00:00:00.030 hi I'm Shannon from host improvements 00:00:01.91000:00:01.920 comm today I want to show you how to 00:00:04.03900:00:04.049 clean your furnace flame sensor flame 00:00:06.92000:00:06.930 sensor is fairly simple looking a little 00:00:10.87900:00:10.889 piece of equipment you don't want to 00:00:13.58000:00:13.590 touch this this rod and so that's why 00:00:16.16000:00:16.170 I'm being careful with it basically it 00:00:17.96000:00:17.970 has a wire connector area on the one end 00:00:20.71000:00:20.720 it's going to have a pleat here with a 00:00:23.06000:00:23.070 bolt or maybe even two screws through it 00:00:25.18900:00:25.199 to hold it into the furnace and then 00:00:27.52900:00:27.539 it's got this porcelain piece right in 00:00:30.29000:00:30.300 here and then this long rod basically 00:00:33.08000:00:33.090 what this does is as your furnace gas 00:00:39.74000:00:39.750 valve turns on allows gas to come in 00:00:42.29000:00:42.300 your igniter ignites that gas and it 00:00:45.97900:00:45.989 starts to flame and burn for a few 00:00:47.86900:00:47.879 seconds this sensor here is sensing 00:00:50.75000:00:50.760 whether there's a good flame there 00:00:53.02900:00:53.039 whether there is a flame at all or 00:00:55.06900:00:55.079 whether the valve is just allowing gas 00:00:56.86900:00:56.879 tube to spew into your house if this 00:01:00.22900:01:00.239 sensor doesn't sense there's a flame 00:01:02.47900:01:02.489 there or the heat there I guess what it 00:01:04.96900:01:04.979 does is shut your furnace down so what 00:01:08.24000:01:08.250 your furnace would do then and a symptom 00:01:10.39900:01:10.409 you might find is that you can hear your 00:01:13.34000:01:13.350 furnace cycling you know two or three 00:01:15.35000:01:15.360 times in a row where it'll it'll light 00:01:18.02000:01:18.030 and you can hear the fan everything turn 00:01:21.67900:01:21.689 on and it'll burn for a few minutes and 00:01:23.89900:01:23.909 then shut itself down not even a few 00:01:25.73000:01:25.740 minutes maybe one minute and it shuts 00:01:27.28900:01:27.299 itself down and then maybe two three 00:01:29.69000:01:29.700 minutes later it'll do the same thing 00:01:31.39900:01:31.409 and I might different furnaces are a 00:01:33.14000:01:33.150 little different but it might do that 00:01:34.31000:01:34.320 three or four times in a row and if that 00:01:37.03900:01:37.049 sensor is sensing there isn't a flame 00:01:39.62000:01:39.630 there after that two or three times that 00:01:42.17000:01:42.180 it tries to do it it actually will shut 00:01:43.76000:01:43.770 your furnace down usually for a period 00:01:45.53000:01:45.540 of time maybe up to an hour or two hours 00:01:47.66000:01:47.670 before it tries that cycle again and 00:01:49.94000:01:49.950 it's a safety measure just to be sure 00:01:51.56000:01:51.570 that you are igniting the gas and it 00:01:54.02000:01:54.030 isn't just spewing it to your house so 00:01:57.78900:01:57.799 the the common problem is though that 00:02:02.81000:02:02.820 these sensors get dirty and they don't 00:02:05.95900:02:05.969 properly sense that there is a flame 00:02:07.70000:02:07.710 there even though it's there and they'll 00:02:09.22900:02:09.239 shut your furnace down because they 00:02:10.63900:02:10.649 don't 00:02:11.05000:02:11.060 don't think that it's there so so they 00:02:13.18000:02:13.190 need some periodic cleaning I'd 00:02:14.53000:02:14.540 recommend probably beginning of every 00:02:16.48000:02:16.490 season or the end of every season 00:02:17.77000:02:17.780 whichever way you want to do it just try 00:02:20.89000:02:20.900 to remember to do it so what you want to 00:02:23.38000:02:23.390 do is take the main cover off in front 00:02:26.35000:02:26.360 of your furnace and before this what we 00:02:29.62000:02:29.630 did was actually turn the furnace the 00:02:31.99000:02:32.000 power off this behind me here we turn 00:02:35.77000:02:35.780 the actual power off to the furnace to 00:02:38.77000:02:38.780 be sure that it won't cut in on us now 00:02:42.61000:02:42.620 we need to locate our our sensor if you 00:02:47.22900:02:47.239 looked up on this now every furnace is 00:02:48.97000:02:48.980 going to be a little bit different 00:02:49.84000:02:49.850 sometimes the rate down here near the 00:02:52.15000:02:52.160 burners this one happens to be up top 00:02:55.03000:02:55.040 where the these burners are you're going 00:02:58.00000:02:58.010 to find a couple different things you're 00:03:01.18000:03:01.190 going to have your igniter and this 00:03:04.30000:03:04.310 temperature sensor here and they're 