Furnace not staying on

Listen, it's your thermocouple. Here's what that means, how to test, and then how to fix:

Thermocouple feels heat to make sure the gas is getting burned up. If it believes your fire isn't hot, it shuts the furnace off. Do this a few times, 3 on my unit, and it goes into shutdown mode like you are saying yours did.

To reset the error code, turn off the heater then turn it back on again. There should be a switch on or near the heater for this. If not, flip the breaker. Then trigger the heat, when it inevitably doesn't work you will get the correct error code. That is how to test.

To fix, assuming the error code corroborates my hypothesis, look up a video on cleaning the thermocouple. It is no big deal. It's just a little rod of metal held in place by a nut. Unscrew the thing, take it out (while the breaker is off, obviously) then with a rough towel or VERY VERY LIGHT sandpaper, just rub it down and clean it up. Might not be a visible change, but it will knock some buildup off.

If that is the problem (based on error code) but the cleanup doesnt fix it, new thermocouples are cheap and easy to replace. I learned all this on my own and I'm about as handy as a cow.

Source, this happens to me every goddamn year

/r/HomeImprovement Thread Parent