Burning down the house...or trying not to!! I

Lisa Holmes

Thank you for replying and yes it helped. When you say replace it, do you mean the entire furnace or the t-stat or such. I would love to replace the furnace. The coldest it has been so far is about 42 degrees(low at night)and I think I'm going to purchase electric portable heaters for upstairs. I live in a quite small duplex in Tuolumne, Calif. (Sierra Foothills, about 2hr. drive from Yosemite National Park).
Anyway, thanks again for help. Guess I will make a call to a serviceman.
Lisa

Lisa Holmes

Thermostat or not

I have an old Williams gravity direct vent wall furnace. The only numbers on it are Model 30DV-3B Date Code 01jj07. There isn't a wall thermostat, just a big red dial on the furnace itself with LO 1-5. I don't have instructions per say for it. Need to know, is this the thermostat and should it work like a wall thermostat, shutting off and on at certain temp. points? Can a wall thermostat be installed for this unit? Also, is it safe to have the gas knob set in between pilot and on position? If I turn it to the 'on' position the burner won't shut off even with the temp dial set at 'LO'. My local servicemen would have to spend half the day here to prove to them it isn't shutting off.
Any help would be really appreciated at this point.
Lisa

Empire_2

Honestly, Replace it

Adj. Gas valve 1-5 the burner should shut down. It is the t-stat. Regular stat will not work unless you change Gas valve. Setting the knob to pilot is fine. In retrospect this type of valve may open the GV full then lower the main flame after the value on the knob is reached. Is it getting too hot? This valve should have a temp sensor located somewhere in the unit.
Hope this helped.

Glenn Harrison_2

Lisa, that valve is malfunctioning...

and I would have to say that it is NOT alright to leave it between on and pilot. You basically have a runaway valve that may verywell burn the house down. You need to shut that unit off. Then have a technician inspect the heat exchanger to make sure it is not cracked and possibly allowing carbon monoxide into you condo. Then if the HX is still intact, you can replace the gas valve.

The LO 1-5 knob you see is your thermostat, normally about #3 will give you 70ºF. There is no way to add an external thermostat without installing mutiple components as a retrofit which would then make you and the contractor 100% liable for any future problems you, or other future owners may have.

Lisa Holmes

Carbon monoxide...

became a concern after reading the other posts on the wall. Thank you for the advice. I have shut the unit off and am on my to purchase a couple portable heaters which I will later use upstairs. Along with some CO detectors! I'll write after it's been looked at. Thanks again

Empire_2

Hey Glen,

I agree with your opinion. Replace it.

Joe_20

Williams Furnaces

Williams makes a nice product...we had one go bad after many years of good service...replaced it with another Williams...we are warm and happy !! Sounds like it's time to replace yours as well.... Be careful with the portables....

will smith_4

Absolutely right be careful!

I just about have a vapor lock whenever I hear or read about someone supplementing with portable electric heaters. You rarely come across people who live in homes built within the past thirty years or so clammering to buy electric space heaters; so often, it's people in older homes-usually apartments, plugging these overadvertised toaster ovens into multi-strips with five tv's, two computers, a printer, and three video games-with undersized wiring that's been feeding two window air-conditioners over forty summers. Train wreck in progress!

billygoat22

ditto on the heaters. They're not intended for long term use.

Saved one 200 yr old home from fire destruction. The heater was plugged into light in bathroom and was left running two days straight. When I pulled the plug the prongs pulled out the softened plastic and my fingerprints were left on the plug. Much longer and the wires would have shorted in the cord.