[Therindurr]

Been searching but so far I haven't found any information that really helps me.

I've lived in this house for about a year and a half now, it has the original furance in it(house was built in the 70's I blelieve). Last year the furnace worked fine, and had worked fine so far this year. I live in Arizona so we haven't used it much so far, its just now getting cold enough at night that its absolutetly needed. The unit itself seems to work fine, it lights and heats up, the blower comes on and works(ive pulled it out and turned up the thermostat, after furnace heats up it turns on the blower as id expect). However all of a sudden(as of two days ago, we had been using the furnace a few days prior without any issues), we get little air pressure/movement out of the ducts/vents and into the rooms of the house. If you put your hand up you can feel hot air, but its not coming out with any force. I'd imagine that somewhere we're losing either air pressure or all the hot air is leaking out at one spot early on, but I have no idea what I can do about it or how to check it. We really don't have the money for a repair man or such and we don't have a warranty on the house as we hoped nothing would happen and we would save some money so we can't call it in. (very dumb in retrospect but after having it for a year it didn't seem to be worth the continued expense and we hoped to save a little $ and put it into other things, bad idea as I stated).

Any help would be appreciated :|

[ravithas]

First check the blower runs without any friction. Look for any squeeky noise. Your blower might need to be lubed. Some of them are maintenance free.

Because of your furnace is continuously running without stoping on high limit, your blower is running, which is a good sign.

You could judge yourself by standing by the blower whether it's blowing enough to ciruculate the air through your house. You could also start checking the very first register from the furnace whether you have enough velocity. You might have your ducts, mainly the return duct pluged. Check the filter please.

Good Luck, Ravi :)

[Therindurr]

Thanks for the reply. ;)

Filter is brand new, replaced it before using it this year.

The blower seems to be problem free, I pulled it out of the furnace and turned the thermostat up, after the chamber was warm and the blower kicked on, it started right up, no odd noises, and moved some serious air. It seems to me that it would move enough air to push the hot air throughout the venting.

Return duct plugged? Hmm, hmmm...
Don't know.
Ill have to look around s'more.

Edit: no spot to lube/oil any bearings, believe this one is maintnance free in that regard. My fiance's uncle said that ours doesn't need oiled and he's fairly knowledgeable on the subject as far as I know. Id be asking him for advice but he's across country on vacation, ::shrug::

[ravithas]

Please note, most of the furnaces run at two speeds. In the summer it runs at high speed in "Cool" mode and in the winter it runs at low speed in (Heat) mode. You will not feel high velocity in the heat mode as the cool mode, if you happen to compare with summer function.

You could check by changing the fan from "Auto" to "Fan On" mode, you could check whether the velocity picks up.

Good Luck :)

[Therindurr]

The furnace was pushing out more heat/air prior to whatever the current problem is.

The blower/fan/whatever turns on and seems to me to run perfectly fine. :|

I'm not sure about modes and such, my cold air is provided by a swamp cooler in the summer. ;) totally separate from my furnace :) furnace is around 30 years old too, if that makes any difference or says anything about what I'm looking at.

Not my area of knowledge. :)

I kind of wonder right now, if I should go open the duct to the cooler and see how much air it can push through the vents. Hmm. It has a higher rate of air movement of course but I wonder if it'd be diminished as the furnace is, but anyway that probably has nothing to do with whatever the problem is.

Its hitting around 30-40 at night here and the house, with the furance on, is no warmer, the heat isn't dispersing through the duct/vents. Despite the blower working.

Thanks for your help :)

[labman]

Do the ducts run in a crawl space or attic where you can look them over and spot a big problem with them coming apart or something? If you have a fan only setting, does it provide the same strong flow of air as the A/C?

[Therindurr]

The a/c blower and the furnace blower are different.

No basement, or attic. The vents/ducting is in the ceiling(of course) but there's no way to get to them that I'm aware of. The ceilings in the rooms is higher than the ceilings in the hallway. The ducting mostly runs above the celing in the hallway with the vents being above the doors in the bedrooms.


Edit:
I got up on a chair and used a flashlight to look into the ducts. One of the ducts lets me look right above the ducting coming from the furnace itself and there's nothing, anywhere that I can see, preventing air flow. You can feel hot air coming, lightly, through the vents and id say its about what I would expect. I've just been reporting what my fiancé tells me is the problem. ;) (I work 3rd shift and am not usually at home at night, I'm off tonight and will see how warm the house is this evening).

Thanks for the help all, I personally don't see anything wrong with the system so who knows...