Furnace Repairs Are Needed With The Sequencer Fails In Your Electric Furnace

If your previous home had a gas furnace, you might not be familiar with how an electric furnace operates and what can go wrong with it. Of course, the major difference is that the furnace heats the air with electricity instead of flames. For that to happen, the electric furnace has parts that control the electric burners. One of these parts is the sequencer. This is how a furnace sequencer works and what might go wrong when it malfunctions.

The Sequence Controls When The Burners Turn On

Your electric furnace probably has at least three burners, but it might have more. If all the burners were to energize at the same time, the strain would probably trip a circuit breaker. Instead, the burners turn on one by one in a sequence. The sequencer is what controls the power so one burner can start at a time.

A Malfunctioning Sequencer Can Cause Problems

A furnace repair professional can tell if a sequencer is bad by checking it with a multimeter. You might suspect the part is bad when the burners in your furnace have trouble starting up. If the sequencer doesn't control the power, all the burners might ignite at once and cause the breaker to trip. If you reset the breaker, the problem may repeat.

It's not a good idea to keep resetting the circuit breaker when it keeps flipping off because that could potentially start a fire. Instead, leave the power off and call a furnace repair company for help. The opposite might also happen. The burners may not start at all or one may start and none of the others might work.

If only one or two of the burners work, it might seem like your furnace is working properly, but it won't warm up your house. Any time your furnace won't start, won't shut off, or runs and doesn't warm your house, call a furnace repair company so you don't drive up your power bill and so you can get your furnace operational to keep you warm.

A Bad Sequencer Can Be Replaced

The furnace repair technician can replace the sequencer if it's bad. It's fairly common for an electric furnace sequencer to fail. Since this is an electrical component that hooks into the wiring of your furnace, replacing it is probably best left to a furnace repair professional. Once the old sequencer is out and replaced with a new one, the repair professional can restore power to your furnace and verify the electric burner coils start up and shut down as intended.

For more information, contact an HVAC contractor service in your area such as American Services.