Keep A Spare furnace ignitor

[El Toro]

Everyone that has a Rheem or Ruud 90 plus gas furnace should keep a spare ignitor. They usually go bad on Sunday night. They're easily to install. Since they are 120vac be sure to kill the voltage for the furnace. Hal

 

[Daryl in PA]

Looks like the same ignitor for York and Luxaire furnaces.
 

[Billy NY]

You are right, a friends went on christmas eve, so myself and a friend in the HVAC/plumbing business, went over, he had one in his work van, but the end was a little different, he modified it to work safely, until the holiday was over to get the correct fitting end, so even in a pinch the wrong one may be able to work. Don't touch the element end with your fingers, will cause them to fail. Just before that, the neighbor across the lane here, furnace went off, of course she did not have it serviced at the right intervals, old hot air oil set up from the 60's, which seems to work fine, got it running and left a spare fuel filter in case it went out again, serviceman arrived the following week, both on christmas eve, well we did our good deeds for the day and made sure both had heat on.
 

[El Toro]

That wouldn't surprise me they're used on other furnaces. My neighbor has a Rheem and it cost him $200.00 for a service call on a holiday day weekend. It was cold too. He also keeps a spare ignitor. My daughter has a Rheem and she had no heat, but she has a service policy and it was the ignitor. I told her before the repairman arrived that it was probably the ignitor. Have you ever used York AC's and their furnaces? My AC is 20 years old and was used more this summer than any other year. Never had a service call on the AC, but I did replace the low voltage contactor in 1998 that was chattering. The installer gave me the contactor.
Hal
 

[RayP(MI)]

Looks very similar to what they"re selling as a replacement for our Whirlpool gas dryer - not ths same as the origional, but comes with mounting kit. Check online appliance stores for far cheaper sources than the local appliance stores.
 

[Daryl in PA]

Company i used to work for was a York dealer. Luxaire is the contractor brand made by York. We were seeing to many issues with the York units that we switched to Lennox about 5 years ago.
 

[paul]

Mine isn't firing up either. At least it's not critical, highes in the 50's so nothing will freeze up yntil I call the serviceguy.

Fired up the furnace last week, all was fine, good burn. Good deal, I'm ahead of the game with the test fire....

Nope. Needed heat - well wanted heat - last Friday evening, and it wouldn't ignite.

Either I sucked water into the fuel line from summer condensation, or the igniter is bad. Mine is from the 1990's, it has seperate igniter rods, I could look it over; but I prefer a real pro to look the furnace over every 2 years, and it's time, so will give him a call and make sure everything is ok and set right.

--->PAul
 

[agpilot]

Hi El Toro: Ya....!! that was on my list of "gotta do" for this week.. How much $$ are we talking and is there a good online or retail supply? My Ruud is a 90% Plus-LP about 6th year old.. It would not start last time I tried it. I guess there is a flashing light code looking into that small glass window on the lower front.. Gotta check those flashes on next try..
THANKs for posting this reminder... ag..
 

[Russ from MN]

Where is the best place to buy them and what do they cost? Sounds like something a person should keep on hand, I have heard this story before.
 

[Russ from MN]

Another question! is it obvious when they are bad? Can you check resistance before you take them out? I would like to be able to do more of my furnace maintenance but the new ones are so complicated! Last winter our 2" plastic intake pipe frosted up and It cost me $100 to get it fixed. They agreed it would be OK to put a T in right above the furnace with a plug for simple troubleshooting so I did that myself. I may leave that plug out when we are gone in cold weather to increase reliability.
 

[mm fan]

They all use a hot surface ignitor of some sort these days. The one you have is silcon carbide. There are upgraded ignitors that are silcon nitride. They tend to be more reliable and are what most manufacturers are going to. There are 120 volt and 24 volt ignitors, so its best to know what you have.
 

[El Toro]

I bought the spare ignitor at a heating and ac warehouse in Baltimore. The cost was $13.75 back then. I'm sure the price has risen a lot.
Hal
 

[El Toro]

The cost was $13.75 from a retail warehouse. Hal
PS: Use a multimeter set on ohms and you can tell if it's open.
 

[EX 450 Owner]

Try this place for igniters and other HVAC and plumbing parts.

http://www.pexsupply.com/Hot-Surface-Ignitors-1615000

The igniters are rated for voltage and amperage along with time to get to operating temperature. Along with that the physical size shape size and mounting, and the electrical connections have to match. In other words make sure to buy the exact igniter or a crossed referenced replacement.

If you use a crossed reference replacement make sure you are getting the numbers from a reliable source. The upgrade to silicon nitride is popular and works good but there again be sure to use one that is crossed referenced from a reliable source.
 

[504]

Mine lasted 7 years before it went,I knew what was wrong but I never found the thing to replace it, called a guy that works off of the book. $100.00 installed.