Heating part of the Air Conditioner doesn’t work properly

[Mrs. P]

Brothers Heating and Air. ALL of their techs have to be NATE certified. The other companies do not require this. My son works for them, he is listed as one of the top 100 techs in the USA. However he services a different area than SC.

[abcdef]

We've learned where the heat unit is in the attic in SC , the condensation line in the heat unit freezes up when it gets cold , hence the ignitor on the heat unit fails to ignite . One only needs to use a hot air hair dryer on the PVC pipe to thaw out the condensation line up in the attic so the heat unit will then ignite , hence the heating unit will work fine . Had it happen last January , again this January . One only needs to put insulation pipe cover on the condensation pipe in the attic to prevent this happen for when it gets too cold in the attic & the condensation pipe freezes . A built in safety fault that is easily corrected when the builder or furnance installer fails to properly insulate the condensation PVC pipe .

[plotzonit]

I just wanted to say that last Monday I came home late to NO HEAT in my house!!! I called three different heating and cooling places. I was frantic because Tuesday morning we were supposed to get snow (which we did) and IT WAS COOOOOOOLD!!! One of the places I called was Lee's Heating and Cooling in Fort Mill. Within FIFTEEN minutes after my call, the owner was at my house. He was a super nice guy and you what? He could have totally taken complete advantage of my lack of knowledge regarding a furnace! You know what he did instead? Instead of charging me $350 for a part on top of his service fee (which he totally could have done), he managed to come up with a solution without replacing the part. Now, he informed me it was a temporary fix, but should hold up for a while. Let's face it - times are tight and I just don't have an extra $350 to fix something gone wrong. Now I'm rounding up the money to replace the part (which is holding up quite nicely). He charged me nothing more than the service fee. When I'm ready to replace the part - I'm going with Lee's!!! This guy is honest and awesome!

[MilesBFree]

Originally Posted by abcdef

We've learned where the heat unit is in the attic in SC , the condensation line in the heat unit freezes up when it gets cold , hence the ignitor on the heat unit fails to ignite.

The PVC condensation line is there only to drain off the condensation that develops when the AC is running. It has nothing to do with the heat cycle. There may still be some water in it from summer when the AC was running, but it will not in any way interfere with the heat. it is basically a drain line just like is under your sink (except this is not plumbed into your drain/sewer line).

As far as what might be causing the igniter to not come on, I believe there are a few potential cuases:

1. The igniter is simply bad

2. The controller inside the furnace is that sends current to the igniter is bad

3. The gas valve may be bad, and the controller in the furnace will not try to ignite if it is not seeing gas pressure (if your furnace controller checks this)

4. You are not getting enough electricity to the igniter (I guess this would probably be a controller issue again)

5. The switch that shuts off the entire furnace was accidentally bumped off, the breaker tripped, or something else cut electricity to the furnace

6. Depending on the furnace, there are other things the controller checks before it tries to switch on