• About Me
  • Contact Me

Frugal Living

Indulging in life, financially responsible

Furnace

School of Life – Furnace Igniter

November 22, 2013 by Andrew 1 Comment

I do not remember where I first heard the saying, “The School of Life” but I find that it is very true.  You see, the school of life charges tuition.  Whether that tuition is in the form of money or time, each mistake we make or uninformed decision has the potential to enroll us in the School of Life.  The best way to avoid hefty tuition charges, is to learn from other people’s mistakes and life lessons.  In the School of Life series, I will be sharing some of my mistakes so that you may learn from them.

Murphy’s Law

[blockquote]Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.[/blockquote]

Around the middle of October I decided that it would be a good idea to have our furnace tuned up.  We have a forced air gas furnace that was installed circa 2001.  While it did provide hot air when I turned it on, a tune-up coupon and the thought of three years of vacant house prompted me to call in a local HVAC company.  On the scheduled day, the technician came out and gave the unit a once over.  She made several repair suggestions such as removing the broken attached humidifier, replacing the flue exhaust pipes, and replacing a leaky drainage condensate hose.  All of these repairs were in the range of my DIY capabilities so I declined the $95/hr + materials work and over the next couple of days made the repairs in my free time.  I learned a bit about furnaces (tip for readers, always ask lots of questions when a tradesman visits your house) and our furnace was given a clean bill of health.  In short, all was well.

Fast forward a month and Shae mentions to me that the house feels colder than usual (our programmable thermostat varies the temperature between 60-64° depending on the time of day).  I look at the thermostat and it reads 57° in the middle of the day on a Saturday.  Something is wrong.

I headed down into the basement to take a look at the furnace.  My four years of college education basically boils down to how to take a big problem and break it up into a bunch of little problems.  The big problem was that the furnace wasn’t making hot air.  Commence troubleshooting.

  1. Has the electrical breaker tripped?  No. ✓
  2. Is the electrical switch on the side of the furnace in the ‘On’ position?  Yes. ✓
  3. Is the thermostat set to “Heat”?  Yes. ✓
  4. Is the gas valve in the “On” position?  Yes. ✓
  5. Does the furnace blower start?  Yes. ✓
  6. Does gas start to flow to the furnace?  Yes. ✓
  7. Does the auto igniter light the gas?  No.  ✗

With very little knowledge of how a furnace actually works.  I was able to deduce that the part responsible for lighting the gas on fire was not functioning properly.  Some gas furnaces use a pilot light, a flame that continuously burns 24/7 and needs to be manually lit at the start of each heating season.  Our furnace and most furnaces manufactured in the last decade have done away from pilot lights because they are not as energy efficient as lighting the gas on demand.

What I didn’t know, was where the igniter was located in the furnace cabinet, what the replacement part was, or where I could purchase said replacement part.  It was a Saturday with about 2 hours of daylight left before the temperatures would start falling very quickly.  Time to call the HVAC company and pay some tuition at the school of life.

$230 and 5 minutes of technician time later and our furnace was once again a roaring inferno.

GlowFly Igniter

Here is what I learned.

  1. An ignitor can be changed in less than 5 minutes with only a screw driver and a socket wrench (to take off the burner box door).
  2. The ignitor is located in the burner box (it usually has 1 or 2 little windows that you can see the burners firing)
  3. The flame sensor is also located in the burner box and can be cleaned and reinstalled at the same time.
  4. None of the big box home improvement stores (Lowes, Home Depot, or Menards) carry ignitors in stock, at least in our area.
  5. Ignitors have a lifespan of 3-5 years, meaning that you’ll likely go through multiple during the lifespan of your furnace.
  6. The $113 replacement part on the invoice is a markup of nearly 400%.
  7. PexSupply.com carries a variety of ignitors at reasonable prices.

I have already ordered and received a igniter replacement part for the next time that the furnace stops working.  With Murphy’s Law, that will most likely happen during a -20° ice storm right after a sharknado strikes town.

I hope my little story helps save someone else some tuition expense.  What is a recent goof that you made that others could learn from?

Posted in: House Tagged: Furnace, Heating

Recent Posts

  • Min/Maxing Car Sale for Highest Value and Lowest Headache
  • Buying a Car with Data Driven Decision Making
  • Hot Lunch
  • Baking with Dad
  • Winter Nights

Financial Goals

Recent Comments

  • James Spurr on Building a Self Watering Raised Garden Bed
  • suwaidi online on Total Cost of Ownership – Inkjet vs Laser Printers
  • bcimechanical on Troubleshooting a Gas Furnace
  • g on Troubleshooting a Leaking Whirlpool Dishwasher [UPDATED]
  • Christie on Building a Self Watering Raised Garden Bed

Archives

  • December 2020
  • December 2018
  • July 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013

Categories

  • Business
  • DIY
  • Finance
  • Frugal Boy
  • Frugal Girl
  • House
  • Misc.
  • Parenting
  • Reading
  • Recipes
  • Savings
  • Technology
  • Travel
  • Uncategorized

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Copyright © 2025 Frugal Living.

Omega WordPress Theme by ThemeHall