Bob or others with Furnace Knowledge - Update

First, Thanks to all of you for your knowledge and experience. I really appreciate it and I appreciate the people that run this forum letting me post this topic. There sure is a broad mix of knowledge/experts here.

1. I have not had any rollout trips since Friday 2/1, at about 2:30 a.m. I had not reset it until about noon 2/1, I was waiting for the Technician to come and see it before I started resetting, etc. He did not come. Anyway, the problem seems to have abated with the outdoor temperatures and wind chill easing. This makes me lean towards to much gas demand at low temperatures when my garage, house, and shed all come on at once, in the minus twenties, it trips. All trips have been during the coldest part of the day.

2. I did get a First Alert CO Alarm yesterday and have another on order.

3. I also went on ebay and ordered that rollout switch for $20. I don't know if I will replace it but I at least want to have one on hand. It was interesting, on Amazon and ebay there were many hits for that switch but almost all were out of stock or unavailable. I don't know if there was a run on switches or what.

4. The Technician Pool where I deal seems stumped, but with the cold weather they were overwhelmed. I will talk to them Monday.

5. There were comments about pressure in the house. I have not checked it, but we have not been running the dryer until today and we do have an air-air exchanger that we turned off after the first trip.

Actions for me.

1. Get CO Alarm, done. Still plan to add another.

2. Talk to Technician about doing a CO test.

3. Call Gas Company and discuss the sizing of the Gas meter compared to my three loads at low temperatures. Monday.

4. Have spare rollout switch on hand, ordered.

5. I should further investigate if there are any blockages in the Inlet and Exhaust 2" PVC pipes but is further down the list. Maybe I will just run a wire through them.

6. Remove Burner Box Cover and observe the flame. From YouTube and your comments I have a pretty good feel what to look for.

7. I will add another post regarding the Pressure Switches.

8. Other suggestions.

So at the moment we are comfortable, wife's happy but worried if we go on a trip. I have not done a lot physically to the unit since I reset the last trip. I have been trying to learn more so I might know what I am looking at. You guys have been very helpful. YouTube tends to focus on how to diagnose a switch, how to replace a switch, heat exchanger cracks, and heat exchanger plugging. The list of possible causes I listed in my last post I found in one YouTube Video with no explanation of the physical. The one that really befuddles me is if in fact there is low gas pressure why isn't a pressure switch taking it out.

Paul

Paul, looks like you are going to be more prepared than most of us. Does your gas supplier use Gigajoules (Gj) for the amount of gas consumed? If so, I am curious as to what kind of $$ they charge per metric Gigajoule. Up here, in Canadian dollars, we are currently looking at about $1.50 to $2.00 CDN per Gj lately. We go on what they call the "budget system" (not really a budget at all) where we pay a fixed rate per month over the course of a year. Right now it looks like we pay $94 CDN per month. They change it now and than to make it more current depending on various factors, sometimes you build up a credit and other times you fall behind a bit. They pretty much know how much gas I use historically. There are a lot of other charges that come along with the gas you use of course, delivery charges and administration fees, etc. which covers costs of the service and so on. People are constantly complaining that the extra charges often/usually are more than the actual gas used.

did you check the inducer fan drain ? my xv90 has had trouble with it , if you have had condensation in your intake tube the moisture goes out the tube on the bottom of the fan housing , just pop it off and blow through if its full of water , it could be froze up where ever it goes , mine goes outside I had to add heat tape and thermostat to it to keep it from freezing up

Thanks for your comments Grizz02. I have a little drain pump. That was what I checked right after I checked for blockages at the Exhaust and Inlet pipes outside. That seems to be working fine. However, I did not pop any hoses off and blow through them. Maybe further investigation is needed.

Can you see a path where if the fan inducer fan drain is plugged it would trip the Flame Rollout Switch? There was -28F air coming in that Inlet Pipe. Could that drain have froze up? Would that limit air to the inducer fan? On the inside of the house, the outside of the Inlet Pipe it was dripping as the frost build up on the out side of the Pipe melted.

I am thinking some pictures are in order.

Paul

yes that's what I'm thinking , just take the 3/4 in hose off the bottom of the inducer fan and blow through it you should hear a little water in the trap it goes to , but should be clear , if the inducer fan is full of water it will not clear the burner box of excess fuel as it lites possibly causing your rollout, easy check