When you wake up on a cold winter’s morning to find your vents blowing nothing but cold air, everything else on the day’s “to-do list” takes second place to fixing your heater! This recently happened to us, and instead of working (I work from home), I decided to fix it myself. So in this article, you’ll learn how to troubleshoot a gas furnace.

Now before I get into the basics of troubleshooting a gas heater, I’d like to address the warning mechanism Trane has in place to notify the homeowner of an error. Instead of a nice little beep or an orange or yellow light coming on, Trane has decided to blow cold air to let you know that something’s not right. Here’s my thought process on that…..as if it’s not bad enough that the heater went out, now they have to blow cold air to cool your house down even more. Let’s freeze them out of house and home…that will get their attention!

Just dumb.

Anyway, on with my “how to.”

How to troubleshoot a gas furnace

My particular furnace model is a Trane XR80. Note: I am not a professional. So take that into consideration before you attempt any of these troubleshooting steps. If you still have the manual which came with your furnace, refer to their troubleshooting section for additional help. Moreover, if you don’t have the guts to troubleshoot your gas furnace, then it is always best to hire a furnace repair company for furnace repair services.

The first thing I ALWAYS do when something stops working is take it apart. So, I removed the two front panels of my furnace to see what was working and what was not. The infuser started up and the surface ignitor started glowing, just as it always should, but for some reason, the gas valve was not letting gas in. So I turned my kitchen stove on, also gas, to make sure the gas was on and made sure the gas valve on the inlet hose was open. So right away, I knew it had to be something to do with the gas valve.

Every Trane furnace has a blinking light on the control panel. It can actually be seen through a little looking glass hole in the bottom panel. Whenever there’s an error, the light will have a unique blinking sequence. That code can be used to troubleshoot the problem. BUT, there’s a secret to viewing the code. If the furnace doesn’t start the first time, it will attempt two more times. That means the infuser (fan sound) will turn on and off three times. After the third time, the error code will flash. It’s usually two flashes, then a pause, or three flashes, then a pause, etc. Gas furnace can be difficult for a lot of people to set up which is why many experts recommend electric furnace for all your home needs. If you are looking for  simple solution to all your gas furnace troubles check out our furnace installation in Kalamazoo – Metzger’s, Inc. Try to make sure that you talk to the furnace repair and installation expert and learn more about the pros and cons before opting for a specific furnace or.

Here’s a break down of what those flashes mean:

Flashing Slow	Normal – No call for Heat from thermostat
Flashing Fast	Normal – Call for Heat from thermostat
Continuous ON	Control Board Bad – needs replaced
Continuous OFF	Check Power
2 Flashes	System Lockout (Retries or Recycles exceeded)
3 Flashes	Vent Pressure Switch Error
4 Flashes	Open High Temperature Limit Device
5 Flashes	Flame sensed when no flame should be present
6 Flashes	115 Volt AC power reversed or Poor Grounding
7 Flashes	Gas valve circuit error
8 Flashes	Low flame sense signal
9 Flashes	Check ignitor circuit and line “N” to 24 VAC Common voltage ( < 2 volts) (possible grounding problem)

Once you know the error code, call the service number on your furnace for advice on repairing it yourself. Applying for the HVAC Direct options or a service call from a heating/cooling company can cost you $100 or more, not including parts, if any are needed. If that’s in your budget, that might be your best option, because you might replace unnecessary parts on your own, or, make things worse!

I actually called the service number and went through the troubleshooting process with a technician on the phone. We narrowed it down to having a faulty gas valve. The code I was receiving from the heater was two flashes, which basically means that everything else, besides the valve, was ruled out. People say that stainless steel valves would be a great replacement, but I’ll test that out for myself.

I hope this information has been helpful!