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Coleman Evcon Furnace Model 8016
QUESTION:The above Furnace was installed in Oct 1994. The original owner of the house
had the HSI Ignitor replaced in April 1996.
In January 1997 the furnace had problems not sensing the flame.
The ignitor would come on, ignite and then shutoff. I called Union Gas
who had a repair man come and check it out. Spent the whole day
checking Gas Pressure, Replacing Gas Valve and Vent Motor and it still wouldn't
work. the next day Union Gas sent a different repairman and after spending half
hour or so thought it was the venting. He said even if there is a thin layer of
water
in the venting pipe the furnace would shutoff. As a result he revented the pipe
making the slope steeper for the water to drain. AND he also installed a remote
sensing kit. He said these furnaces should have been equiped with remote sensors
before they were installed. He put the old gas valve and vent motor back
in saying they were fine.The whole thing put me back by about $600.00.
Exactly 4 weeks ago I had the same problem. I called the same service guy who
had worked on this furnace in 1996 for the previous owner of the house. The guy
took 5 minutes to replace the the ignitor which had a crack in it. He charged me
close to $200.00. Exactly 20 days later I had the same problems. He replaced the
sensor and the bracket as he thought it could be shorting. That cost me another
$60.
I asked him if the problem was with venting and he said NO. He said if it fails
within
a week or so he'd replace the remote sensing kit with the old one that was
removed
by Union Gas in 1997. He said it should still be okay. The old kit had no
seperate flame
sensor as the ignitor did the dual role of igniting and sensing. The new one has
a
seperate flame sensor.
Guess what? It failed again last night. The ignitor glows, ignites the gas and
cuts
off. The only way around this for now is either turning the furnace off/on or
turning
the thermostat to low and high again. Even with this, sometimes the furnace cuts
off
in the middle of the cycle before it reaches the temperature and vent blower
motor
stays on .To get it going again I have to turn off/on.
So it wasn't the sensor after all or was it?
AM I getting ripped off here? I have called other service guys and they said
they wouldn't
touch a Coleman Evcon. Can somebody please help? I am located in southern
Ontario.
ANSWER: Here is some cource of action here.
# 1 Fire everybody including the Gas company and find a Colman/Evcon
dealer for your standing in the middle of incomplitants. There is a old
rule of the business which says " never buy your fuel and your service
from the same people" for they are in two different fields and are
expected to do both. A example of this is do you want the Meter reader
tring to figure out a electronic problem at close to $100.00 a hour.
The Colman/Evcon is owned by York now and sold along with York or
Luxaire or Johnson Frasier. The Colman system resembles the
York/Luxaire/Johnson-Frasier furnaces. I would think if they are one of
these dealer they will have the basic knownledge of the system or
problem with this system that arrive .
# 2 Any Employee of the gas company that is well versed in the HVAC
field will be working for hisself and not the gas company. The gas
companys can't pay what a Good Tech is worth. They have too much over
head tring to run a gas supply end of the business.
# 3 As you have said you have spent close to $1,000.00 already and
before you go down the "Let's see service tech Road " . I would jerk
that thing out of there and call a Good , Well know , High references,
and maybe do the work on your church you may attend. A lot of good
service company do church work for they are hard to please and if you
can please them, they are pretty good.
# 4 The reason a bunch of the Service company are not wild about the
Colman/Evcon is they are really hard to figure out and you have had the
Meter reader and others that have been working on it. Service Companys
hate to would behind Rookies and Meter readers for they leave too many
traps to catch them with. The worst service call I can think of is
going behind a Rookie. I know we must have Rookies to fill the void of
service tech's but Good LARD I wish they would learn faster.
# 5 If changing the furnace , Pick the brands that you see the most of
in your area. This means you may be able to get service and parts on
that brand with a service company that is versed on that brand.
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