Furnaces
March 23rd, 2008
I’ve never been In Charge of a furnace.
All week it’s been cold. Monday I thought it was because we’d had windows and doors open while the movers and RCN and AT&T were here. But by Friday it was ‘Mika, call the apartment place.’ I sighed, went to the furnace, glared, and then thought ‘Self, what’s that switch on the left there?’ Flicked it and wham, heat.
Then Saturday it started doing this cycling thing. Two minutes on, 45 seconds off. Something was wrong.
After an hour, I figured out that the filters were fine. Then I notice these blinking lights. One says ‘Pwr’, one says ‘OK’ and one says ‘Flame’. The OK light flashed twice as the furnace cycled. I pop the cover and read the back. The OK light blinking twice meant the pressure switch is stuck open. I don’t know what that means, I have no manual and I can’t find a photo online.
I sit and stare at the bastard thing until I notice a kinked hose attached to something that’s labeled ‘pressure something’. I unkink it. Water drains. I wait for the water to stop draining, turn it all back up and oh look! No more blinking light.
I guess I had to be stupid before I got smart.
Categories: My Life
As it happens, I had to go back in and trim the hose (pause for dirty-minded laughter) to relieve the back pressure. After I took off an inch, and resealed it, it ran better. I dropped the heat down by 5 degrees, and I think I made it a little more efficient. I joked that I had to grow a penis before I could figure it out, but really I used to fuck around with plumbing and carpentry, so looking at the purely mechanical side (electricity + me = DANGER) was easy. So now I’ve fixed the furnace and the fridge (needed a new filter for the door water). The fix-it guy’s coming out for the non-draining dishwasher, though. I know my limits.