My dad had a Bryant Plus 80t gas furnace installed a couple of years ago. He's having some home improvement work done in the basement where the furnace is. The walls were bleached while the furnace was running. The fumes went throughout the house, so I turned the thermostat off and aired out the house. The next morning, the furnace would not ignite; the blower continues to run though. The LED is flashing 33 and after a couple/few minutes it changes to 13. I am not at his house at the moment to recite from the furnace panel what exactly that means but it is something along the lines of a limit circuit, draft safety, blocked vent or flame rollout is the cause. The two resettable switches have not tripped. What else can we do to troubleshoot it? We've disconnected/reconnected most of the electrical connections in case the chlorine bleach caused some corrosion in those contacts. But still no luck. Maybe the combustion blower is not kicking on to create the draft necessary before ignition?

When our Rheem (Criterion model) gas furnace was just blowing air, we called for a service person.

Within five minutes he found the problem.

A cracked HOT SURFACE IGNITER.

I was told that this part does not last forever.

The igniter looks like a 2 inch tall element (similar to what is inside an incandescent light bulb but flat, like a large paperclip) mounted on a square base that is attached to 6 inches of wrapped wires that ends in a two prong male plug.

Hot surface igniters are very delicate and the igniter part should not be touched by human hands because the oil on our hands will damage the surface (just like a halogen bulb).

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Here is the write up …

• Service call on a Rheem 80+ furnace.

• Found cracked hot surface igniter.

• Replaced igniter and cleaned fame sensor.

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$079.95 = service call
$040.00 = ½ hour labor at $80.00 / hour
$065.00 = hot surface igniter

$184.95 = total

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Terence in Brook Park, oHIo

Here is what a Rheem hot surface igniter looks like:

The LEFT one is good.

The RIGHT one is bad.

http://www.myhvacparts.com/images/goodnbadignitor.jpg

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Terence in Brook Park, oHIo

The service tech came and showed us that there is a 3rd resettable switch, in the flue, which is not shown on the diagram in the 8-page owner's manual. He said this is because this switch is only installed when the flue is vented to a masonry chimney, which is our case. My understanding is that switch is an additional BVSS (blocked vent safety shutoff). It tripped in our case probably because of the box fans that the contractor had going in the basement, causing a reverse flow in the chimney vent. He reset it and the furnace worked fine.

Thanks for replying to my post. I'll check for cracked igniter in the event of future furnace problems.

What does one do when the ignitor is only getting 8VAC? Shouldn't it be 1209VAC?
I'm getting Code 34, and I've done all the suggested bits. The only problem is the ignitor isn't glowing.
Any ideas?