{"id":541,"date":"2023-12-25T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-25T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.potterhvac.com\/blog\/?p=541"},"modified":"2026-02-24T14:37:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T19:37:18","slug":"this-sensor-could-be-forcing-your-furnace-to-shut-down-early","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.potterhvac.com\/blog\/heating-service\/this-sensor-could-be-forcing-your-furnace-to-shut-down-early\/","title":{"rendered":"This Sensor Could Be Forcing Your Furnace to Shut Down Early"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Your furnace has a lot of working parts that rely on one another to handle various operations. Some are vital, some are helpful but won\u2019t cause a full breakdown if they\u2019re experiencing some issues, but this little sensor? It can prevent your furnace from even starting in the first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The flame sensor is the reason we see a lot of Brighton heating repair<\/a> requests. When this seemingly small component isn\u2019t working, it can make your entire furnace look like it\u2019s broken. Before you jump to conclusions and think that you have to repair your furnace because it won\u2019t turn on, read this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Your Flame Sensor Is a Safety Device<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If your furnace were to turn on, but the ignition fails, you have a problem: there\u2019s now an open line of gas just spilling into your air supply. That not only wastes gas, but it turns your home into a tinderbox. That flame sensor, as you might expect, senses whether or not there\u2019s an active flame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If there is <\/em>an active flame, it lets the flow of gas continue, and the gas burns as it\u2019s designed to. Your furnace flourishes, you\u2019re warm, you know the drill\u2013it\u2019s another winter with a great heater at your side. When the flame\u2019s gone? This sensor shuts down the flow of gas as a safety precaution, protecting you and your family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s an important feature, but when it can\u2019t detect a flame anymore, it quickly paints your furnace as the culprit. In reality, it\u2019s a maintenance issue at best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s the Issue at a Glance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Your flame sensor may not even be broken. In fact, it might just be dirty. It\u2019s a small component, so when it deals with all the results of burning gas, soot and debris begin to muck up the sensor. It can\u2019t detect a flame because it\u2019s blocked, not because anything is truly broken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We wish it were as simple as saying, \u201cGo wipe it down\u201d and everything would be fine, but it\u2019s not that simple. This isn\u2019t a DIY-friendly solution that you can carry out on your own, and here\u2019s why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cleaning Your Flame Sensor Is Intricate<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Despite your flame sensor being rather small, it has a lot of working parts, each of which needs to be cleaned. The furnace needs to be shut down, the gas line needs to be closed, then the sensor is removed, disassembled\u2013you see where we\u2019re going with this: it\u2019s a long, arduous process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a multi-step process that you\u2019re probably capable of doing, but when that sensor is put back together and attached to your furnace once again, you need to be 100% certain that it will continue to do its job. You\u2019ve never seen it do its job before, you don\u2019t know what to look for, but a certified, experienced technician does<\/em>. That\u2019s the difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We Sense a Solution<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While it\u2019s not fun when the sensor in your furnace dies out, it\u2019s thankfully not the worst problem you could have. We\u2019re here to help you with all of your furnace troubles, whether that\u2019s a sensor or another problem. We\u2019re equipped and ready to help you stay warm this winter, even if your furnace is fumbling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contact Potter Heating Cooling & Plumbing today<\/strong><\/a> to schedule your heating repair as soon as possible.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Your furnace has this one little part that you probably don’t even know about, and it’s stopping it in its tracks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[76],"tags":[88,97],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.potterhvac.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.potterhvac.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.potterhvac.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.potterhvac.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.potterhvac.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.potterhvac.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":960,"href":"https:\/\/www.potterhvac.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541\/revisions\/960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.potterhvac.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.potterhvac.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.potterhvac.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}