TL;DR
A draft inducer motor is the small fan that starts before a modern furnace's burners light, pulling combustion air through the heat exchanger and pushing flue gases out the vent, then proving the airflow to a pressure switch that permits ignition. It replaced the lazy natural draft of old furnaces and is part of why they no longer need standing pilots and draft hoods.
What it means
A draft inducer motor is the small fan that starts before a modern furnace's burners light, pulling combustion air through the heat exchanger and pushing flue gases out the vent, then proving the airflow to a pressure switch that permits ignition. It replaced the lazy natural draft of old furnaces and is part of why they no longer need standing pilots and draft hoods. Failure announces itself as a furnace that hums or clicks but never lights, or as bearing screech and vibration in the minutes before heat; since the pressure switch will veto ignition without it, no inducer means no heat at all.
Where it sits in the glossary
Draft inducer motor is part of the Trade jargon group inside the ProFix Directory glossary. Browse every term in this category from the glossary index.
Why Ohio homeowners should know it
This is a term Ohio homeowners encounter when reading contractor quotes, hiring paperwork, or inspection reports. Understanding it well enough to ask one good follow-up question is usually all the protection a homeowner needs.
ProFix Directory keeps definitions short on the index page and saves the longer context — Ohio-specific rules, where the term comes from, and which ProFix tools touch it — for these per-term pages so the term is easy to cite and easy to share.
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See also
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