Generators and Electronic Furnace Controllers

Rick Brandt · 2006-12-04T22:43:05+00:00

I live in St Louis and just got power back after losing it for four days for the second time in one year.The first time was in the summer and was merely inconvenient. This time I had to have a way to keep the furnace running. I first borrowed a generator (3550w), but I started feeling bad about putting so many hours on someone else's unit and figured it was time I had my own so I went out and bought a Coleman 5000w with the Suzuki 10hp engine.Problem (with both but more so with the new one) is that generator power is not clean enough for my new-fangled electronically controlled furnace (Trane hv-80). With the borrowed unit the board kept flashing an error code that basically indicated to replace the controller board. Fiddling around with it for a while and I was able to get it running. With the new one the glow igniter comes on and apparently causes enough of a voltage fluctuation to disrupt the controller board and I get a "check igniter" error code.Do other people have these problems? Between the midwest and the gulf coast we certainly have plenty of people who occasionally have to run on generators and electronically controlled furnaces are pretty much the norm now. Is my Trane just being particularly fussy? Everything else we powered off the generators ran great.Of course the "cover our ass" page of the generator manual suggests getting a line conditioner for just about anything that's not a light bulb. Do I really have to drop a few hundred more dollars on one of those just to get my furnace to run?By the way, what convinced me that this was the problem was that the furnace fired right up when I temporarily ran it thought my computer UPS. The UPS alarm squalled like hell because it wasn't big enough, but the voltage as measured with my voltmeter held much better and the furnace lit up. It would be nice if I could isolate the power to run the controller board from those that pull major amps so I could just get a conditioner for that, but it looks like...

Dec 04, 2006 26 Replies

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Bill 19 years ago

Generators produce "nasty" electricity. Ok for lights and motors, but not "clean" enough for anything electronic like a TV, computer, or anything which has an electronic controller like your furnace.

So place a power line conditioner or your UPS (many have a power line conditioner built in) between the generator and your electronic devices.

I connect my generator to my UPS when the power goes out and the UPS screams like a stuck pig (due to poor quality electricity), but everything electronic runs fine.

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Bubba 19 years ago

It's kinda like watching a little kid going up to a hot stove for the very first time. Bubba

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Tekkie® 19 years ago

jamesgangnc posted for all of us...

How would you like to be back fed you fundy idiot?

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Tekkie® 19 years ago

Rick Brandt posted for all of us...

220 - 221 whatever it takes...

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tksirius 19 years ago

Christopher; That doesnt make sense... You spray ether or starting fluid into the carb, not the actual air filter. Putting it into the spark plug hole is an option but not normally taken.

What did they do to the motor?

Tom

Storm> I like to run em dry.

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Stormin Mormon 19 years ago

The relative who had spray ether into the spark hole, it dried out the cylinder walls. The piston froze up. After breaking the piston loose with a large wrench on the flywheel nut, the motor was able to start up and run for about half second. Then it threw a piston rod.

Ether on the air filter delivers only vapor into the cylinder, much less likely to dry out the cylinder wall.

The generator was sold on ebay for about $75.

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DIMwit 19 years ago

Well, nobody said he had to spray the whole can into the engine. Just one little spritz will get 'er going if the spark is there (and timed correctly).

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