"Open rollout switch circuit" error message in furnace.
A friend called me and said his gas furnace keeps shutting off. It's fairly new and a high effencincy type, which vents out thru PVC. It has a digital readout which says "Open rollout switch circuit". I googled that, and found a simple drawing which shows it as a sort of sensor, and found a picture of one. Not much more.
I emailed him the pictures and told him to shut off the power and set his meter to OHMS and check that switch. He said there are two of them and they are both turned to the ON or CLOSED position (Not open).
The outside temperature is well below zero, and he has kids, so I told him he better just call a furnace repair company. If it was an older furnace I could probably fix it, (assuming I could get parts), but I dont know anything about these "computerized" furnaces.
He called a furnace company, the guy is swamped with calls, but said he will come as soon as he can, but that could be several hours. The guy told him to use space heaters till he gets there. Even if I thought I could help, I doubt my truck will start in this cold, so it dont make any sense to try, knowing nothing about these kind of furnaces.
All I know is that it's a Lennox and it's giving that error code.
While I'm sure the furnace repair guy will get there before I even get a reply on here, I thought I'd post this to see if any of you know anything about it... I always like to learn new home repair stuff.
What's the purpose of these switches and what could be wrong?
I did tell the guy to make sure his intake and output pipes were not clogged outdoors. He said they are fine! He also tried another thermostat, since he had saved the old standard one when he replaced it with a programmable one last fall. That did not change anything, so we know the t-stat is not the cause.
Anyone?