00:03:06.61000:03:06.620 usually going to have two wires 00:03:08.02000:03:08.030 connected to them okay so those that's 00:03:10.93000:03:10.940 kind of how you can identify them we're 00:03:13.00000:03:13.010 looking for the single wire which is 00:03:15.49000:03:15.500 right back here and usually you can see 00:03:17.97900:03:17.989 this porcelain and sticking out as well 00:03:20.22900:03:20.239 okay so we're looking for single wire 00:03:22.42000:03:22.430 with a porcelain end so that would be 00:03:25.12000:03:25.130 the location in this furnace that our 00:03:27.28000:03:27.290 flame sensor is at and we need to at 00:03:30.03900:03:30.049 this point remove it and we want to be 00:03:32.35000:03:32.360 careful like I said not once we're 00:03:33.88000:03:33.890 removing it not to touch the actual the 00:03:36.31000:03:36.320 rod and the sensor end so I'm just going 00:03:38.83000:03:38.840 to gently pull off this electrical 00:03:42.43000:03:42.440 connection now this is low voltage but 00:03:45.69900:03:45.709 like I said we turn the furnace off just 00:03:47.83000:03:47.840 to be sure 00:03:48.43000:03:48.440 and this one has one screw just about 00:03:55.09000:03:55.100 none of them are ever in a real easy 00:03:56.68000:03:56.690 spot this one wasn't too bad 00:03:59.68000:03:59.690 so we're just going to undo this screw 00:04:01.15000:04:01.160 and get the sole down without losing the 00:04:15.67000:04:15.680 screw there we go just pull it down out 00:04:21.61000:04:21.620 of there 00:04:22.06000:04:22.070 try not to scrape it across everything 00:04:23.83000:04:23.840 and I'm going to take this sensor 00:04:28.15000:04:28.160 I guess that screw is going to stay in 00:04:31.54000:04:31.550 there I'm just going to take it up to a 00:04:33.13000:04:33.140 better surface so I can show you the 00:04:35.20000:04:35.210 difference between the new and this 00:04:36.79000:04:36.800 dirty old one so I just want to show you 00:04:39.43000:04:39.440 the difference between the new the new 00:04:41.86000:04:41.870 sensor here and the old one you can see 00:04:44.41000:04:44.420 this ones it's not really shiny but it's 00:04:46.69000:04:46.700 clean this one here you've got some 00:04:48.73000:04:48.740 charring some a little bit of carbon 00:04:51.67000:04:51.680 buildup or whatever on it and you can 00:04:54.30000:04:54.310 you know definitely see that it needs a 00:04:56.47000:04:56.480 little bit of cleaning this one wasn't 00:04:57.82000:04:57.830 actually acting up but we're just taking 00:05:01.36000:05:01.370 it out to give it a little clean at the 00:05:02.77000:05:02.780 beginning of the season here okay so I'm 00:05:05.05000:05:05.060 going to set down the new one now what 00:05:07.84000:05:07.850 we want to do is use you want to use 00:05:10.24000:05:10.250 something really not very abrasive on 00:05:14.56000:05:14.570 this because we don't want to harm the 00:05:16.78000:05:16.790 outer surface of that actual sensor so 00:05:21.04000:05:21.050 in this case what we're using is a 00:05:23.43000:05:23.440 number four like a four zero grade steel 00:05:27.70000:05:27.710 wool so it's a really fine steel wool 00:05:30.36000:05:30.370 you don't want to use a sandpaper unless 00:05:34.09000:05:34.100 it's you know maybe like a thousand grit 00:05:36.01000:05:36.020 wet sandpaper or something but even then 00:05:39.13000:05:39.140 you just have to be really careful not 00:05:40.96000:05:40.970 to damage problem with if you damage 00:05:43.30000:05:43.310 that you know get some real scratches 00:05:45.73000:05:45.740 into there you end up taking the outer 00:05:47.08000:05:47.090 surface off and you just reduce the life 00:05:50.14000:05:50.150 of the sensor itself so I'm just going 00:05:52.75000:05:52.760 to take the steel wool and I'm trying 00:05:55.72000:05:55.730 again like I said not to touch it with 00:05:57.61000:05:57.620 my fingers I'm just giving it a little 00:06:00.97000:06:00.980 bit of a cleaning here now we probably 00:06:05.86000:06:05.870 won't get all of the black char that's 00:06:08.08000:06:08.090 on and off 00:06:09.34000:06:09.350 and I don't know I hope the lights are 00:06:11.44000:06:11.450 right here for you to see but just give 00:06:16.81000:06:16.820 them a little shine not really shine but 00:06:19.24000:06:19.250 just getting off any chunks you can kind 00:06:20.86000:06:20.870 of feel when you start there's almost a 00:06:22.78000:06:22.790 little bit of grit or residual char on 00:06:27.46000:06:27.470 there once you get it shined up you can 00:06:30.73000:06:30.740 tell that it's much smoother shinier or 