Emerson Thermostats 768A-815 Hot Surface Ignitor

As a home owner with a background in construction this was an easy part to replace. Works great

Works well thus far. Easy to install for those who are not mechanically inclined. Typical life span of this item is 5’ish years. Replace it as part of preventative maintenance.

I bought this as a spare part for my American Standard Freedom 80 furnace. The original ignitor is still working after 11 years but risk of failing could happen soon and at the worst time. This part looks identical to the 2009 original (768A-15) and is also White Rodgers and made in Mexico. (768A-815 is the new number for 768A-15)I seen a few say it failed. If your replacing the ignitor after failure make sure it is the exact right part! There are a few variations in length, watts and voltage (ie: 768A-844 is slightly shorter then 768A-815) Also do not touch the element during install! Not following this will greatly shorten the life.

The hot surface ignitor (HSI) is an important part of your gas furnace that can fail. The way the HSI works is that it is heated to a high temperature. When flammable gases come in contact with HSI they ignite and generate heat. How do you know if HSI is working? The HSI heats and when it does it glows. It glows brighter that a 40 watt incandescent lamp filament. And you can see this from the glass hole. If you don't see the glow before the furnace fires up, perhaps this part has failed.I replaced mine as part of preventive maintenance. The last one was nearly 6 years old, still going but the ones before had failed every year or so. Every time it failed it was $300 to the company that replaced it. This time it was much less with the Emerson clone. It took about 10 minutes to get the job done. I have the old one still saved up in case this fails and I have to order another one.All in call happy with the purchase. How long it lasts is another story.

Perfect replacement. At this price I bought two just to have an extra one in case.