Gas and Oil Home Heating Furnaces - oil furnace won't stop running
Doityourself.com community forum was created to provide answers to all questions related to home improvement and home repair. Doityourself community can help you find information about how-to topics on small fixes to large remodeling projects. With comprehensive how-to content and expertly moderated community forums DoItYourself.com makes it easy to tackle even the most complex home improvement projects.View Full Version : oil furnace won't stop running
jack0fall
03-27-08, 10:23 PM
I awoke this morning hot as hell after kicking the covers off while sleeping. For some reason it was so hot in the house I couldn't breathe. I went down and checked the thermostat and it was set to 68 degrees. But the thermometer needle on the thermostat was buried beyond 90 degrees. I shut the thermostat off but the furnace kept running! The vents coming out of the floor were so hot you couldn't touch them and heat was blowing out without stopping. I went down and turned the burner switch to off and turned the breaker switch off also.
Well if that wasn't bad enough a water line near the furnace was leaking and spraying out all over the place. After having the furnace off I shut the water down, spliced in with a coupler and replaced the pipe that was leaking. I noticed there was a small line tapped into the water line close to where the leak was that ran to the furnace itself. I wondered if this was some sort of cooling line for the furnace (i still don't know), the line is only about 3mm in diameter. I figured it may have something to do with it but, it didn't.
When I turned everything back on, the furnace still ran and the thermostat didn't have any control over the blower or shutting the furnace off.
Any help with this would be great. I would like to get this fixed as soon as possible. Even though its not too cold out at the moment, I have other projects I have to take care of around the house.
How should the furnace run properly? It is an oil furnace, I figured when I turn the thermostat to the off position only the pilot light should be on and the furnace shouldn't be making any noise at all, but it doesn't do that, the oil burner is running none stop (not the blower). When I turn the breaker and oil burner switches on, the furnace sounds like its running. How can I troubleshoot this problem?
Well if that wasn't bad enough a water line near the furnace was leaking and spraying out all over the place. After having the furnace off I shut the water down, spliced in with a coupler and replaced the pipe that was leaking. I noticed there was a small line tapped into the water line close to where the leak was that ran to the furnace itself. I wondered if this was some sort of cooling line for the furnace (i still don't know), the line is only about 3mm in diameter. I figured it may have something to do with it but, it didn't.
When I turned everything back on, the furnace still ran and the thermostat didn't have any control over the blower or shutting the furnace off.
Any help with this would be great. I would like to get this fixed as soon as possible. Even though its not too cold out at the moment, I have other projects I have to take care of around the house.
How should the furnace run properly? It is an oil furnace, I figured when I turn the thermostat to the off position only the pilot light should be on and the furnace shouldn't be making any noise at all, but it doesn't do that, the oil burner is running none stop (not the blower). When I turn the breaker and oil burner switches on, the furnace sounds like its running. How can I troubleshoot this problem?
jack0fall
03-28-08, 12:32 AM
After posting this I went down to the basement to write the make and model number of both the oil furnace and humidifier attached to it down so I could look everything up online. I turned the power to everything back on and was looking around for visual signs of the problem and couldn't find any. When I decided to start shaking some of the wires to see i that effected anything, the oil burner shut off. I shut the power down and turned it back on and everything keep running like the problem I described. I shook the same wire and it shut off again.
Well, to make a long story short. There was a bare wire that was grounding out right where it goes into the furnace. They're either the wires coming from the thermostat or the humidifier control, I don't know which, but they run up to where both controls are. I guess the water line that got a pin hole in it and started a spray out over that side of the furnace caused the wires to ground where the wire was bare.
I fixed it and everything runs like normal again. i can even see a little spark in the thermostat when the connection meets to turn the furnace on, It didn't do this when it was shorting out.
Hopefully this helps someone else out or gives someone an idea of checking for grounded or shorted wires before going out buying parts thats not going to solve the problem.
Well, to make a long story short. There was a bare wire that was grounding out right where it goes into the furnace. They're either the wires coming from the thermostat or the humidifier control, I don't know which, but they run up to where both controls are. I guess the water line that got a pin hole in it and started a spray out over that side of the furnace caused the wires to ground where the wire was bare.
I fixed it and everything runs like normal again. i can even see a little spark in the thermostat when the connection meets to turn the furnace on, It didn't do this when it was shorting out.
Hopefully this helps someone else out or gives someone an idea of checking for grounded or shorted wires before going out buying parts thats not going to solve the problem.