God gives you nothing you can`t handle.

[heidiiiii]

I really have had enough of being a house manager (never say housewife...bad bad bad).

We cannot have the front walkway done because......

The furnace is on the fritz! No heat and no hot water. We tried the re-start button yesterday and it kicked on and stayed on all day. This morning..no heat no hot water. I clicked it on again ( I know this is a bad sign but plumbers are going to be called.) It stayed on enough to heat the water in the lil tank (continuously heated water) and then turned off and didnt turn on again. I am NOT pushing the re-start again!

We have had problems w/ it before. It has a 10 yr old cast iron furnace and we had to replace the burner 2 years ago.Cast iron is not leaking, good brand, sturdy!

A friend who is a plumber did an excellent job (almost can never say that when a "friend" does a job for you). We found out when he worked on it that when we were paying to have it cleaned every year, they were doing a half-a**ed job. We lived here 7 yrs when he did the work and it took him 2 hours to clean out the furnace, flue, chimney, etc. He said it was like they charged us for taking up our breathing space.

I thought I temporarily fixed the problem this morning. We have 4 zones and one of the kickers ( dont know the name) has been leaving the heat on even when we turned it off. So I had to disconnect it in the late spring last year. I thought maybe that went. Disconnected it, hit re-start, on for awhile and then nothing.

Okay this is a vent! Can you tell? Darling husband is upstairs sleeping. I am NOT calling the plumber. I am making him do it. HIM!

HIM HIM HIM

I hate calling service people. They treat women like they have fluffernutter for brains. And then when they find out I actually know stuff about the unit, they get kinda smarmy. So I am making HIM do it! LOL

But it is kinda chilly, and a hot shower is out of the question.

HIM!!

LOL Okay. I feel better for now. Until I get the bill.

Going to do housework and work up a sweat!

[Color Me Holly]

I am sorry, Heidi. I hope its not to expensive to fix.

[heidiiiii]

i tinkered. It is the thingy that fires off the zone. So guess who left a message with the plumber?

It is heating the water but not the house. So we do have hot water. AMEN! And thank goodness it is April and not January.

that thingy can cost $100-200 and then there is the labor.

I will wear a sweater and wait.....

[ilovecats]

Heidi, i am sorry to hear of another unfortunate event. Hope it doesn't cost you and arm and a leg to fix it! Is this the 3rd bad thing to happen? or are you starting another cycle of 3's? Marg

[Shakyshaky]

I am sorry to hear about your furnace. I understand about calling service people. We have a very good AC person here ( I'm in FL) that dh has known a long time and I am very thankful for that. Mechanics always get me, I must look like someone who knows nothing about cars. ( I don't know everything but I do know the basics)

[heidiiiii]

update: Furnace is heating the water and now it is heating just the upstairs..

So it is something with the zone thingy. Waiting for plumber to still call. He works at hospital so Fred is going to see if he can find him b4 the guy gets off 1st shift.

Ummmm! I think this is another cycle of threes.

I hope I win the Tennyson on ebay in an hour. That would make me happy. but i have a competitor!!! Must not go above my top bid price. Must be strong.

[LPCullen]

Heidi, Jimmy wants to know what kind of heating system you have (gas, electric, apollo, whatever), and the water heater, and a picture of both would be good. He also wants to know what button(s) you are pushing to reset, and a picture of the button too, if you can.

You know you shouldn't post heating and air and plumbing stuff where Jimmy can read it ....

[heidiiiii]

We use oil. The burner is 2 years old (it is a carlin). Next to the hot water thingy, see those two identical firing things (i think that is what they do). They are for the zones upstairs. The one closest to the wall has been giving us problems. I disconnected it yesterday to see if that was the problem. Last summer, the heat was still on upstairs and I was told we had to change it, but in the meantime, I was shown how to disconnect it and it shut off the heat to upstairs.

My dd`s room has a seperate zone then the rest of upstairs. We think they had made like a inlaw set up long time ago. That one I disconnected is attached to her room but it also is connected to rest of upstairs. (okay sounds confusing but plumbers understand)

The hot water is heated now, furnace is kicking on, it is heating upstairs (not dd`s room), and the basement, but the 1st floor has nothing.

