troubleshooting furnace for heat

PiPiFirecracker

while I'm sitting here freezing, i figured it wouldn't hurt to learn something... anyways enough rambling....
Furnace trouble sofar has been no heat

furnace people came, blamed the thermostat... got a new one, installed it still nothing.

accidently bumped the condensate pump which cause the furnace to turn on and work fine YAY! worked perfectly for a few days which should mean the thermostat is fine i suppose

3 days later the furnace is not working... turned the fan to ON with the thermostat.. no fan

checked the pump.. the pump pan was full of water, also noticed the outlet it was plugged into was not working...

used an extension cord, plugged the condensate pump into a working outlet, still nothing, pressed the float up slowly a few times and released it.. nothing...

not sure what is broken.. cause it seems to be everything

Marty S.

If there's 2 low voltage wires going to the pump wire nut them together. That will confirm or eliminate the pump being the problem.

PiPiFirecracker

I know the wires... what should I expect to happen? should i unplug it first? and just to confirm... there is a black wire and a red wire... you want me too wire them together????

PiPiFirecracker

because the two wires coming from the pump are already wire nutted to two other wires coming from the furnace

biggles

those 2 thin wires going to the pump are a saftey cut off of the 24V control for the entire system.as it should be wired it is more for the shutdown of the AC system with the condensate pump not working and still filling up with water from the AC run.the two wires open up and shut the entire control system down....thats why when you bumped it the furnace ran the H float switch made.....shut the toggle on the furnace unplug the condensate pump remove it wash it out empty it of all water so float drops down.reinstal the pump remove the 2 thin wires going to the pump and wire nut them together this will give you the furnace 24Vs back constant.the hi water saftey was suppose to tie into the signal out to the condenser to stop the cooling not the entire system......so just wire nut the low voltage thin wires to the pump and your good to go for the heating side....

Marty S.

Unless they have a condensing furnace...Then the float shuts everything off.

PiPiFirecracker

k, so i was about to take the pump off to clean it when I saw the second float switch, so i toggled it a bit... then plugged it in again, it must have been stiff... cause the pump started working again.... so I plugged in everything and turned the furnace back on... still nothing, so i turned everything off and wired the two wires together turned it back on and still had nothing...

PiPiFirecracker

also the outlet on the side of the furnace where the pump used to be plugged into doesn't work as of today... maybe its an electrical problem?

Marty S.

Could be. Did you check the breakers/fuses yet?

PiPiFirecracker

and i also poured water back into the pan so that it would trigger the float... sooo yeah the pump worked, but the furnace is still not turning on... no fan no heat etc...

PiPiFirecracker

yeah checked the breakers, we don't have fuses, everything was fine... switched em off and on again when i was working on it.... still nothing

Marty S.

Are the furnace doors on correctly? There's a safety switch on most that kills the power if the door isn't on right.

PiPiFirecracker

not sure where the door is.. unless its the one that is screwed on... cause we haven't touched anything between the time it started working 3 days ago till now....but I will go have a look see... oh yeah, any chance you know where the switch is on the furnace to manually turn it on for a bit?? its REALLY cold up here....

PiPiFirecracker

the only door i saw on the furnace is screwed on... so yes its definatly shut properly

beenthere

Check the fuse inside the furnace on the control board.