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snazzysupernift · Feb 7, 2010, 06:45 PM

We have an approximately 4 year old Amana gas furnace. This is our first winter in the house. After running the heat for maybe a month or so, one night we noticed that it was turning on, running through the test cycle, and shutting off (obviously failing a test), and then starting back up and completing everything and heating the house to the desired temperature. After a week or two of this, the furnace stopped working. We had an HVAC tech come out and replace the circuit board and gas valve. We also had our furnace chimney cleaned, inspected and capped. As soon as the tech left, it failed it's initial test cycle, stopped, started back and went about it's business.

After about 30 days, it started failing the test cycle periodically, maybe once a week. I feel like it's getting more frequent (and of course this is only the times I notice it). It is still operating and heating the house fine.

I cannot seem to find any information telling me if this is normal. Should it be periodically failing the test cycle? Is it some sort of system check? I did notice that the last time it failed, it was very cold out (20s with snow on the ground) and quite gusty out.

One other thing I noticed it doing- if I turn the thermostat down at night, when I turn it back up in the morning (from 64 to 68), it will run until it gets to 66, turn off, and then run again until it is up to 68.

I am not sure if we should have the HVAC guy out again or not. It is working and keeping the house toasty. Any thoughts?

hvac1000 · Feb 8, 2010, 12:18 AM

You have a very intermittent problem. Let it run until it fails more often then the defective part will be more pronounced.

snazzysupernift · Feb 8, 2010, 06:48 AM

The problem with this approach is that it did the same thing last time, then just up and stopped working and we were stuck with no furnace in cold weather for a week. I decided to just bite the bullet and have the HVAC tech come out... better than being nervous that each time it starts up it is going to fail for good.

snazzysupernift · Feb 8, 2010, 09:08 AM

Had the HVAC guy out this morning. The flame sensor was dirty and he cleaned it off. Could not find anything else wrong with the system and could not get it to reproduce the "problem." Since the system is not locking out and requiring us to restart it, he felt as though it was "normal" and not behaving in a way that was not typical. The problem is that we can hear our furnace every time it starts up and runs through the various steps since it is very close to our kitchen door. Thank you, HVAC1000, for your input.

snazzysupernift · Feb 8, 2010, 09:08 AM

Had the HVAC guy out this morning. The flame sensor was dirty and he cleaned it off. Could not find anything else wrong with the system and could not get it to reproduce the "problem." Since the system is not locking out and requiring us to restart it, he felt as though it was "normal" and not behaving in a way that was not typical. The problem is that we can hear our furnace every time it starts up and runs through the various steps since it is very close to our kitchen door. Thank you, HVAC1000, for your input.

snazzysupernift · Feb 8, 2010, 09:08 AM

Had the HVAC guy out this morning. The flame sensor was dirty and he cleaned it off. Could not find anything else wrong with the system and could not get it to reproduce the "problem." Since the system is not locking out and requiring us to restart it, he felt as though it was "normal" and not behaving in a way that was not typical. The problem is that we can hear our furnace every time it starts up and runs through the various steps since it is very close to our kitchen door. Thank you, HVAC1000, for your input.