Manually opening/closing forced air zones...

[ejmct]

I'm a homeowner who decided to put the heat on for time last night. Its a forced hotair system.

The furnace kicked on and the blower appears to be working, but no air is coming through the ducts, so I've determined that it must be the zone-flapper things won't open (I tried a couple zones).

I've called my HVAC guy but haven't heard from him yet. Tonight is going to be cold here in CT so I really need some heat. My thought was if there was some way I could manually open these flaps I could get by until I get the guy out.

The flap motors appear to have power because I can see them and the little green lights are on, but for whatever reason they aren't responding to the thermostat.

So can I force them open somehow, either electronically or manually?

Thanks!

[t527ed]

DO NOT force them open. if anything in an emergency take out a few screws and slide them out. most dampers i have seen are power close dampers so they fail open. you may have other problems besides damper. best thing would be wait for service. unless pipes will freeze just throw on a couple extra blankets.

[craig1]

did you check to make sure the filter(s) are not plugged?

[ejmct]

Lucky for me, my HVAC guy called me back late yesterday afternoon and was doing work on the house next door!
So he sent a guy over and determined that it was actually the blower relay that crapped out on me.

He also suggested that I not mess with the dampers on my own.

But luckily I had heat last night so I'm happt.

Thanks!