Furnace won't light, no burner, no heat, hydro flame model 82 - fixed

[TripleJ]

For information only
My furnace is a hydro-flame model 82 direct spark ignition (DSI)

My symptom was that the furnace blower would come on correctly, and the igniter would spark, but there was no flame. The burner would not burn.

I had good fans, I could smell gas at the exhaust outside, and I could hear the spark. Still no flame.

I looked around, took off all the covers I could find. No evidence of obstruction. I stuck a shop vac up to the intake and the then exhaust. Good airflow and nothing came out far as I could tell. Still no flame.

I took the igniters out of the burner box and they looked ok. I pulled the actual burner out of the box and found that the burner was rusted and blocked.

Half of the burner looked fine, but the half that was closest to the igniter was the portion that was packed with junk and rust.



I was able to take the burner apart and clean the rust from the plates that make up the burner. A sandwich of flat pieces and corrugated pieces.



Put it back together and it looked right, so I tried it. Good to go. I have heat and the furnace is cycling proper so far



Hope this will help somebody. When all else fails, start taking stuff apart. Never know what you'll find...

[Rickf1985]

Looks like you might want to start the search for a new burner assembly soon.

[tiinytina]

wonder if you could use some heat resistant high temp spray paint on that to avoid the situation in the future?  Having similar issue with mine except not hearing ignitor so yup.... new winter project... oye vie.
Tina

[yvan]

You could dip those part in a rust converter. It will hinder further rusting, and change the existing rust to an inoffensive coating.

[Rickf1985]

With both the paint and rust convertor you have to remember that it is a burner so it gets real hot. Too hot for most high heat paints other than a ceramic paint and that may plug the openings. If you sandblast the parts with a mild abrasive and then put the ceramic paint on in thin layers you could monitor the thickness. The problem is that the ceramic paint is cured by heat so you would have to bake the parts with each coat and then rough them up with a light glass bead each time. Of coarse when you are done they will last longer than the rest of the heater. In the big picture it would probably be cheaper and much faster to buy new.

[TripleJ]

I would think rust converter might work. Isn't it suppose to convert the rust to some kind of zinc coating or something? It lasted 25 years, I bet it'll be fine for another 10.  I'll put it on the list of things to revisit later

Tina, try pulling the igniter out of the burner and laying it on the floor to see if it's actually making a spark. It's quite quiet. Mine sounds similar to the gentle ticking the fan motor makes.

And fwiw the burner doesn't make the heavy bass thump noise when it lights like my Coleman popup furnace did. It's very quiet.