00:06:33.43000:06:33.440 not shinier but it's just smoother okay 00:06:37.45000:06:37.460 so there we are now like I said we we 00:06:39.88000:06:39.890 aren't getting it completely shiny or 00:06:43.05000:06:43.060 clean looking like this one but we're 00:06:45.94000:06:45.950 just getting off any any char that will 00:06:48.49000:06:48.500 actually remove off there to help it 00:06:51.54000:06:51.550 sense the flame better okay so we've got 00:06:54.82000:06:54.830 that all down now it's just a matter of 00:06:57.43000:06:57.440 putting it back in there 00:06:59.16000:06:59.170 again we're just being careful not to 00:07:01.33000:07:01.340 scrape it across everything I'm just 00:07:03.97000:07:03.980 going to stick it up in that location 00:07:07.48000:07:07.490 that it was so if I can put the screws 00:07:11.05000:07:11.060 started here with my fingers 00:07:20.86000:07:20.870 so it's not real difficult to do no 00:07:24.41000:07:24.420 point in paying someone to come and do 00:07:26.00000:07:26.010 it when you can do it yourself 00:07:28.97000:07:28.980 this is a gas furnace of course to be 00:07:31.52000:07:31.530 real honest I don't know if a propane 00:07:33.92000:07:33.930 one would have the same setup I guess it 00:07:36.65000:07:36.660 not I guess it could have the same setup 00:07:38.93000:07:38.940 but this one here is natural gas so 00:07:42.14000:07:42.150 we've got that in there and tightened up 00:07:43.55000:07:43.560 now I've just got to put the connection 00:07:45.14000:07:45.150 back on just like that just make sure 00:07:48.62000:07:48.630 it's pushed on all the way and then what 00:07:51.38000:07:51.390 we'll do is turn the furnace switch back 00:07:54.56000:07:54.570 on and cycle the furnace through and 00:07:58.34000:07:58.350 make sure that it actually does fire up 00:08:00.53000:08:00.540 Penn State stay running so that would be 00:08:03.05000:08:03.060 kind of your test to do when you're all 00:08:04.40000:08:04.410 finished I'm not going to do that here 00:08:06.83000:08:06.840 today because like I said we weren't 00:08:08.03000:08:08.040 actually having a problem at the time 00:08:09.59000:08:09.600 we're just doing this as a preventative 00:08:11.75000:08:11.760 maintenance but if you if you do come 00:08:14.48000:08:14.490 home or you happen to be home you can 00:08:15.95000:08:15.960 hear your furnace cycling this would be 00:08:17.81000:08:17.820 the first thing that I would check 00:08:19.36000:08:19.370 because as long as you can see that it 00:08:22.13000:08:22.140 actually is lighting the flame and the 00:08:25.22000:08:25.230 burners are lighting but it keeps 00:08:27.23000:08:27.240 shutting itself down before it actually 00:08:28.97000:08:28.980 comes on and heats the house up then 00:08:31.49000:08:31.500 this would be the first thing that I 00:08:32.69000:08:32.700 would check this homeowner actually has 00:08:35.33000:08:35.340 a spare one on hand just in case they 00:08:37.82000:08:37.830 aren't terribly expensive I'm going to 00:08:39.83000:08:39.840 guess that's probably under $30.00 or 00:08:41.96000:08:41.970 around 30 bucks so you know even to have 00:08:45.23000:08:45.240 a spare one on hand you hate to have it 00:08:48.95000:08:48.960 actually quit working all together and 00:08:51.88000:08:51.890 you know it's a Sunday or something you 00:08:54.32000:08:54.330 can't get one and that's 40 below 00:08:55.76000:08:55.770 outside so so you know he just has it on 00:08:59.87000:08:59.880 hand so anyways that's really all you 00:09:02.45000:09:02.460 need to do with that 00:09:03.34000:09:03.350 once you're done like said turn the 00:09:05.33000:09:05.340 power back on put our cover back in 00:09:08.00000:09:08.010 position and do a test and you should be 00:09:11.30000:09:11.310 good so I'm glad that you're able to 00:09:13.79000:09:13.800 watch our video or find it here on 00:09:15.26000:09:15.270 YouTube we have many other videos on our 00:09:18.44000:09:18.450 YouTube channel you can go on there and 00:09:20.69000:09:20.700 check them out and if you want to can 00:09:22.94000:09:22.950 subscribe to our Channel and then you'll 00:09:25.46000:09:25.470 get some notification every time we post 00:09:27.82000:09:27.830 thing up new can also check out our 00:09:29.53000:09:29.540 website at house - improvements comm and 00:09:32.35000:09:32.360 there we have articles and you know some 00:09:35.29000:09:35.300 links to the videos and different things 00:09:36.64000:09:36.650 as well and also watch us on Twitter and 00:09:39.79000:09:39.800 Facebook thanks a lot
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