Payne Plus 90 Ignitor not heating up

[MrBillSC]

I have a Payne Plus 90 furnace that is about 19 years old. It's been great until this week. An intermittant problem is that the draft inducer motor starts, but the ignitor does not heat up. I've cleaned the furnace and it has a new filter. The thermostat is a simple "mercury" Honeywell. I'm not much for repairing anything electrical. Can someone tell me if this should be an expensive or inexpensive repair? Is it worth repairing? The blower motor sounds fine. A repairman came yesterday, but of course it worked perfectly until he left. He said everything looked and sounded good, but couldn't isolate the problem until it fails for him. At the time, all I knew was that the draft inducer was coming on, but the blower was not coming on so he didn't know about the ignitor not heating.

thanks for any ideas.

[paul52446m]

I have a Payne Plus 90 furnace that is about 19 years old. It's been great until this week. An intermittant problem is that the draft inducer motor starts, but the ignitor does not heat up. I've cleaned the furnace and it has a new filter. The thermostat is a simple "mercury" Honeywell. I'm not much for repairing anything electrical. Can someone tell me if this should be an expensive or inexpensive repair? Is it worth repairing? The blower motor sounds fine. A repairman came yesterday, but of course it worked perfectly until he left. He said everything looked and sounded good, but couldn't isolate the problem until it fails for him. At the time, all I knew was that the draft inducer was coming on, but the blower was not coming on so he didn't know about the ignitor not heating.

thanks for any ideas.

First thing is this a glow bar with two wires going to the pilot , or is is there three wires going to a pilot? A two wire glow bar heats up and glows red. a three wire pilot is a warp switch pilot lites and heats up a warp switch to make main burner. Paul

[MrBillSC]

the bar glows red.

[paul52446m]

the bar glows red.

If the glow bar works some times and does not other times. On a call for heat the inducer starts first next after inducer get up to speed the pressure switch
has to make before the glow bar can make. So it sounds like the pressure switch is not making some times. Check the intake pipe and screen. Check the exhaust pipe to make sure it is clear. Check for water build up because of plugged drain. Check all small hoses on the pressure switch's, for cracks and bad ends.
When you take hoses off make sure the port fitting that the hoses connect to are clear. Make sure the inducer bolts are tight so you don't have a gasket leak.
If you could catch it messing up you could check the pressure switch to see if it is not closing by testing the 24 volt power at the switch. Just a real small crack in a hose can stop a pressure switch from making, so check everything close. Paul

[MrBillSC]

Thanks Paul. I cleaned the condensate drainage system and found that the largest drain line going into the collector box was partially clogged and the collector box was very clogged. I cleaned both out and the furnace has been running like a charm ever since.

[paul52446m]

Thanks Paul. I cleaned the condensate drainage system and found that the largest drain line going into the collector box was partially clogged and the collector box was very clogged. I cleaned both out and the furnace has been running like a charm ever since.

good show Paul

[paul52446m]

I have a Payne Plus 90 furnace that is about 19 years old. It's been great until this week. An intermittant problem is that the draft inducer motor starts, but the ignitor does not heat up. I've cleaned the furnace and it has a new filter. The thermostat is a simple "mercury" Honeywell. I'm not much for repairing anything electrical. Can someone tell me if this should be an expensive or inexpensive repair? Is it worth repairing? The blower motor sounds fine. A repairman came yesterday, but of course it worked perfectly until he left. He said everything looked and sounded good, but couldn't isolate the problem until it fails for him. At the time, all I knew was that the draft inducer was coming on, but the blower was not coming on so he didn't know about the ignitor not heating.

thanks for any ideas.

By the way, next time i would try a different service co. after you describing your problem he should have checked things like the drain, and other things that can stop a pressure switch from making. paul