Fall Tune Up Part 9 – Flames Don’t Lie

All right we got action. Stuff is happening. You see the igniter beginning to glow. After that we'll see the flames ignite. It'll take a couple of seconds to sense the flame. Once the system has determined it is safe to operate, it's going to heat up the heat exchanger and then the blower will kick on. So one of the things I'm looking at now that the blower is blowing, I want to see how these flames behave. I don't want to see them jumping around and changing colors. I want to see them looking the same with the blower on as they look with the blower off. If they start bouncing around or changing colors it could indicate that air is entering the stream of the flame and that's no bueno. Could mean that the heat exchanger has been compromised. Very unlikely on a system this new to see something like that, but you will see it on older systems. If you ever come across that you have to decommission the unit, shut it down, and the homeowner has to make a decision on what they want to do from that point.