Gas furnace question (house, cabin, gas grill)

[vec101]

Any ideas on what is going on? Any info greatly appreciated:

Cabin remodeled, went with gas furnace (used to have electric). Furnace in for 1 year, one day in Oct/Nov 07 furnace not work - repairman replaced electric ignitor - furnace worked.

2nd year for furnace, is October, furnace not working, suspect electric ignitor.

Trying to get a repairman up there. It's a second home so it's used a lot on weekends, not often during week. Furnace has worked this fall -- not used all summer but has been used a few times in the last month or so. No air conditioning (if that is useful info).

[snorpus]

Just some random guesses...

Since the furnace is off a lot, could there be air mixing with the gas in the line near the furnace, causing you to have a too-lean mixture (to use an automotive term) when you first try to turn it on? I know if my gas grill sits idle for a long time, it takes a while for "pure gas" to be coming out the burner.

Any chance of insect-type critters taking up residence (or leaving behind eggs) in the orifice, blocking the flow of gas?

Can you get into the furnace and try to light the flame, maybe with one of those long igniter things? (Obviously be careful with this!)

Is the gas not lighting at all, or is it lighting and then dying out very quickly. There's a thermocouple in the gas line that the flame is supposed to hold open, maybe it's not the igniter (it shouldn't fail in a year) but the thermocouple.

[Hinton Bound]

If the igniter is burned out again, I'd look at the igniter control module. It's probably sending a continuous "Ignite" signal, causing the element to burn out. Not uncommon is large industrial heaters.

[David Kennedy]

Look in the control panel door...with the power on you will see a blinking red light...count the blinks. Open the panel and read what the code says...will tell you the problem...

[vec101]

Thanks for all the great suggestions. Will check them out.

[harborlady]

Rats I was hoping to open this thread again and see it fixed. I never saw a control panel with a light on it before. Don't forget to update us vec.

[snorpus]

Another possibility occurred to me... there must be one or more valves in the gas line, a main one for the house and maybe another one just for the furnace. Maybe one of those isn't open all the way.

[vec101]

TY

and will let you know the outcome.