October 31, 2023
Fall has officially arrived here in the Lawton area and many homeowners are testing their furnaces to prepare for the chilly winter ahead. This is a great idea because your heating system has been idle since the start of spring. However, you may notice new and strange noises coming from your furnace that weren’t there last year. While some noises are harmless and occur as your furnace warms up for the season, other noises are a cause for concern.
If your furnace makes a booming sound when it starts up, this is usually due to what HVAC specialists call “delayed ignition”. Unfortunately, delayed ignition should never be ignored as it can cause severe damage to your furnace and even your family if left unaddressed.
What Is Delayed Ignition?
When your thermostat calls for heat from the furnace, a gas valve opens, sending gas to the furnace’s burners to ignite. Delayed ignition is when that gas isn’t ignited immediately, which causes the gas to build up in the furnace. Gas continues to build until—BOOM—it reaches a flame and finally ignites, causing a small explosion in your furnace. Imagine being in a room filled with gas and someone decides to light a match, hesitating a moment before finally pushing the ignite button. Yeah, delayed ignition is like that.
What Causes Delayed Ignition in a Furnace?
There are a variety of possible causes for issues with your furnace’s ignition, all of which need a professional technician to solve during a furnace repair visit. Some of these can include:
- Too much primary air - Primary air is the air that’s mixed with the gas before it’s ignited. Too much primary air makes the gas-air mixture hard to light, causing gas to build up. Primary air problems are an easy fix for our technicians.
- Too little gas at the burners - Just like too much air, not enough gas makes it hard for the gas-air mixture to ignite. This can be caused by low gas supply pressure or something else that our technician will need to examine to determine the cause.
- Dirty, restricted, or weak pilot light - This is a common problem for older furnaces and our technicians can inspect your furnace to determine if it’s time for a replacement.
The Dangers of Delayed Ignitions
Delayed ignitions cause several explosions within your furnace, which can lead to extensive damage, like a cracked heat exchanger (the most expensive part to replace). But damage to your furnace isn’t the only thing to worry about with a delayed ignition. Many homeowners end up burned when trying to ignite the pilot light on their furnace manually when the extra gas is present in what’s known as a “flash burn.” The explosions within a furnace can also escape the combustion chamber and result in a house fire, putting your family in danger.
Call the Pros at Pippin Brothers For Furnace Repair Services
At Pippin Brothers, your safety is our top priority, and we never recommend trying to fix a problem with your gas furnace ignition by yourself. Our technicians can repair your delayed ignition problem and get your heating system working again safely.
A precision tune-up and professional cleaning of your furnace can uncover symptoms that lead to this hazardous problem and address it before it has catastrophic consequences. Pippin Brothers offers peace of mind with maintenance with our comprehensive Pippin Partner Plans! Get annual tune-ups, discounts on repairs, and more!
