Good afternoon all! Thanks in advance for any insight you can give me.

Last week our local HVAC company replaced the ignitor (listed on the invoice as Main Burner or Pilot Starter) and Single Circuit Running Phase Shifter in our downstairs furnace.

On Monday of this week I was upstairs cleaning and got hot, so I turned the upstairs AC down (from 78 to 76). This morning, the downstairs heater wouldn't come on and I'm now in a ton of hot water with my husband for having touched the upstairs thermostat. Our two story home as a two story foyer at the front and two story living room at the back, so he says that the downstairs furnace was running and the heat was rising, so the AC upstairs stayed on and that coolness came down keeping the furnace on.. so my adjusting the temperature upstairs kept the downstairs unit running for two days... which I can't speak to because I don't notice that stuff.

ANYway, I called the HVAC company back out and was told that the ignitor needs to be replaced again... and that it went bad because of the circuit board, so now we need to replace that too. (Per my husband I did not tell the HVAC company that I'd adjusted the upstairs temperature.)
I asked a lot of questions and didn't get many answers, so I finally climbed up into the attic (I'm 7 months pregnant) with the guy and asked him to show me what's wrong with the circuit board. He plugged his meter into the igniter's spot and showed me that the circuit board is pushing 122 amps into the igniter when it should only be pushing 115. And this broke the igniter. And it's going to cost $719 to replace it. I told him to replace the igniter and leave the estimate for the circuit board for my husband and he made it very clear that this will happen again, the circuit board is pushing too much juice and that when this igniter blows it won't be covered under their warranty because I'm not taking the proper steps to protect it.

So, my questions are...

#1 - Will a variance of 115-122 volts blow an igniter?

#2 - Is it possible that changing the temperature from 78 to 76 upstairs made the downstairs furnace run so long that it overheated and blew the igniter?

#3 - If you were me, would you spend $716 to replace the circuit board?

Thank you again for your help!

Will a variance of 115-122 volts blow an igniter?

NO

Is it possible that changing the temperature from 78 to 76 upstairs made the downstairs furnace run so long that it overheated and blew the igniter?

NO

If you were me, would you spend $716 to replace the circuit board?

NO Not when they cost 200.00 or so.

Seven months pregnant and in the attic? Helx NO.
You should have never felt so much mistrust in the service man to have to follow him into the attic so you could see his lie. You should have called a different company when you do not feel comfortable in what they are telling you since if they lied once they will again.

I'm now in a ton of hot water with my husband for having touched the upstairs thermostat

And pray tell where is mister wonderful husband while you were forced to climb into the attic? He should have been up in the attic instead of you or does he forget you are carrying precious cargo for the past seven months and do not need this kind of action with only two months to go.

My answers were given based upon your information.

Thank you for your response. I really appreciate it.

Do you have any thoughts on why an igniter would go bad in a week? Think I should get someone else to replace the circuit board? There's no convincing my husband that this wasn't my fault. I'd just like to fix whatever the issue is and move on to bigger things.

Do you have any thoughts on why an igniter would go bad in a week?

NO with this exception. When they were called back they might have broken the ignitor and then gave you a story about the board. Actually I would have the broken ignitor replaced by another company and see if it works if not then replace the board if the new company feels that is the problem. I would not mention the other company for now to the new company.


I remember when my wife was in your condition. It was always a joyous time in our home and the little ones came into this world. Post back with the results of the furnace job if you can.

Again I thank you.

Since they installed an igniter last week, I had him replace it today for free. I think that's why I got the big "this one won't be under warranty" speech. When I went up into the attic with him he showed me the broken one and it looked just like it did last week when their other guy showed it to me before he installed it... with the exception of a white spot on it. This guy said that the white spot was the evidence of the circuit board throwing it too much juice. And what do I know? I just believed him. Then he plugged in his meter to the connection and it read 122 volts. When I told him that seemed like a pretty small variance, he flicked the broken igniter and broke it to show me how sensitive they are.

It was just a really bad experience overall. My gut said he was playing me, but I needed someone with some expertise and nothing to gain from lying to me to confirm my suspicions. Thank you so much for giving me that.

At this point I've got a new igniter, again, and the unit is running. So if/when something else goes wrong I guess I'll call a different company and see what happens.

Thank you again for your help on this. I'm looking forward to shifting my concerns from HVAC to cuddling this baby. :)

Glad you got it going and you will enjoy that new baby for sure.

You did a good job handling the situation so you get one of these.