Next Phase Heating is an independent HVAC contractor. We are not an authorized dealer for, or affiliated with, any equipment manufacturer. Brand names are used only to identify the equipment we service. Codes vary by model and model year — the legend on your own furnace is always the last word.
First — which control does your Goodman have?
This matters more than the code itself. Look through the small window in the blower door before you count anything, and do not open the door.
One red light that blinks
Older and entry-level models. You count the flashes, wait through the pause, and it repeats. This is the system where the same count genuinely means different things on different Goodman lines.
Two characters, like E3 or b6
Roughly 2009 to 2022, including the ComfortNet models. A small display shows a letter and a number together.
Three characters, like EE0 or E11
Roughly 2022 onward, including the newer R-32 models. Flame rollout finally got a code of its own on these, which is a genuine safety improvement.
An Amana badge instead
Same manufacturer, same control boards, same codes. One exception is flagged in the traps below.
What the codes mean
Stop, and call someone
These involve gas, or a flame where the control did not ask for one. Repeatedly resetting past them is how a contained problem stops being contained.
5 flashes
E4 · EE4
A flame is being detected when the gas valve should be shut
The control can see a flame it did not ask for. Switch the furnace off at the service switch. If you can smell gas at all, leave the house and call the gas company before you call anyone else.
6 flashes
E11
Flame rollout — the burner flame came out of where it is supposed to stay
On the newest three-character control this is E11 on its own. On older single-light models it is six flashes on most lines, though not all of them, which is exactly why the traps section below is worth two minutes. Either way, this is not a reset-and-see-what-happens.
E3
Limit circuit open — and this code is two very different problems sharing one number
On the two-character control, E3 covers a dirty filter and a flame rollout at the same time. Goodman’s own corrective actions list “check filters” and “flame rollout” underneath it. Change the filter once. If E3 comes straight back, stop there and let someone look at it.
EEb · EEC
The gas valve is not doing what the control told it to do
One of these means the valve stayed shut when it was asked to open, the other means it opened when it was told not to. Goodman’s troubleshooting chart and its own wiring legend disagree about which is which, so we are not going to guess for you. Both are gas valve faults and both are a visit.
Usually you, and usually the filter
Genuinely worth ten minutes before you book anything. If the code comes straight back after you have done these, it was not the filter.
4 flashes
The furnace got too hot inside the cabinet and shut itself down
Nine times in ten this is airflow. Change the filter, open every supply register in the house, and make sure nothing is stacked against the return. If it trips again after that, the limit switch or the blower is the next thing to look at, and that is ours.
3 flashes
E2 · EE2
The pressure switch never closed — the furnace cannot prove it is venting safely
On a high-efficiency furnace the intake and exhaust come out through the wall or roof as white plastic pipes. Go outside and look at them: a bird’s nest, a wasp nest, a snowdrift or a bag caught over the end will all do this. If they are clear, it is the switch or the inducer motor.
EF · EEF
The condensate switch is open — water has backed up somewhere it should not
A high-efficiency furnace makes water, and it needs somewhere to go. This trips most often in the first properly cold week of the season when a drain line that has been dry all summer turns out to be blocked.
b3 · Eb3
The blower is running, but it is fighting to move air
Same list as four flashes: filter, registers, return. This one is the furnace telling you early, before it starts tripping on the limit.
Needs a technician, but it is not an emergency
None of these are dangerous. Most are a part that has reached the end of a normal life.
1 flash
E0 · EE0
Lockout — it tried to light, failed enough times, and gave up
Despite being a single flash this is not a minor warning. It means the furnace has stopped trying. One power cycle to let it have another go is reasonable. If it locks out a second time you are now chasing the reason, not the code.
2 flashes
E1 · EE1
The pressure switch was already closed before the inducer even started
Usually a switch that has stuck or a hose with water sitting in it.
7 flashes
E6 · EE6
The flame signal is weak
Almost always a flame sensor with a film of oxide on it. It is a small part, a quick clean or swap, and it is one of the most common furnace calls there is.
8 flashes
E7 · EE7
A problem in the igniter circuit, or a poor ground
Hot surface igniters are consumable. They crack, usually on a cold morning, usually after years of working perfectly.
