ReplyEasiest thing you can do is to ease your mind, is have someone else check the amps with another meter, chances are two meters won't be wrong, then you can make the decision at that time to change it.
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We had our systems checked up last October for our annual tune-up/inspection.
The technician found the inducer on our first floor furnace (2002 Lennox G40) running at high amps (running 2.4 amps rated for 1.95). I don't know if this is considered "high" or not. He said that it was overheating. The furnace has been performing fine lately with no issues.
What could be causing the inducer to be running at high amps? The inducer was also checked during last year's tune-up and it was fine. Will the inducer eventually fail? Thanks in advance. Thanks for the input in my previous posts.
Professional Member*
Easiest thing you can do is to ease your mind, is have someone else check the amps with another meter, chances are two meters won't be wrong, then you can make the decision at that time to change it.
__________________________________________________ _______________________
“Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards" ~ Vernon Law
"It's what you learn after you know it all that counts." ~ John Wooden
"When the teachers become unteachable we're all in trouble" ~ Mr. Bill
"Remember "Pro" is only a name, it's not always a mindset determined to do everything correctly" ~ Mr. Bill
Professional Member
Thank you for the advice. Earlier this month we had another tech come out from a different company and he said the same thing. He did use a different meter.
Professional Member*
It's something that if over amping can fail, do you want it to go out on Saturday night when it will cost 25% or more? The problem is it hard to estimate how long it will last, but lets just say they fail quite often.
Professional Member
So are you saying that it might be a good idea to go ahead and have the inducer replaced? Both techs said that it will eventually fail sometime in the future but you never know when. The furnace is oversized (90,000 BTU for 2200 sq. ft. - that's too big) and it short cycles a lot and we thought about replacing it in a few years with a smaller size (maybe a 60,000 BTU 2 stage or 45,000 BTU single stage, depends on what manual j calls for)
Professional Member*
If you are thinking About replacing it may be ok to wait, but it's hard to say how long It may last.
Professional Member*
Most inducer motors run high rpm's around 3000 and to add to that, they are surrounded by heat, those are already two minuses, if the rpm's start to drop any, maybe due to existing bearing damage, it can still run, but the furnace will shut down.
__________________________________________________ _______________________
“Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards" ~ Vernon Law
"It's what you learn after you know it all that counts." ~ John Wooden
"When the teachers become unteachable we're all in trouble" ~ Mr. Bill
"Remember "Pro" is only a name, it's not always a mindset determined to do everything correctly" ~ Mr. Bill
Professional Member
The inducer has gotten a little bit louder lately. The motor looks black too.
Professional Member*
it would be a good time to replace the furnace
Professional Member
We probably will replace the whole furnace when the inducer fails since it is oversized. It really depends on price of course. I might post a picture of the inducer in our current furnace so you can see the blackness on the motor. I don't know if the blackness has anything to do with the overheating or not.
Professional Member
Here's the image:I took this pic while the tech was here for the tune-up. Is the blackness on the motor normal?
Professional Member*
where the arrow is pointing at is black when the motor is new.
below that at the windings shows no signs of over heating.
Professional Member
Thanks for the input. I feel stupid now. It just kinda didn't look normal. Well at least I know now! I'm guessing that the tan color I see on some tiny areas of the motor is probably rust. The motor is original from the furnace when it was installed. Both companies did find the inducer running on high amps.Originally Posted by t527ed
Professional Member*
tan color is probably just a little rust on the black metal, it does tend to rust quickly but does not hurt the motor.
as long as it's working and you're planning on replacing the furnace i would not be in a rush to change the inducer.
Professional Member
Thanks! The inducer is working fine but it has gotten a little bit louder than it used to be. We will probably go ahead and replace the furnace next winter since it is oversized and our current budget can't afford a new one now. One of the other reasons we want to replace is because to get variable speed to increase the efficiency of our Trane XR15 to 16.50 seer. Thanks again for all the input!
Professional Member*
Hope your inducer bearings hold out until at least until springThe variable speed is excellent for comfort, but payback time can sometimes be long vs. a standard PSC motor. Know how long it will take to pay for the variable speed motor in energy savings if that is your primary motivation for the VS furnace.
Professional Member*
One of our newer techs was checking amps on G40 inducers and I've received calls asking why the readings are so high.
Once they move the clamp further down the wire, away from the motor, the readings fall in line.
The G40 doesn't have a cage around the windings, so it projects its magnetic field much further.
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