The iconic Minnesota homeowner nightmare
Jan. 8th, 2022 12:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dreamsharkIt's -18 degrees Fahrenheit and your furnace/boiler stops running. Yup, that happened on Thursday night. There was an error code (63) blinking on the front of the boiler and we didn't see a reset switch (because we're stupid. We were looking inside the front panel and failed to notice the prominent switch on the side of the boiler). So we just had sit and watch the temperature drop all day while frantically calling around to find a heating company that both services boilers and had somebody available for an emergency call.
Fortunately, hot water heat takes a long time to cool down, so the radiators were still a little warm by the time Josh showed up at about 5pm. The outdoor temperature had come up slightly above zero and we remembered that we had a nice electric heater in the basement, so the temperature (at least at the dining room thermostat) was still in the mid-50's. Not great, but nowhere near pipe bursting level.
The good news is that we found a well-recommended company that was able to get someone out to us within hours. Josh turned out to be just what you want in a home emergency: calm, friendly and competent. He also doesn't mind explaining everything he's doing, which is important to me. If you're going to pay hundreds of dollars for a home visit from an expert you might as well learn something.
The first thing we learned was where the reset switch was. The second thing was that there was a placard inside the furnace door listing all the error codes. 63 is "soft lockout," which is not exactly self-explanatory. It turns out to mean (at least in this case) that the gas pressure inside the furnace was borderline low, causing the furnace cycling to fail intermittently. Fortunately, that means that flipping the reset switch has a pretty good chance of restarting the furnace. Which is a good thing, since the small but jaw-droppingly expensive part that needs to be replaced is not available until Monday. Since the people who live in this house with me are troglodytes there is usually someone awake at all hours of the night to flip that switch as necessary. Richard and/or Thorin reset the switch 3 or 4 times last night.
The cycling failure mostly happens when it's really cold out for some reason, so it's doing fine today and the house is back up to about 70. But the temperature is scheduled to plummet again after midnight, so wish us luck.
Our service company is Midland Heating & Air Conditioning, btw. So far we've been extremely happy with their service. It's not their fault that the part that failed is insanely expensive or that the warehouse that they had arranged to get the part from this morning was inexplicably closed and not answering their phone. *sigh* Apparently Josh drove over there this morning and sat in their parking lot for an hour trying to rouse someone on the phone before giving up and rescheduling us for Monday morning.
Fortunately, hot water heat takes a long time to cool down, so the radiators were still a little warm by the time Josh showed up at about 5pm. The outdoor temperature had come up slightly above zero and we remembered that we had a nice electric heater in the basement, so the temperature (at least at the dining room thermostat) was still in the mid-50's. Not great, but nowhere near pipe bursting level.
The good news is that we found a well-recommended company that was able to get someone out to us within hours. Josh turned out to be just what you want in a home emergency: calm, friendly and competent. He also doesn't mind explaining everything he's doing, which is important to me. If you're going to pay hundreds of dollars for a home visit from an expert you might as well learn something.
The first thing we learned was where the reset switch was. The second thing was that there was a placard inside the furnace door listing all the error codes. 63 is "soft lockout," which is not exactly self-explanatory. It turns out to mean (at least in this case) that the gas pressure inside the furnace was borderline low, causing the furnace cycling to fail intermittently. Fortunately, that means that flipping the reset switch has a pretty good chance of restarting the furnace. Which is a good thing, since the small but jaw-droppingly expensive part that needs to be replaced is not available until Monday. Since the people who live in this house with me are troglodytes there is usually someone awake at all hours of the night to flip that switch as necessary. Richard and/or Thorin reset the switch 3 or 4 times last night.
The cycling failure mostly happens when it's really cold out for some reason, so it's doing fine today and the house is back up to about 70. But the temperature is scheduled to plummet again after midnight, so wish us luck.
Our service company is Midland Heating & Air Conditioning, btw. So far we've been extremely happy with their service. It's not their fault that the part that failed is insanely expensive or that the warehouse that they had arranged to get the part from this morning was inexplicably closed and not answering their phone. *sigh* Apparently Josh drove over there this morning and sat in their parking lot for an hour trying to rouse someone on the phone before giving up and rescheduling us for Monday morning.
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Date: 2022-01-08 06:58 pm (UTC)K.
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Date: 2022-01-09 02:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-09 07:22 am (UTC)P.
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Date: 2022-01-11 09:49 pm (UTC)I thought troglodytes were cave-dwellers? Does this mean they also like to hang out in basements?
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Date: 2022-01-12 04:27 pm (UTC)I'm not a big fan of insurance or service schemes in general, but this type has been worth the money for the convenience and peace of mind.
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Date: 2022-01-12 06:03 pm (UTC)