1.5 year old house. No hot water. Getting error code....wtf

[BigShow]

Just adding to the list of others past couple days; exact same issue and error code, cleared the outside vents and it was back to normal shortly thereafter.

[craigcd]

Have the same issue. Is there a fix for this aside from unclogging it every time it snows? I have heard of some people making the intake a "T" rather then terminating straight out. Any suggestions?

[cyra1ax]

So the intake for my furnace was installed as a T, where the exhaust is just a J bend pointed exhausting towards the ground. Going to try the same with the HWT in the summer.

[craigcd]

Installed a T today on mine, will post up results

[NissanFanBoy]

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Have the same issue. Is there a fix for this aside from unclogging it every time it snows? I have heard of some people making the intake a "T" rather then terminating straight out. Any suggestions?

Mine is a T for exhaust and J for intake, the T still developed icicles that tripped the sensors and the intake builds up Frost like crazy.... Thank God it only happens when it's really cold...I also don't have houses beside me until three lots over..

[craigcd]

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Mine is a T for exhaust and J for intake, the T still developed icicles that tripped the sensors and the intake builds up Frost like crazy.... Thank God it only happens when it's really cold...I also don't have houses beside me until three lots over..

Ya they did the T for my furnace intake but not the water heater. I dont get it. Been working fine since install but it hasn't snowed / there hasn't been a bunch of snow blowing. I am sure next time I am in a rush to get somewhere and jump in the shower in a hurry it will be freezing cold

Nothing worse than starting your day with a freezing shower!

[wildrice]

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Installed a T today on mine, will post up results

Did this work for you? Mine got clogged up 3 times within 24 hours yesterday... 3pm, 7pm, and then 4am.

[Maxt]

Every cold snap, it brings to light how condensing appliances should be a choice rather than the law. The design really doesn't lend itself to cold snaps, and the longer the cold snap the worse it gets. ive been doing 8-10 service calls a day since before xmas most of the calls end up being frozen intakes, sensing tubes, exhaust pipes, which in turn meant frozen structures with frozen condensing appliances. Number of calls I did on appliances with atmospheric burners and thermocouples, zero and about a 1/3rd of my customers still have that level of appliance. My own appliances are all Tc atmospheric.
What I end up doing on a lot of installs is getting an oversize box made for the intake with mesh pointing down, rather than relying on the intake pipe sized mesh not to frost up. And if your exhaust points straight up, you need to make sure the cycle of the appliance is long enough to get the pipe warm to allow the condensate in the pipe to run back to drain. Short cycles result in exhaust pipe blockage.

[craigcd]

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Did this work for you? Mine got clogged up 3 times within 24 hours yesterday... 3pm, 7pm, and then 4am.

I havent clogged since install!

[speedog]

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Every cold snap, it brings to light how condensing appliances should be a choice rather than the law. The design really doesn't lend itself to cold snaps, and the longer the cold snap the worse it gets. ive been doing 8-10 service calls a day since before xmas most of the calls end up being frozen intakes, sensing tubes, exhaust pipes, which in turn meant frozen structures with frozen condensing appliances. Number of calls I did on appliances with atmospheric burners and thermocouples, zero and about a 1/3rd of my customers still have that level of appliance. My own appliances are all Tc atmospheric.
What I end up doing on a lot of installs is getting an oversize box made for the intake with mesh pointing down, rather than relying on the intake pipe sized mesh not to frost up. And if your exhaust points straight up, you need to make sure the cycle of the appliance is long enough to get the pipe warm to allow the condensate in the pipe to run back to drain. Short cycles result in exhaust pipe blockage.

Condensing appliances are the law?

So if my 80's era furnace conks out, I can't replace it with something similar?

What about my water heater? I replaced it myself a number of years ago (6 or so) and it's not a HE appliance - it vents up our regular chimney. Would the next one have to be HE?

[craigcd]

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Condensing appliances are the law?

So if my 80's era furnace conks out, I can't replace it with something similar?

What about my water heater? I replaced it myself a number of years ago (6 or so) and it's not a HE appliance - it vents up our regular chimney. Would the next one have to be HE?

Not sure about the furnace but a had a friend hire a plumber to install a water heater last month and he also opted for a non HE water heater. It seems like its not an issue?

