Goodman Air Handler Help

[toledoguy]

Hello,

I bought my house this spring here in Ohio. Didnt have any issues, however, now that it is getting very cold at night...in the teens...the air handler (Goodman ARUF024 00A 1) that the previous owners installed does not seem to be working. It is running constantly and can not get the home above 66 degrees. It does have a heater with it because I looked at the bottom( it is a downflow) and the coils get red. Here is the weird part...I can feel over a few of the registers and the air is warm...however it is pretty cool over most of them. I just dont understand this system...I dont think it is working properly. Also there is not much air coming out of the vents upstairs. Now I looked at the home in the late winter and the home was warm. It is a 1900 sq foot home. So I am assuming the furnace is big enough...any help would be appreciate...I am cold. My other home had an oil furnace and I never had any issues so I am not real good with this stuff....thanks in advance

[HayZee518]

look at the trunk line adjustment dampers. these are internal dampers in your downstream trunk lines. they fit into 6 inch round duct with an adjustment and lock outside the pipe. look for a lever with a wingnut. balance out your system with these dampers and see what you can come up with. also make sure the unit is receiving make-up air otherwise not much will come out of the heater.

[toledoguy]

thanks for the quick reply...sorry i am just learning here....now when i move the unit i am assuming you are talking about the area below that is duct work running to it. I check down there before because I wanted to see if it was producing heat...which it was....but it just looked like an empty box with two ducts running from it....I am sure it is getting make up air...I noticed a few gaps in the venting which I covered up with some of that metal tape which I read about....but before I move the unit...I just wanted to make sure this is the area you are talking about....thanks again. Also...I did close off the registers that the cool air was coming from....still the same....

[HayZee518]

what do you mean "move the unit?"

[toledoguy]

move the air handler to access the area that it sits on where the ducts leading to the registers are. i slid the unit over before to feel if the air was getting warm beneath the coils. there is a area a few feet by a few feet that the air handler sits on that has the ductwork going to the registers...i just assumed this is where the air is warmed and passed to the rest of the house.

[HayZee518]

OK now we're on the same page. when you first said "downflow" all I could picture was a plenum coming off the bottom - now it makes sense. so there must be a small "box" underneath it with two ducts coming off it for distribution to the house. not being able to see the crawl space I'd have to assume the two ducts split somewhere with a T or a Y along the run. now you are at the mercy of whomever installed the ductwork. evidently there are no provisions for throttling the air flow with duct dampers. flow will be regulated using the room dampers -[registers.]

[KSever]

Is this an electric heat furnace or is this a heat pump unit with auxilary heat coils backup? You also didn't say if you changed the air filter or not. If you did and I see you said your coils were glowing red then I would check to see how dirty the fan is.

If the fan is anythig like mine was it was really built up with dirt so the blades were smooth and not cupped (filled the entire vacuum) after it was clean the registers on the floor would move the blinds. This fan being dirty as it was wasn't enough air over the coils and eventually burnt out 3 of my 4 electric heating coils.

[toledoguy]

Hayzee...your are exactly right..that is exactly what i have...it just cant figure out why some have warm air and the others cool...i thought maybe something could've been "detached in the ductwork" if that is possible.

This is an electric furnace...and I will check how dirty the fan blades are....there are like 4 or 5 coils. I can just reach in and clean the fans off or do i disassemble the fan and take it out?

Sorry for the questions I am just trying to figure this out and I appreciate all of the help

Thank you so much

[HayZee518]

its always easier to remove a fan blade and clean it IF it doesn't take a half day removing the motor/fan or just the motor. there are sheet metal panels that are screwed into the furnace frame. if the fan is of the squirrel cage design it will be fastened to the shaft at the end of a motor OR big enough that it covers the motor [the motor being small enough to fit in the fan] look for an allen screw set screw. look between the blades of a squirrel cage and use a long allen wrench. penetrating oil works best on "grub" screws. 3/16" allen wrench may work.

[KSever]

Hayzee...your are exactly right..that is exactly what i have...it just cant figure out why some have warm air and the others cool...i thought maybe something could've been "detached in the ductwork" if that is possible.

This is an electric furnace...and I will check how dirty the fan blades are....there are like 4 or 5 coils. I can just reach in and clean the fans off or do i disassemble the fan and take it out?

Sorry for the questions I am just trying to figure this out and I appreciate all of the help

Thank you so much

I'm not Hayzee,
I did disassemble my fan and took it out to clean it since I couldn't get all the way into the inner part of the fan. You should be able to disconnect the wires (after turning off the breakers) and the whole fan assembly should slide right out of it's track. If it's dirty that is.

KSever

[toledoguy]

Thanks KSever....when I get home from work..that will be the first thing I do. When I looked at it before...it didnt seem like it would be too difficult to take the fan assembly off....but I do not remember the blades looking too bad. It is darker in the room though, so I will take a good look at them before I mess around with it. I am just hoping that is what it is.

thanks again.

[toledoguy]

so i cleaned the blades off...the furnace was able to keep the home warm at 67 last week but it was warmer. yesterday was a cold day again and it got down to 5 degress last night...the furnace ran all night and when I woke up...the thermostat read 62.5 when it was set for 67. I put a space heater in the room to try and warm the room up....and the furnace keeps running blowing semi warm air out of two vents and cooler air out of the other vents i havent closed off.....does anyone have any idea what could be causing this? it just seems so strange.

[HayZee518]

I saw a picture of the air handler and the heating element(s). there was another post somewhere else that suggests a sequencer for the heating elements. all the elements don't turn on right away but are applied gradually as the heat is needed. one element on will produce heat but in limited quantities. when you really need ALL the heat the unit can provide after a delay each element will turn on until they all are on. the the heat output is at maximum. if yours has a sequencer watch it and see how many elements turn on at a given thermostat setting. maybe one or more elements are burned out.

[toledoguy]

that is what i thought it could be...i saw it turn red and it only seems like one of the elements turns red...do you think this could be something I could fix myself or would it be better to hire someone? i am becomming pretty handy around the new house...but havent done much HVAC.

[toledoguy]

also, I finally found a manual for this unit online. i just read where it says if you do not use an outdoor thermostat ( never heard of that) which this unit is equiped to handle...then to tie the brown and white wire together for the thermostat. right now i just have the brown wire not connected to anything...would this cause the furnace to not perform properly?

thanks