In December 2009 I got a top-of-the-line Bryant 95% efficiency furnace (Plus95s Model 355CAV). It has 1 year labor warranty and 10 year parts warranty. In December 2010, just a few days after the labor warranty expired (!), I got a “SYSTEM MALFUNCTION. CALL TECHNICIAN” message.
The technician (same company that sold and installed the furnace) came and replaced some part. Almost every week since then I am getting the same message. The technician came a few more times; once he replaced the inducer motor (because of seventy INDUCER FAULT alarms in one week), other time he just powered the furnace off and back on. He discussed the situation with Bryant but the problem has not been solved. The bill for technician service calls is HEFTY so I started to keep track of the alarms by myself (by going into the service menu) and I can see alarms almost EVERY DAY. When I see the message “SYSTEM MALFUNCTION. CALL TECHNICIAN” I just power cycle the furnace myself.
Note: the alarms I see are
Code 33 LIMIT FAULT (2 in the last week)
Code 42 INDUCER FAULT (even after inducer motor replacement; 17 in the last week but only 1 since the last power cycle 3 days ago)
Code 31 MEDIUM PRESSURE SWITCH OPEN (2 in the last week)
BTW, I made sure that the outlet is unobstructed and clear of ice and snow.
I contacted Bryant (on-line message to customer service) but haven’t heard from them (yet?). I will also call the local Bryant distributor on Monday.
I am at a loss on how to handle this – I cannot pay for repeated expensive “guesswork”/trial-and-error technician visits (even though the furnace is out of labor warranty, should there be a SERVICE CALL warranty?). Is there a way to get Bryant take full ownership of this?
Any suggestions/experience with a similar situation?
