Goodman furnace Ed: Rollout switch has tripped

Ed means a rollout switch opened. Flame came forward out of the burner compartment instead of being drawn into the heat exchanger, and this is the most serious routine fault code a furnace produces.

Applies to: Goodman GMVM97 and GCVM97 and Amana AMVM97 modulating gas furnaces with a two-character alphanumeric display. Older single-LED boards report the equivalent condition as six flashes.

What it means

Rollout switches sit on or near the burner assembly and open when they detect heat where there should be none. They exist to catch flame rollout — flame escaping forward out of the burner box rather than being pulled through the heat exchanger by the draft. Rollout means the combustion path is obstructed or the draft has failed. It can scorch wiring, damage the furnace, and produce carbon monoxide. Unlike most furnace safeties, rollout switches are manual reset: once tripped they stay tripped until someone physically presses them. That is deliberate, so that a person has to attend the furnace and, in principle, establish why it tripped before it can run again.

Most common causes

A blocked or restricted heat exchanger, so combustion gases cannot pass through it.
A blocked or partly blocked flue, forcing combustion products back toward the burners.
A failed or weak draft inducer that is not pulling flame into the heat exchanger.
A cracked heat exchanger disturbing the combustion airflow.
Burners that are dirty, misaligned, or partly blocked, producing an unstable flame.
Insufficient combustion air in a confined furnace space.
Overfiring, with manifold pressure set too high for the burners.

How to diagnose it

Treat this as a stop-and-call fault rather than something to work through. Its causes are dominated by conditions that produce carbon monoxide.
Check that carbon monoxide alarms in the house are present and working. If any has sounded, leave and call the fire service from outside.
Look for visible scorching, soot, or melted wire insulation near the burner compartment — from outside, without dismantling anything.
Note whether the flue or vent termination is obviously blocked.

How to fix it

Turn the furnace off at its service switch and leave it off. Call a licensed heating technician.
Do not press the rollout switch reset buttons to restart it. The switch tripped because flame went somewhere it should not, and resetting without finding out why puts the furnace straight back into that condition.
Have working carbon monoxide alarms on every level of the home and outside each separate sleeping area, which is what NFPA 720 and US Consumer Product Safety Commission guidance call for. That includes the level the furnace is on — basements, attics and utility spaces are where a combustion fault starts, and an alarm only on bedroom floors can miss it for a long time. This fault is one of the situations those alarms exist for. This fault is one of the situations those alarms exist for.
Every underlying cause — heat exchanger, flue, inducer, burners, gas pressure — is licensed work. There is no homeowner portion of this repair.

Notes

The manual reset on a rollout switch is the clearest signal a furnace gives about how seriously to take a fault. Every other common safety resets itself; this one requires a person, precisely so the condition gets investigated rather than cycled through.

All codes for this manufacturer

Goodman and Amana furnace fault codes — every code, with what differs between models.

This code is not a homeowner repair. Faults in this group involve the gas valve, the burner compartment, or the heat exchanger — the parts whose failure can put combustion products, including carbon monoxide, into the air the house breathes. Do not reset it repeatedly to keep the heat on. Have it looked at by a licensed technician, and make sure there is a working carbon monoxide alarm on every level of the home, including the level the furnace is on.

Sources

Goodman Manufacturing — Diagnostic Code Identification System (model-specific fault code lookup)

This site is a reference, not a substitute for a licensed HVAC technician. Gas appliances can leak carbon monoxide and cause fire. Anything involving gas lines, the heat exchanger, or the flame sensing circuit should be handled by a licensed professional. Pages are written with AI assistance from the sources listed on each page and checked against them before publishing.