Payne with power venter problem

magicatt · 12-11-2010, 11:42 AM

I have a Payne PG8JAA/MAA vented with a power vent. When there is a call for heat before the power vent has shut down fully, the furnace goes into lockout (code 23). At that point, the power vent stays on indefinitely and the house gets very cold. It can be reset by turning the thermostat off and waiting for the power vent to shut down before restarting. We have tried setting the cycle time lower and bought a new thermostat but still have the same problem. We did have the guy who installed the furnace come back to look at it a couple of times but he really wasn't good at troubleshooting. It doesn't happen all the time, just when there is a call for heat before the power vent is fully shut down but it has happened when we aren't home to catch it, so we would really like to stop it from happening. Is there something I can do to fix this problem?

yuri · 12-11-2010, 11:52 AM

How old is it. Probably the ventor fan relay on the circuit board is sticking On and you need a new board. The new board is probably a retrofit and can be quite tricky to install as it has adaptor cables and needs a fair mech knowledge to do.

magicatt · 12-11-2010, 12:33 PM

While it is possible that the fan relay is sticking, it is only doing so during the 45 seconds that it takes for the power vent to shut down. The problem can be intentionally manually recreated by pushing the temperature setting up on the thermostat (making it call for heat) while it is shutting down (during that 45 seconds).

yuri · 12-11-2010, 01:01 PM

The relay has to release and then the ventor fan slows down, loses vacuum and then the pressure switch opens and the board checks for that B4 it allows another cycle to start. There usually is a timing circuit to prevent nuisance lockouts but I suspect your board is faulty. You are confusing it. I have worked on hundreds of those units and replacing circuit boards with intermittent problems happens all the time. Relays wear out and stick and solder joints break on those older boards. There should be NO call for heat B4 the ventor fan shuts down unless your tstat is faulty and short cycling or cutting in for no reason. Try a new Honeywell Focus Pro tstat from HDepot if that is the case.

magicatt · 12-16-2010, 11:27 PM

We seem to have fixed the problem. It turns out that the technician who installed it wasn't good at reading wiring diagrams either. He had some things wired incorrectly. We're surprised it was running at all. Thanks for all the help.

hvaclover · 12-17-2010, 02:59 AM

You can't wire that furnace incorrectly. The board uses a plug in harness. What is there to mis wire?

magicatt · 12-17-2010, 11:00 AM

He wired it so the thermostat out and the power ventor in and out were connected to one furnace terminal but only the power venter out was supposed to be connected to that terminal. We're surprised it was working at all.

hvaclover · 12-17-2010, 12:58 PM

You post is little hard to unerstand.

You say he wired the inducer and stat together?

sorry but that makes no sense to me.

magicatt · 12-17-2010, 01:32 PM

It's not supposed to make sense. It's just what he did.

hvaclover · 12-17-2010, 04:45 PM

Do not take a smart butt attitude. You posted a question that pros and knowledgeable DIYers will respond to.
We don't have time for posters putting up gibberish just to entertain them selves.

You have a furnace problem post it so it's understandable or move on.

magicatt · 12-31-2010, 08:25 AM

I wasn't trying to be flip, I was simply stating what the "reputable" professional who installed the furnace had done. I have no idea why he did what he did, so I can't explain it to you any better. I had also said that the problem had been fixed by the time that you asked for clarification--actually, you asked for clarification on HOW I fixed it. I simply told you what had been done. There's no need to be nasty.