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Central heat & air; the fan doesn't come on with the heating element?
Well, not always. Most of the time you can hear the fan come on. Sometimes however, I'll notice the lights flicker but I won't hear the fan. A few minutes later, I'll smell a burning plastic smell...so I run to the thermostat and shut off everything. .
I turn the fan control to "on" and it works; then I turn the heat back on and feel warm air. I then turn the fan control back to "auto" and everything seems to work normally for about 24 hrs. when it Starts again and I go through the above steps. This has happened twice since Thursday afternoon.
Any ideas? ...a faulty fan switch...some relay between the heating element and the fan... no wires or components feel hot or appear to have melted.
Thanks Derek. The fan spins freely and easily. It also comes on any time I move the switch. It's just that after many heating cycles, the fan doesn't come on. I was thinking something was getting hot and failing. Now at least I have a couple places to look.
It's an old unit; 25 yrs. I can't even see the name brand or find a model # and been through, um, under a flood. And it still works...sort of.
1 Answer
- 1 decade agoFavorite Answer
sounds like you probably have a bad sequencer, which turns on the elements and the fan, sometimes they use a relay for the fan also, there are lots of things it could be, what i would do is shut off all power, which on an electric furnace could be more than one breaker, and trace the wires to the fan motor, see where they go and start from there.. or you have a bad fan motor and capacitor, that would explain the smell, motor may be tight or electrically bad and having a hard time starting, I know I am all over the place here, just trying to give lots of scenarios of what it could be..with power off, take the cover off so you can see the blower, stick your hand in there and give it a turn, it should turn easy, if you give it a spin it should spin freely, if not your motor is done.
