bilzablog

Feb. 18, 2003 furnace troubles

Well, once again I have sufferd the wrath of home ownership.. I woke up this morning cold.. my 3.5 year old furance decided it didn't want to provide heat.. if I had my blog in Sept, you would have seen a similar entry.. I have come to the conclusion that new furnaces are crap..my friend Jeremy had furance problems earlier this year as well.. his furnace is new.. so anyway, I call my Minnegasco service plus repair call in.. since they were just out in September to fix a problem exactly like the one I was suffering.. in Sept, the igniter was bad so they had to replace it, they said that they last about 4 years. so I didn't think much about it except that I can expect that every 4 years I am going to have to wake up cold becasue my damn furnace won't light.. no pilot light anymore.. they have decided that frozen pipes beats a pilot light any day.. ok.. so anyway.. I figured that I had recieved a bad ignitor.. heck, it was soon enough that defective parts can fail..so when I place my call they tell me sometime late morning early afternoon, they will call just before they come by.. ok... so I begin the waiting process.. at 3:00 in the afternoon a knock comes on my door, they are here, no phone call... what happened to the phone call.. anyway, I'm still glad the guy is here, he comes in says " I know exactly what the trouble is.. he puts his tester on the leads from the ignitor.. and says with a confident... YUP.. pulls out the ignitor as if he is defusing a nuclear bomb. being very very careful.. what is this going to do while he takes it out.. basically it is an electrical heating element thats it.. it get hot, it lights the gas on fire.. thats it.. anyway.. he defuses the nuclear bomb I have and then begins inspecting it with his flash light.. and then with a puzzled look says.. nope, this thing is in great shape.. ok.. well, we have the ignitoin side covered.. and then takes out this needle looking object that is some sort of gas sensing jet or some such thing.. I can't remember what they called it, but it certainly made me believe that top secret government agents built my furnace.. and he examines it. then carefully pulls out of his took kit, the amazing most versitle toole known to man.. a piece of Steel Wool.. wipes this needle looking thing off, blows the dust off, puts it back, the furance is fixed.. aparently when they fixed it in Sept. they forgot to wipe the carbon off the Top Secret needle gas jet sensor.... the repairman then pulls out his CO2 detector, and proceees to run it.. it shows 0 a positive number, he then puts it in the chimney and tests it 60, well duh, the furnace vents its CO2 up there, but then he knew it was venting properly, he then checks my water heater.. which reminds me.. I think he cranked up the temp and never put it back.. but anyway.. he then lectures me on the placement of my water heater.. the city Inspector was here 3 years ago.. looked at that exact same water heater in the exact same place, noted the the furnace repairmen forgot to hook the chimney back up.. which is anothe story, but anyway.. he didn't seem to find a problem with it.. I thanked the man and he left.. basically not a bad story.. I'm not complaing about any of the work.. just found the whole thing amuzing.. so thats my story... and I say this from the warmth of my basement as I hear the lovely dragon growl that is my furnace igniting.

Music Listened to today: ladytron.

Dinner Eaten: Left over Soup from last night, Salad

Moral of the Day: When the Gas man says do you smell gas, its not a trick question..