[Darell_n]

Mid efficient furnaces have been discontinued for a number of years, so law or not, they are not being manufactured. I'm sure water heaters will happen eventually (in decades?) but the energy savings potential for a high efficiency water heater is not as good.

[Maxt]

I was surprised to find out mid efficient is still available in the US, its just illegal to bring them into Canada. I was talking to a US equipment rep about an issue with condensing furnaces. When the high's are installed in sealed cabinet ventilation systems in portable structures in place of the original midefficient, the condensate drain tubes and collector pan freeze off. His response was "thats why we still make mid efficients for applications like that, and why Canadian efficiency rules are stupid". I asked if there was a resistance heater I could install in the furnace cabinet, and he said that the Canadian market isn't large enough to warrant paying for the approvals to do something like that. So we have to buy condensing furnaces, but our market really isn't large enough for the manufacturers to make our furnaces different just for us and we install them into conditions and climats where they don't function all that well.. But hey, look how green you're being..
If you lived up north 6 miles west of Hairlip,population 143, what furnace would you rather have? I'd take the simplist most generic damn thing I could find...

[dj_rice]

Hijack thread. Seems like whenever the temps dip to really extreme temps, my vent stack is freezing up causing the toilet to gurgle/gasp for air when its flushed. How do I combat this?

[Strider]

Bump.
My hot water heater intake pipe is frosting up in this weather... Intake and exhaust are roughly 1' apart, both have a 90° elbow pointing them downwards but the intake has an extra ~18" section of pipe after the elbow (presumably to try to prevent exhaust from being sucked in, also makes it a bitch to clear out the frost). Neither has mesh. Is there an accepted fix or best practice for venting that I can have the builder implement to resolve this? Never had this issue in 10 years at my old house.

[roopi]

Don't know how to fix it but a coat hanger works good to clear it.

[Misterman]

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Bump.
My hot water heater intake pipe is frosting up in this weather... Intake and exhaust are roughly 1' apart, both have a 90° elbow pointing them downwards but the intake has an extra ~18" section of pipe after the elbow (presumably to try to prevent exhaust from being sucked in, also makes it a bitch to clear out the frost). Neither has mesh. Is there an accepted fix or best practice for venting that I can have the builder implement to resolve this? Never had this issue in 10 years at my old house.

If you've never had the issue before, then it is likely just do to a temporary condition of the wind/temperature. I've had this happen in an old house after I built my fence, I spent a couple bucks on an elbow and a few inches of PVC. Didn't even glue it in place. I would just go jam it on when it would cold enough for the intake to freeze up. Pulling air from a different direction, or farther from the exhaust heat would clear it right up. Otherwise I would be out clearing it at least once a day when it was minus 30.

[Strider]

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Don't know how to fix it but a coat hanger works good to clear it.

I didn't think I could do a reasonable job scraping the whole inside diameter with a wire coat hanger, especially around the elbow, so I was jamming in a rolled up towel. Ordered a heat gun from Amazon same day for today in case it frosts up again.

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If you've never had the issue before, then it is likely just do to a temporary condition of the wind/temperature. I've had this happen in an old house after I built my fence, I spent a couple bucks on an elbow and a few inches of PVC. Didn't even glue it in place. I would just go jam it on when it would cold enough for the intake to freeze up. Pulling air from a different direction, or farther from the exhaust heat would clear it right up. Otherwise I would be out clearing it at least once a day when it was minus 30.

Not sure if it wasn't clear, it was at my old house where I never had this issue. We just moved into our new house in Oct and we're having this issue (among others) with the first cold snap. Another elbow and some PVC could probably do the trick, but I'd rather have a permanent solution than a band-aid at 1am in -30° weather after a cold shower.

[Misterman]

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Not sure if it wasn't clear, it was at my old house where I never had this issue. We just moved into our new house in Oct and we're having this issue (among others) with the first cold snap. Another elbow and some PVC could probably do the trick, but I'd rather have a permanent solution than a band-aid at 1am in -30° weather after a cold shower.

The permanent solution is to either leave the added elbow in place, or make it part of your yearly winterizing schedule in the fall. There is no fix to your intake pulling in humid air at -30, the humidity will freeze.