???Propane Furnace Qestion???

dragonflyz9C · #1 04/19/08, 10:53 PM

Our furnace started making some loud noises. We had someone come out and look at it. He said it was the fan wheel. He wrote down the part number and measured the old one then had it ordered. A few days later he came back with the part and when he went to put the new wheel in it was bigger than the old one. He had to pry it in, but it rotated smoothly and ran fine. He said this would work until he got the right part ordered.

A week or so went by and we didn't hear back from him. Meanwhile the furnace had stopped working altogether. We called him to come out with the new part and to see why it wasn't working this time. Now bear with me, because I'm not an electrician and I don't know much about it... He said that the negative portion on the circut board was blown out. I could see the black where it had shortet out. He tried soldering it to see if he could repair it, but it only worked a little bit before it did it again. (This was before he put the new wheel in.)

Now my question is.....???? Is it possible/probable that the illfitting part he put in could have caused the damage to the circut board? There wasn't anything else that I know of that happened, like a power outage or anything like that.

Your thoughts on the matter are greatly appreciated.

poppy · #2 04/20/08, 12:22 AM

If the fan turned freely, I doubt it was the problem. Next time it rains, check and make sure you don't have a leak around you vent through the roof. I have seen a drip build up water on top of the furnace and drip down on the circuit board.

Toads tool · #3 04/20/08, 06:19 AM

How old is the unit?
I wouldn't think a free flowing wheel should cause any problems.
It the fan had bound up you would have heard it and probably even smelled it, belt slipping or motor overheating.
Even if it had bound it would have burnt up the motor not the circuit board, at least that's my thoughts.

Around here if there's a problem with a fan or a circuit board then it's usually replaced, the whole fan assembly and a whole new circuit board.
They've had too many problems with call backs and people questioning their work when they tried to save people money. With a new unit they can get some type of manufacturers warranty that they don't get with parts.
The fact that you have someone that is willing to replace parts and not whole units is rare and should be appreciated.

He actually tried to solder a circuit board for you? WOW, I'd bake him some cookies.

**Ross** · #4 04/20/08, 07:38 AM

Sounds like your serviceman is going out of his way to keep your costs down.

dragonflyz9C · #5 04/20/08, 09:41 AM

Thank you so so much for your responses. You all have put my mind at ease about the whole situation. I really don't know much about the inner workings of a furnace. The thing that I was concerned about was the timing of the breakdown, having been right after the work he had done. The furnace is less than 5 years old.

Having only lived in the area a few years and not knowing who to trust with costly repairs, it is sure nice to know that we have found someone that is willing to go above and beyond what others might do.

Thank you thank you

dragonflyz9C · #6 04/20/08, 09:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by poppy

If the fan turned freely, I doubt it was the problem. Next time it rains, check and make sure you don't have a leak around you vent through the roof. I have seen a drip build up water on top of the furnace and drip down on the circuit board.

I believe the furnace vents out the side of the foundation.

ninny · #7 04/20/08, 10:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dragonflyz9C

Thank you so so much for your responses. You all have put my mind at ease about the whole situation. I really don't know much about the inner workings of a furnace. The thing that I was concerned about was the timing of the breakdown, having been right after the work he had done. The furnace is less than 5 years old.

Having only lived in the area a few years and not knowing who to trust with costly repairs, it is sure nice to know that we have found someone that is willing to go above and beyond what others might do.

Thank you thank you

Several things I see wrong here. First off, why did a blower wheel go bad in less than five yrs.? That's very unusual. And as far as the service man having the wrong wheel, that's uncalled for. You have the diameter, width, direction of rotation and shaft size and that's your blower wheel. If he brought the wrong one, he's not much of a svc. man.
Second, the printed circuit board may very well be under warranty if your furnace is less than five yrs. I'd check my warranty papers if I were you.
And as far as the timing of the blower wheel going bad at approx. the same time the circuit board went out, I'd just say coincidence. I've seen that happen too many times and trying to explain to a homeowner how it happened is hard to do.

.

dragonflyz9C · #8 04/20/08, 02:22 PM

We did not purchase the furnace. It was here when we bought the house. We have no papers on it. So I doubt we can do anything about a warrantee.

The fan wheel was "crimp welded" ? at the center of the wheel and the and the center of the wheel broke loose at the welds. The service man owns runs his own company and didn't have the part. He took the part number off the furnace and ordered it. For whatever reason it came back slightly bigger. He only put the wrong fan wheel because we still needed to run the furnace (we live in MN). The idea was to only use the wrong part temporarily until the right part would come in. Meanwhile, the circut board shorted (on the neg. side)>

Because of the timing of the circut board shorting, I just had to make sure they weren't related to feel okay about parting with all of my money for the repair...as money is tight ( like many people 'round here).

ninny · #9 04/20/08, 03:05 PM

The furnace is warranted by the manufacturer, and might still be under warranty regardless of who had it put in. If you could get the name of the furnace, model and serial number off the name plate you might be able to go on line and check the warranty.

I understand about the blower wheel, I've seen them do the same thing. It's still unusual for one to fail in 5 yrs.

You ever need a part for your furnace-A/C again, here's a website you can check out for your part, especially something as generic as a blower wheel.

www.johnstonesupply.com

If you don't feel comfortable trying to find your part, ask the svc. man to look at this site and see if he can find your part. I've had all kinds of trouble with manufacturers sending the wrong parts, even when given the mod/ser. numbers.

.