furnace flame...?

Question

is supposed to be blue always or is it ok if it has little yellow flames coming up too?

Answer 1

If you are on Natural gas the flame should be BLUE with maybe some flickers of ORANGE.
YELLOW is bad.
The pilot should be a good sharp blue color and if the room is quiet enough you should be able to actaully hear it.
It you have a yellow lazy flame your furnace is being smothered and burning "sooty"
It will eventually plug up the heat exchanger and/or flue with soot resulting in a bigger repair bill or possibly failure of the furnace.
The soot build-up from a yellow flame will create hotspots in the heat exchanger causing warpage and fatigue of the metal, leading to cracking of the heatexchanger which will in turn lead to dangerous carbon monoxide getting into the house.

So if you see YELLOW flames in your furnace have a reputable HVAC company in your area clean & check your furnace.
A yearly bill for a regular clean and check of your furnace is a whole lot cheaper than the alternative.

Answer 2

I used to work for Trane a few years ago, and we did a survey to see just how well the Trane furnaces were kept in good working order, we only surveyed those maintained annually by service people that "claimed" they knew how to do the job properly.

What we found was that nearly 100% of the furnaces were improperly serviced. Amongst the problems were , Incorrect gas pressure to the nozzles due to impoper setting of the gas valve. Improper adjustment of the burner nozzle lengths, Too little or too much combustion and exhaust airs.

Point im making here is so many people has so much faith the ordinary serviceman who comes annually and doesnt do much to the furnace, has little knowledge of even how to do it, and walks away with a check written by you . Seems people are just happy to say "i had my furnace maintained this year" and let it go at that

Sorry, that is how it is. I dont have a solution other than the home owner gaing more knowledge and actually watching the tech to see if they even have the faintest idea what they are doing. Id say most dont.

Answer 3

if your furnace has some blue flame with yellow tips it should be ok... when was the last time you had it serviced??

i can make a flame yellow but shutting the air shutters off...

Answer 4

The tips of the flames flicker yellow intermittently. but any more than that, The furnace should be serviced.

Answer 5

I think a little yellow is normal but not really in my area of knowledge.