Brandon Whitmore

The ignitor is called a "piezo" ignitor. If the ignitor doesn't easily light the gas, something is wrong, seeing as how you bled it out. The pilot hood, thermocouple/ thermopile,ignitor assembly may need to be cleaned, or you may have a bad ignitor. Check and ensure you have a good spark from the ignitor over to the pilot hood (just like you'd check for spark on a spark plug).

That's standard required clearances for direct vent vent pipe, but I'm not sure it's the same requirement at the vent termination. John- See figure 6.2 for those listed clearances.

It looks like a booster fan. For what, I don't know.

Deck Guide

Are those deck joists all attached to an overhang?

Pressure will be more balanced, and money will be saved on energy costs, while I believe installation costs will be higher.

I wish there was a requirement to re- pressure test older lines when new work was done-- a bunch of leaks would be tracked down & fixed if they did so. At my day job, we don't check for sediment traps on gas lines during inspections, but I do when performing home inspections.

I didn't know there was a specified exhaust temp. either. I'll have to look into this now, but just out of curiosity. I will probably never check exhaust temp.

I don't think that the guys who piped this meter are smart enough to do a 2# set ......... We have no set standard for when 2# is required, although if a generator is installed on the property, they typically have to, due to the appliance reg. pressure requirements. We try to stick with a max. 630 meter on residential sets, so if someone has a load of 6+ therms, they'll be pushed to go to a 2# set. Ideally, contractors just make the smart choice to go with 2# sets so they can save some money. I don't think that much of the piping in this example would have come close to passing the 60# pressure test required for 2#. That, and the meter on this one would still be undersized for 2#. I recommend a 2# set when I find undersized houseline. For example, when someone switches over to a tankless water heater, or when loads are added.

What is the required test pressure? Usually, the required standard pressure ("w.c.) test pressure is only 10#'s for 15 min, but most guys around here pump up to 25'ish pounds, and I rarely see a leak. I witness and sign off on the gas line pressure tests at times, but don't have any experience with re- pressure testing older lines. There's no requirement to re- test them around here.

Floor furnaces are pretty much always really dirty anyways. I'd hire a pro to come out, clean things up, and service it at the same time. The contractor can do a safety check as well that way....

I was called out to figure out a gas odor in a garage today. I found & fixed 4 small leaks in the garage, but don't believe that what the customer smelled was from them, because there wasn't any history of recent pipe work. After fixing the leaks, I walked out and found this: Click to Enlarge 825.69 KB This meter and 3/4'' house line is rated at about 200,000 btu's, while there was a load of over 500k btu's in the home. I'm pretty sure the issue was from pressure drop/ delayed ignition when all equpment kicked on, but didn't confirm before changing out the meter. Just something else to watch out for-- extremely undersized meters, which is common.

Not saying what was done was wrong, but I'd be very hesitant to bypass a safety device. Chances are slim to none that anything bad will happen, but if something did.............

Thanks Nolan. After a quick glance at the states, I don't see any that have adopted the 2012 yet. It looks like TX is still under the 2000 version of the IRC.

Could it be something as simple and crud built up in the overflow?

Thanks Phillip, You wouldn't happen to have a list showing which states use which code cycle would you?

I don't have access to the IRC, just the ORSC. Do some states adopt the 2012 IRC as soon as it comes out? Did the continuous flashing wording just get slapped in w/ the 2012 IRC? If so, I wonder what made them add that crap?

Oregon's code omitted the the word "continuous" from this section, and still requires step flashing.

Ha-- not unless all of the step flashing professionals moved to Oregon.......

That's a crazy looking discharge pipe installation by the way......

That's called delayed ignition. If you have typical inshot burners, then it may just need cleaned @the crossovers/carryovers. Post a video of it on youtube, or at least take a picture and post it so we can see the burner arrangement.

Was there any spillage @the water heater draft hood by chance? Not related, but just noticed a 3" connector run into a very large common vent, or what used to be a common vent anyways. I wouldn't expect to see any condensation in the box if the unit hadn't been run in a while........

The main byproducts when you burn nat. gas are CO2 and water. With a high efficiency furnace, there's less heat loss, so moisture condenses in the furnace& vent, hence the reason for the condensate management system. You just don't usually see a clear collection box like that, so the moisture isn't typically visible.

Thanks for the tip-- I ordered one.

Hi OCallaghan, I assume you mean vent connector & common vent (helps to keep things easy to understand when same terminology is used). I agree that the furnace vent connector and common vent appear to be the same size, as is allowed Not according to Hart& Cooley: see quote below found here PS: See figure 6 that shows the smaller btu vent connector tied in after (above) the higher btu rated piece of equip.....