Jiggly1984
Jan 13, 2010, 09:38 PM
Hi everyone!
I've been really impressed with the quality of answers on this board, so I'm hoping you all can help... I have an *OLD* GE natural gas furnace (model BLD080E936B1 - good luck finding anything on it... ) that just yesterday started blowing COLD air. It was set to "on" instead of auto because apparently "auto" wasn't working. Anyway, I checked the pilot light - it's lit, solid, and stays lit. The gas valve is functioning, and the blower works fine. However, the three burners will not light.
We had a guy come out and take a look this afternoon, and he told us two things: one, the thermostat was bad, and two, the furnace was shot (surprise?). He said the combustion chamber (or some kind of chamber) was bad. He then proceeded to touch a stripped black wire to one of the terminals on the gas valve, at which point the gas valve opened up and the burners ignited. He showed me how one of the burners was burning slightly orange and blue instead of just staying blue, and said that was very dangerous and he couldn't fix the furnace. He then removed the wire, and the burners shut off. I'm guessing that was the equivalent of "hot wiring" my furnace. I asked what would make it die suddenly, and he said that burner had probably been burning that way for months, and the thermostat just died, luckily for us. Then he quoted us $1600 for a new furnace.
We're getting ready to move, and I don't want to replace the furnace, especially not when it had been running fine for the past couple years. So, I went and bought a new thermostat and hooked it up, flipped it to "on" and the blower kicked on... so far so good. I went to the furnace and realized that the black wire he had stripped was supposed to be connected somewhere, so I found the only other bare black wire and spliced them back together, and re-lit the pilot light. I tried getting the thermostat to kick on, and nothing happened, whether in "auto" or "on." When I take that black wire and touch it to the terminal he did, the burners ignite.
So, long story short, I don't think it's the thermostat and the burners won't ignite unless I "hotwire" them. My question is, how can I figure out how to get the thermostat to get the burners to kick on? What could that black wire go to that would allow it to kick on - is there a fuse somewhere or some kind of sensor that could be faulty?
Thanks in advance!
I've been really impressed with the quality of answers on this board, so I'm hoping you all can help... I have an *OLD* GE natural gas furnace (model BLD080E936B1 - good luck finding anything on it... ) that just yesterday started blowing COLD air. It was set to "on" instead of auto because apparently "auto" wasn't working. Anyway, I checked the pilot light - it's lit, solid, and stays lit. The gas valve is functioning, and the blower works fine. However, the three burners will not light.
We had a guy come out and take a look this afternoon, and he told us two things: one, the thermostat was bad, and two, the furnace was shot (surprise?). He said the combustion chamber (or some kind of chamber) was bad. He then proceeded to touch a stripped black wire to one of the terminals on the gas valve, at which point the gas valve opened up and the burners ignited. He showed me how one of the burners was burning slightly orange and blue instead of just staying blue, and said that was very dangerous and he couldn't fix the furnace. He then removed the wire, and the burners shut off. I'm guessing that was the equivalent of "hot wiring" my furnace. I asked what would make it die suddenly, and he said that burner had probably been burning that way for months, and the thermostat just died, luckily for us. Then he quoted us $1600 for a new furnace.
We're getting ready to move, and I don't want to replace the furnace, especially not when it had been running fine for the past couple years. So, I went and bought a new thermostat and hooked it up, flipped it to "on" and the blower kicked on... so far so good. I went to the furnace and realized that the black wire he had stripped was supposed to be connected somewhere, so I found the only other bare black wire and spliced them back together, and re-lit the pilot light. I tried getting the thermostat to kick on, and nothing happened, whether in "auto" or "on." When I take that black wire and touch it to the terminal he did, the burners ignite.
So, long story short, I don't think it's the thermostat and the burners won't ignite unless I "hotwire" them. My question is, how can I figure out how to get the thermostat to get the burners to kick on? What could that black wire go to that would allow it to kick on - is there a fuse somewhere or some kind of sensor that could be faulty?
Thanks in advance!