Now I dont know if that means we need the pipes bled, the thermostat on 1st floor is wonky, or that thingy I was talking about.

Plumber hasnt called. Dh is going to page him this morning at work. If he doesnt call back we are going to have to *gasp* go with a stranger.

Now I wont use our oil company service! Long story but dont trust them. Thinking of changing them after oil contract is up.

[LisaN]

Heidi, I certainly feel for you. I thank goodness every day my husband works with boiler systems, he immediately knows when something is wrong with ours. Once we had to call the service guy, the furnace had really gone patootie on us.....poor guy had to drag it out and put a new one in, needed help.....still didn't start when he left, and the guy helping fiddled with the buttons and said it worked. Husband came home, checked behind him(one of the reasons I had to call the service company was because hubby was working on other boilers all day at work himself and didn't have time! go figure! ) and said, call them back--they didn't finish the job.

called the company, same little guy came back out, ( he didn't need any help at all, just needed parts) and finished up.

I would also get a signed certification or statement from the person who came out and cleaned up behind the folks who were supposed to be doing the maintenance. This is one of my husband's biggest beefs with companies--their maintenance departments won't keep basic upkeep on their boiler systems. You could probably recoup your money for the service cleanings that they didn't do if it was proven they were charging you to breathe. Add it up, and that's an awful lot of money lost that could fix your current system.

[LPCullen]

Heidi, I'm going to show all that stuff to Jimmy, but did you give me a picture of the button you are pushing to reset?

[heidiiiii]

Yup. the lil red button on the grey box.

I havent had to hit the button since I disconnected that thingy. But it feels like Iceland here at the computer...(1st floor, no heat!)

Thankies!

[havanaholly]

THIS looks like it would be fun to try in mini, now I want to do a house with basement!

[Minis On The Edge]

Heidi, I am so sorry to hear about all of the troubles you are having! I hope you can find the problem and that it turns out to be less money than you expect.

[heidiiiii]

After I came back from taking Chels to dr. appt. (check up) I called a heating service. Highly recommended.

They charge a small fee to assess the problem, if you decide you want them to do the work, the fee is waived.

They do not charge by the hour but by the job. Crossing fingers!! Very Very cold fingers!

[havanaholly]

Here's hoping it's something simple.

[heidiiiii]

The furnace guy left. He was very nice. Very professional. Explained everything. He also pointed out some things that OTHER furnace guys neglected to point out and should have, a long time ago!

The total for today was a lil under $500. That included signing up for the standard service contract.

The reason there was no heat on first floor was because the wiring was bad to thermostat. He replaced the wiring. He wanted to charge me $140 for installing a new thermostat (not programmable). I can do THAT myself. I replaced the one upstairs!

He also cleaned the furnace. Because of money, he said it would be fine to hold off until late summer to change the Hi Vent ( now I know what that doo-hickey is called)

But the other shoe dropped..

We have to replace the oil line (Oil was still not completely red after cleaning), Oil tank fill and vent (too big and causes pressure when oil is filled), Oil filter canister (dont remember why. mind is spinning), and the oil tank itself! House had fire in 70s, started at oil burner, tank scorched. He said that the oil comes from side wall, so sludge can form on the bottom and sides of tank over the years. Newer ones fill from the bottom or something like that. Head still reeling..

I didnt even want to ask the big question.. How much?

I need a consultation. Plumber and psycologist wise! LOL

If I get the better service contract it will save in that way ($200-300) but what he is saying sounds like I am going to have to become a streetwalker who only eats Ramen noodles to save up the money.

Forget the diet!! I dont want to hear it!!!

Chinese for dinner!!

And a BEER!!!!!!

[Missymew]

Heidiii -

I'm so sorry. I've been reading this thread, but haven't known what to say. I only know that the furnace is that really big thing in the basement and that upstairs I set the temperature I want for the house. (Summer and Winter I usually like it at about 70 degrees fahrenheit ... cooler on winter nights).