E5 · EE5
The fuse on the control board has blown
Something shorted to make that happen. Fitting a new fuse without finding what blew the old one just buys you another blown fuse.
EA · EEA
Line and neutral are swapped, or the ground is poor
This is a wiring fault rather than a furnace fault, and it turns up most often shortly after somebody else has worked on it.
b0 to b7 · Eb0 to Eb7
The variable-speed blower is reporting a fault of its own
These cover the motor not running, losing communication with the board, drawing too much current, or seeing the wrong voltage. Apart from b3 they are the motor or its module.
Four ways a Goodman code gets read wrong
- The board is mounted upside down in a lot of installs. Goodman warns about this in its own service literature: in downflow and horizontal furnaces the control sits rotated, so E9 reads as 6E and E2 reads as 2E. The two characters are read left to right relative to the board, not to you.
- Opening the blower door destroys the thing you opened it to read. There is a safety switch on that door. Open it and the furnace loses power, and the live code goes with it. Read it through the observation window instead.
- One flash is not a gentle warning. It is a hard lockout. Every other system on earth numbers its worst fault highest, and this one does the opposite.
- Six flashes does not mean one thing across the range. On the basic 80% lines it is flame rollout. On some 95% lines the same six flashes covers rollout or a blown fuse. On the Amana two-stage variable-speed models the factory legend skips six entirely, which looks like a printing error in the diagram. If yours is flashing six, treat it as rollout until somebody has actually looked at it.
There is no error code for a cracked heat exchanger
This is worth saying plainly because it is one of the most searched questions about furnaces and one of the most abused in a sales conversation. No Goodman control board can detect a cracked heat exchanger. Neither can any other brand’s. There is no code for it and there never has been. What a board can tell you is that the burner flame rolled out, or that the high limit keeps tripping, and both of those can be downstream signs of a heat exchanger that has failed. But the crack itself is found by inspection — a camera, a mirror, and a combustion analyser — by someone who has taken the thing apart. If a quote for a new furnace arrives on the strength of a flashing light alone, that is a very good moment to get a second number.
Counted it, and it is one of the red ones?
Book the visit and put the code in the notes. We will bring the part it usually turns out to be.
Book a Furnace Diagnostic60 seconds online · or call (206) 486-6373
How it works when you book
- 1
Read the code before you reset anything The moment you cycle the power the live code is gone. Count it twice and write it down.
- 2
Book online and tell us what it showed Takes about a minute. Put the code in the notes — it changes what the technician loads into the van.
- 3
You get the price before we start Diagnosed, explained, and quoted in writing. Nothing happens until you say go.
Our service areas
We run out of Covington and cover the greater Puget Sound area.
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Snohomish County
Lynnwood, Everett
Not on the list? We cover the greater Puget Sound area around our Covington base. Book it and a technician confirms within 1 business hour.
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Quick answers
Is an Amana the same as a Goodman?
Same manufacturer, same control boards, and for diagnostic purposes the same furnace. The codes match. The one difference worth knowing is the gap at six flashes in the Amana two-stage variable-speed legend, which we would not read anything into without looking at the unit.
Can I just reset it and see if it clears?
For an ignition lockout, once is fair enough. Furnaces do fail to light on a cold morning and then run perfectly for another five years. For anything involving flame rollout, or a flame sensed while the valve is closed, no. Those faults exist specifically to stop the furnace doing something it should not, and resetting past them repeatedly is how a small problem turns into a large one.
Where is the real code legend on my furnace?
On the wiring diagram, which Goodman prints on the blower door itself. That legend was written for your exact furnace, which makes it more reliable than anything on the internet, this page very much included.
The light is on solid rather than flashing. Is that bad?
No, that is the normal one. Steady on means the control has power and has nothing to report. A control that is completely dark is the one worth worrying about.
Do you work on Goodman if we did not buy it from you?
Yes. Goodman’s warranty asks for a state certified or licensed contractor, not a particular dealer, so having us do the work does not affect your parts warranty.
Tell us what it is flashing.
Book online in about a minute. Put the code in the notes and we turn up with the right part in the van.
Book a Furnace Diagnostic60 seconds online · or call (206) 486-6373
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