MAGICAL THINKING
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See it all the time, @Jackmartin . I want it to be so, so it must be so...Br. Jamie, osb
Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England0 -
When I was still working and I came upon a piece of equipment that I was not familiar with, instead of blowing smoke up someones a*s, I would call the shop to see if we had anyone experienced with that type of equipment and have them come to that job site. If time allowed I would stay and get educated on that piece of equipment. Since the equipment I worked on and serviced were larger steam/hot water boilers there was very little "margin for error" and guessing was not an option. Guessing could cost you your life. If you don't have experience with a particular piece of equipment do not experiment. Ask for help.
As for the service companies out there do not send an inexperienced person to fix anything until they are properly trained.
My advice for newer guys, read and study everything pertaining to the equipment that you are supposed to work on and I mean "everything" and don't be afraid to ask for assistance.
I knew too many guys that were just parts changers and had no idea what they were doing. What a shame0 -
When I first started, it was for a commercial contractor. The supervisor gave me 2 cases of 8x8 air filters to change in all the offices. 4 hours later I go back to him and say, "Man, it's hard to line up the screw holes with the ceiling tiles sandwiched between transition duct and the return grills." I put the filters in the supply registers. The Supervisor and maintenance guys were howling. I needed a little guidance I guess, but I should have been thinking before doing. Occam's Razor. Magical thinking is just that. An illusion.1
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Age and experience.Miss Hall's School service mechanic, greenhouse manager,teacher and dog walker0
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Here is real magical thinking.
I started in the business as a plumber and much later in life I became a consultant and author.
My brother may he rest in peace was top notch oil sevice technician in residential, commercial and industrial oil and gas burners.
Both my brother and I carried tech manuals, trouble shooting guides and installation instructions for the various equipment we serviced in boxes on the passenger seats of our vehicles.
Here is the magical thing and it happened vial land line or cell phone, through the magic of phonecom we called each other when the poop hit the fan. Between the two of us no problem ever went unresolved.
Remember the phone is a very magical tool and the reference data kept in the vehicle is the magic of print.
JakeSteam: The Perfect Fluid for Heating and Some of the Problems
by Jacob (Jake) Myron3 -
I see this all the time. Techs override outdoor reset, freeze stats, dampers and you name it until they make the system so simple that they can understand it.
The technicians I respect the most are the ones that call and say, "do you have a minute, I wanted to run something by you..." These guys are super sharp, they just know 2 brains are better than one."If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough"
Albert Einstein1 -
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Whole heating service trade becomes a niche market.EBEBRATT-Ed said:The problem now is most of the trade schools have been closed, no more wood or metal shop in high school. The kids are playing video game or playing on their phones and not interested and all us old guys are long in the tooth.
Too bad, but this is only the begining.
Gennady Tsakh
Absolute Mechanical Co. Inc.0 -
you are 100% correct, if you know how to use the resources , you have all the information needed to fix anything right in the palm of your handdopey27177 said:Here is real magical thinking.
I started in the business as a plumber and much later in life I became a consultant and author.
My brother may he rest in peace was top notch oil sevice technician in residential, commercial and industrial oil and gas burners.
Both my brother and I carried tech manuals, trouble shooting guides and installation instructions for the various equipment we serviced in boxes on the passenger seats of our vehicles.
Here is the magical thing and it happened vial land line or cell phone, through the magic of phonecom we called each other when the poop hit the fan. Between the two of us no problem ever went unresolved.
Remember the phone is a very magical tool and the reference data kept in the vehicle is the magic of print.
Jake0 -
The things we remember.
@dopey27177 said: Both my brother and I carried tech manuals, trouble shooting guides and installation instructions for the various equipment we serviced in boxes on the passenger seats of our vehicles.
This discussion reminded me of a salesman for a company I worked for went to an apartment complex to try to get the oil account. It was about 11:00 am and about 23° when the salesman noticed a Burner Repair truck close to Building #5 boiler room. That reminded him to promote the expert burner service technicians we employed.
... long story short... at 11:00 PM the building manager of the complex called the salesman on his cell phone and told him the mechanics that were working on the boiler all day just asked "Do you know anybody else that knows about these things?"
By midnight I was there and found a cracked porcelain on one very clean ignitor, a combustion chamber full of oil (Reset only once LOL), and a new-fangled flame retention burner that I was not familiar with. (I was a lot younger then)
I replaced the porcelain, got 2 fire extinguishers ready, Opened the air adjustment wide, loosened wires from the main oil valves, and instructed the building manager to remove all combustible material from the front of the boiler room that also doubled as tenant storage. He said how far, I said at least 20 feet. I need to keep this lane clear because the flame from the flame sight glass opening might shoot out that far.
The thing was... I m not sure how to adjust these electrodes and the only thing I had in my "Box of Books" on the passenger seat was a similar model of that burner that was the next size smaller. So I was confident with my guess at the electrode setting.
So the burner lit off, The flame shot out (only 6 feet) from the flame sight door. I removed the high fire and low fire wires to the fuel solenoid valves and waited for the chamber to burn off, adding a little low fire fuel as needed. Within 2 hours the flame was under control.
The next day I sent one of our commercial technicians to properly set up the electrodes and the air/oil mixture, fuel pressure, and do a complete maintenance.
I'm not sure I would have been comfortable with burning off the saturation, or leaving the burner operational if I did not have that "box of books" on my passenger seat.Edward Young Retired
After you make that expensive repair and you still have the same problem, What will you check next?
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