the valve when it falsely detects improper flame (can't detect much right when you are carbonned up)

BTW burners are clean and air flow for the flame is great. Dunno why the rod is so fickle when it fires up. We need the furnace for 7 months to 8 months a year.

[The King]

Call the douche bag hack tech back and tell him to adjust the gas pressure per manufactures specs.

[The Henchman]

When you say manufacturer's specs do you mean the furnace or the valve?

Apparently, this valve is not an original part. it's a two-stage valve that was installed after the furnace was. My guess, and this is not the serviceman's guess, it was installed to quiet down the furnace fire-up. A teenager's bedroom was across the hall from the basement furnace room. He seems to think this valve is quirky, not faulty, but quirky. He did adjust the pressure on the valve, on the low stage anyways. I watched him. Dunno what reference he used to make his adjustment. This guy works for a company that services Coleman furnaces and A/Cs. He's middle aged, maybe 50.

Service records indicate yearly flame rod cleaning. Not sure if this was scheduled or emergency calls. They might have been scheduled for all I know. Records prove this rod is cleaned same time frame (March or April) every year Remember I've only owned this place for 4 months.

Flame rod senses faulty flame on high stage fire-up, trips the gas valve solenoid.

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, No error code?

[Hermann]

Might be propane fueled furnace. For some reason the flame sensor on those models tend to get dirty more often. Also cleaning them with fine steel wool doesn't damage the coating as rapidly. The does come a time when the flame sensor does need to be replaced. Using the proper meter will guide you on this. An over pressure on the Gas valve tends to stress heat exchangers and sometimes clogs up the far tight chamber in the secondary exchanger(If this model has that)

[Lefty]

"Oscar_Lives" wrote >>

Funny how this sounds like your typical alt.hvac hardcore reg response, troll-like in other words. However, it's the best piece of advice he's gotten in this particular case. Strange id'nit?

We have no way to find out, but I'd bet my bottom dollar the execs at York/Luxaire/Coleman would'nt ever have one of these units in their own personal homes, for safety reasons.

HTH, Lefty

[Don Ocean]

There are sure a lot of all of those makes out there and working just fine. Properly installed/Properly maintained Units that have reached their golden years and are finally paying for the investment of installation. So how many of you have graduated from repair, to parts replacers, to replacing the whole unit when the evil thermostat destroys the Furnace/AC?

[Steve]

thermostat??

[Don Ocean]

All homeowners blame the Thermostat.

[Steve]

or...... "It needs some more Freezone"

[Lefty]

"Don Ocean" wrote in

I'm talking about COLEMAN/EVCON units, of the era when Luxaire bought them out (Not York or Luxaire units, but that's another story). Like Oscar said, they were'nt "to spec" when they were built. Single burner, residential, yet barely 80%, piecework controls scheme, yet built in the 90's, now that's a dinosaur. They are shit, plain and simple. I don't care what ANYONE says. Thermostat, indeed.

Lefty