My husband is very handy and looks after the maintenace of that realy big thing in the basement. I remember once, many years ago I phoned a furnace maintenance company. They had left a flyer in our mailbox. I booked an appointment (wanted to surprise Ray) and had them come out and clean all of the air ducts. The flyer said that after paying to have all the ducts cleaned, they would clean the furnace for free. To me it sounded like a good deal. Anyway, the day arrived. A couple of guys showed up and cleaned out all of the furnace ducts. I reminded him that he was supposed to clean my furnace. He called me downstairs where he was looking inside that really big thing in the basement. He said "mam, what do you want me to do with this?". I said "the ad said that you'd clean it for me". He said "mam, when I'm finished with them they don't look this good!". :lol:

Lesson learned. My husband maintains the really big thing in the basement very well. :lol:

Another life lesson I've learned is that something expensive breaks down in the house at least once a year. Guaranteed .... it'll cost you ... big time. I'd always thought that when the mortgage was paid off, we'd be laughing. No way, there's always something.

Susanne

[LisaN]

I would shop around for a new oil tank, if that is needed. Unless the guy wants you to buy an oil tank from his company. My dad has found one and installed them in his house, and gave an extra one to Chris for a job he was doing. You probably need an outside tank, don't quite know if that would solve your problem though. I really feel for you, I felt the same way when the two little guys were dragging stuff from under the house, and needed more parts!! All I could think of too was how much!

Chinese sounds good right about now too.

[heidiiiii]

Lisa, I am better now.

I wont buy from them. I will shop around and find out how much each one of those things really costs (in the real world).

I will save up and do what i can a lil at a time. When it comes to the tank it will happen when I have saved enough for the tank, and work for that and the fuel line.

I should have taken up plumbing in school! LOL and electrical! and carpentry! and masonry!

I have from now until September to save. I have to work on a budget plan and how much after I figure out the cost.

Thanks for all your support. Live is tough. It is just when it all happens at once in one month, it can make you a lil nutty!

[doogster]

I'd have someone do a good check on your existing tank. Me Dad had to trash his tank a coupla years ago, along with the entire furnace (which worked perfectly) due to insurance. In Ontario, Canada if the tank is over 20 years old you have NO house insurance. Evidently if there's a leak of oil onto the floor of the basement the entire basement floor has to be ripped out and replaced, wall to wall. Needless to say that would also include losing the house. But that's in Ontario. Anyway, the tank and furnace were in the crawl space and were put in as the house was being built. The only way to get the tank out was to drain it and cut it up, since the openings to the crawl space were too small. For the same reason a new tank could not be put in, a circular tank was too tall for the space and the flatter tank was too wide. The only way to get a tank in would have been to tear up the family room floor and drop it in place. You can't have an outdoor tank where he lives. In the end the least expensive thing to do was to get rid of the entire oil system and replace it with gas.

Is there a point? I don't know, I can't remember. Just kidding, I saw the 20 plus year old tank come out in pieces, and it was like new inside. The guy that did said he'd never seen a rusty or gunky tank, and he'd removed hundreds. They're full of oil, the best rust inhibitor on the planet. Car engine oil gets sludgy if left too long because it gets hot and absorbs contaminents from the engine. I'm not saying there aint sludge in yours, but I'd want to make sure you really need a new tank before doing all that work.

[heidiiiii]

No Doogster! Thanks for saying that. I am no longer a *stupid* homeowner! We have agreed to some things we should never have in the past.

I really dont think our home inspector would have approved the tank if he thought the same thing. He said it looked that way on outside because of fire and that it was just cosmetic. And the wouldnt approve the loan until the homeowners had fixed two windows that were sticking!

See i told you.. Lots of contractors treat women like they have dung for brains.

Our friend didnt call because he works 1st shift at hospital and he is in process of plumbing a new house on off time.

I think he would have said " OMG!! you need this done!! OMG!!"

I will have him give it a check. Get a second opinion, and a third opinion.

I am going thermostat shopping tomorrow and will install it myself. Should I be paying myself the $100? ROFL