empire wont light

[rocki]

direct vent empire wont light, i have to much wind draft not allowing the pilot to light when its windy outside, what can i do to fix this? i have the extension kit on the house also. any suggestions would be great!

[hanson]

Crack a window open.

The Empire in my house does the exact same thing. Frustrated me for about 1-1/2 years. I'm guessing your house is built pretty tight and has no vents in it. The "draft" you are experiencing is more than likely the result of air pressure differences between inside and outside the house. My house does this even when there is no wind outside. One good way to tell is if your pilot light flickers or dances around when you open and close the door.

Next time you go to light the Furnace, try this. Remove the glass window from the front of the Empire furnace. Put you hand over it and you'll feel the draft coming into the house. If you try and light a match and get it near the pilot, the draft will blow it out. Now open a window, and place your hand over the pilot light area. You "should" notice no draft at all and you can hold a lit match there without it blowing out.

My furnace used to go out in the middle of the night all the time from this draft. It sucked. Now I just leave 1 of my windows open about 1" and life has been great ever since.

Does this sound like your problem or do you know the wind is blowing in? Like I said, I had this problem even on calm days, and when it was windy, I would cover the exhaust with a windproof jacket as tight as I could and it wouldn't eliminate the draft.

[rocki]

thats its! your the man! i knew it had to be something simple! i will have to get a vent cut in, but the window open would work too. how long does it take to get your heater to the temp you want? this is my first empire, so its new to me! thanks hanson!

[Augusta]

Hanson,

I have the same problem and I remember your post about this same topic last year. I tried your idea, and to no avail...just bites....

[hanson]

Sure hope that works for you. If it doesn't, I don't know what else to try. It took me quite awhile to stumble onto my furnace problems. Lighting that thing used to be a big pain in the rear... BIG! It would always go out during the night as well

If you try what I posted, you'll be able to tell if it is a draft resulting from pressure difference. If that doesn't solve it, I'm not sure what to say.

Back to the heating question, I bet my furnace takes 15-20 minutes to get up to temperature. I always bring a sunflower heater on a 20lb tank into my shack and fire that up first thing. Then I get down on my hands and knees and pray that my furnace lights (used to be a big problem!).

Another thing that has really helped is running the furnace off a big 100 lb tank. Seams to work much better.