System hasn’t worked properly for years. They said.

ttekushan_3

Clue:



It wasn’t level either ;-)
A little inversion therapy and all is well.

Steamhead

You can't fix stupid.....................

JohnNY

This is hysterical.

nicholas bonham-carter

One of the best ones ever!!
We all need to see something humorous in these times.—NBC

Jamie Hall

OMG

Turbo Dave

These are the moments that make us seem like magicians to the customer, if presented well. This made my morning.

mattmia2

Its not like someone took it off to paint....

EBEBRATT-Ed

OMG. That is a blast

TAG

Are the little marks the owners attempt to map out the best spot for the anticipator ?

JUGHNE

I think those are the legs of the steel spring that holds the cover on.

Kickstand55

Who is/are the "They".
I tell people, "just when I think I've seen everything, I see something new"! I just have and there's a new tale to tell.
And I thought Bassackwards was at the top of the list.
Dupsideown maybe?

DanHolohan

Original owner.

Dave in QCA

Ironman

The worst case of dyslexia that I’ve ever seen!

Philco

When we received a heat call for “heat won’t go down” in one room and a heat call for “room cold” in an adjoining room we knew the contractor had confused another set of thermostat control wires.

unclejohn

With that goof plate there is most likely nothing behind the stat to screw into and over the years with turning the dial it finally spun around as we see it now. At least I hope that explains it.

D107

Apparently for all those how many years, no one thought to call a serviceman. They just lived with it.

fastd

5 story town house, upper east side of New York City. 11 zones, 2 per floor + basement, controlling zone valves on a hot water system. No thermostat controlled the area it was in, except the basement (hey, they got one right). Took a while to straighten that out, lol.

JUGHNE

NG furnace for school rooms would fire for a short time and then temp initiated blower fan would run a short time to cool down the furnace. This would repeat constantly.
No one could figure it out.
The solution was to install electric BB heaters in each room.
Typical administration decision.

The real problem was the heat anticipator pushed all the way to the shortest cycle position......this was such for years.

ratio

Huh, I had an entirely different idea of a pulse furnace.

mattmia2

My house had a furnace that was installed in about 1950 just at the transition from gravity to forced air when I bought it and for some reason someone had set the burner up as 2 stage. The furnace was installed with a separate blower cabinet and said it was approved for gravity use only. When it would run low stage in mild weather, the burner would fire, heat would rise with convection to the t-stat and satisfy it, then the heat would conduct through the HX a bit more and heat the fan controller enough to turn the blower on after the burner had stopped firing.

ttekushan_3

I thought folks might get a chuckle out of it. I certainly laughed out loud. So glad I started my troubleshooting there!

The culprit is said to have been a party who was self-reportedly Much Smarter than everyone else. Irritatingly so, I’ve heard. 

Yet, they were flummoxed by a programmable thermostat installed here some years before.  Upon discovering the original thermostat in a drawer, they reinstalled it themselves. 

No one was willing to have the issue addressed until the intolerable irritant finally moved on. For a while thereafter a thermostat that worked effectively as a manual on-off switch served as comparatively tolerable irritant in contrast. 

This operates a very small furnace that serves a couple small office spaces nestled where two steam heated buildings adjoin. Years went by and I was asked to look at it only now. Admittedly the lighting is poor in that spot. But still…

And thanks @DanHolohan, that photo both sizes it up and is vaguely terrifying as well!

Tomizai

At least it's good to see the temperature set to "OL" degrees! LOL!