Good morning Everybody!
I'm late this morning because I just got off the phone with my best cobber, Rodney from Tasmania. I've never been one for long phone conversations, but Rodney and I usually talk for 2 hours or more. Thank God for speaker phones because my hands can't hold onto anything for more than a few minutes.
I hope Everybody had a fun and safe New Years Eve. For my wife and I it was just another night. She had Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off from work because it's no trouble for her to find people to work for triple pay. New Years nobody wanted to work for double pay so she had to. That's the trouble with being a nice General Manager. She won't force people to work, so she has too.
I had an eventful New Years Eve. I thought I had a pork lion in the freezer for dinner today, but I thought wrong. I had to go to the grocery store. Judging by all the people in the store I thought "they must be giving out free beer". Oh well I found a beautiful pork lion for $1.99 per pound and some other good deals as well. To top it off I checked my grocery store app and they had an electronic coupon for $10 off of a $50 purchase! I love saving money.
The events continued when I got home. I see my little beagle, Sophie shivering and I thought "it is kind of cold in here". I check the thermostat and sure enough it was only 64, it's set for 70. I see the thermostat says the batteries are low. I know that should not be the problem, but I was hoping. I replace the batteries and just as I expected, still no heat.
What's the chance of getting a HVAC technician late in the afternoon on New Years Eve? I thought "slim to none and slim is going out for the night". Guess who gets to be the HVAC tech? Me, do I have HVAC experience? Very little, but I am the odd man out. Time to learn how a high efficiency central air system with gas fired forced hot air works. I never worked on one of these before.
As it turned out this modern thing has a circuit board with diagnostic lights and a chart to tell me what they mean on the inside of the cover. The fault code said it was the pressure sensor switch open. Ok... what does a pressure sensor switch do? Let me see if there is an online service manual, nope. Frigidaire says "servicing furnaces is dangerous, call a certified technician" Thanks for nothing. Let me look at the schematic, ok the pressure switch allows current to pass to circuit board to allow the ignitor to light the gas.
(I'm back again, got side tracked when my little man (grandson) woke up. Even thought it's just him and I we are going to have a big holiday breakfast; bacon, sausage, fried ham, eggs and toast. It won't cook itself, so I had to get it started.)
The pressure sensor switch is a simple diaphragm operated by pressure or vacuum. I pull the air supply tube, the diaphragm works both ways, no help. I bypass the pressure switch and reset the furnace. Ignitor comes on but no gas flow. New fault code; "1 hour lockout". I guess that is something for safety? I pull every connection to everything and clean them while I wait. Finally, tired of waiting I reset the furnace, thank God it lights and has been operating fine ever since.
Maybe it was simply a stuck pressure sensor switch? I don't know, but I think I will have to find out sooner rather than later.
I know a wholesaler that sells appliance & HVAC parts, maybe they can get me a manual, I hope so.
