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Objects found in heating systems

HeatingHelp
HeatingHelp Administrator Posts: 635
edited June 2020 in THE MAIN WALL
image

Objects found in heating systems

Read the full story here


egansen

Comments

  • Stet
    Stet Member Posts: 37
    This was not hydronic but a replacement furnace. We had to cut the hot air plenum and with the cold air plenum an inch away we decided to mark and cut from the inside, which we have done many times. Those LED cordless magnetic lights work great for this. a few hours later our new furnace was installed. Now to fire it up and check things out. Started right up, no problem. Of coarse we expected a little smoke on the initial start-up. But this was eye stinging. Damn, "I said", this smells like wires burning. Checked the control and wiring and all seemed fine. Then by accident my son hit the light switch. And thats when we saw this dim light from the corner of the new plenum we hadn't sealed yet. Luckily we were going to install a humidifyer, so I cut the hole for it.There it was! Our nifty little magnetic light that had fallen into the heat exchanger. Almost melted in half and still on. As they say, Happens to the best of us.
  • hot_rod
    hot_rod Member Posts: 22,024
    I had one of the IFC checks spit out of my boiler circulator and get lodged in the first 1" ell. Some times it would flow, sometimes it would stop flow and the boiler would trip on high limit. Tough to troubleshoot that intermittent problem.
    Bob "hot rod" Rohr
    trainer for Caleffi NA
    Living the hydronic dream
  • HVACNUT
    HVACNUT Member Posts: 5,804
    Wow! They're usually in there pretty good too.
  • Looks like the spring got away.
    8.33 lbs./gal. x 60 min./hr. x 20°ΔT = 10,000 BTU's/hour

    Two btu per sq ft for degree difference for a slab
  • rick in Alaska
    rick in Alaska Member Posts: 1,457
    I was rushing to finish up a job across the bay, as my plane was waiting on me, and I could not find my Leatherman tool. I had to leave without it, which really hurt. I am not sure, but I would almost bet it is in the top of the heat exchanger on a tank type boiler that I was working on. I am hoping to be able to go back there one of these days and see if it is in there or not. Not sure what the exhaust would do to it, but they do have a lifetime warranty. :*
    Rick
  • Jellis
    Jellis Member Posts: 228
    I was finishing a job and had to turn on the breaker to the water heater. I was carrying something so i set my flashlight down inside the cabinet that housed the circuit panel. the flashlight rolled away and fell between the wall and the bottom of the shelf (carpenter came up a couple inches short!) It was a finished wall so the only way to retrieve my flashlight would have been to cut it open.
    "oh well" i tried to convince myself ill just have to buy a new one.

    I got to the next job and as soon as i pulled the housing off the burner out fell a nearly identical flashlight to the one i had just lost! I did check with the homeowner and last tech on that job to see if it was theirs.
    ratioEdTheHeaterMan
  • ethicalpaul
    ethicalpaul Member Posts: 5,695
    When I was a kid I had to open up the plenum just above our gas fired furnace to rescue my escaped pet hamster.
    NJ Steam Homeowner. See my sight glass boiler videos: https://bit.ly/3sZW1el
  • Joe_Dunham
    Joe_Dunham Member Posts: 52
    How about adult toys in hotel radiator enclosure?
    EdTheHeaterMan
  • nicholas bonham-carter
    nicholas bonham-carter Member Posts: 8,576
    edited June 2020
    This is in a drain line: a fiber optic cable conduit, (or two).
    Drain plugged up, in a coffee shop, and after opening it up, the drain cleaner put his camera down to make sure all was open, and saw the intruders!
    I did a “call before you dig” request, and the culprits were identified. They don’t seem interested in doing anything to move their conduit out of its precarious position, even when I said that the line would probably have to be cut, when it plugs up again!
    Will one of these work to grind it Out?— NBC
  • JUGHNE
    JUGHNE Member Posts: 11,042
    Our phone company bored a fiber conduit thru an unused PVC sewer line. Then a new structure went up and drain line would clog easily. I don't know who moved which pipe but it was resolved.

    Years ago a power company was trying to pull an older wood pole. I have done this myself with a boom truck. The secret I was given was dig around the pole and then dump 5-10 gallons of water in. The poles would pop right out without damage.

    In their case the pole was really fixed in place. So they dug deeper down and found a pressurized iron gas pipe had been bored thru it.
    They just cut the pole off below ground, glad they did not break the gas line.
    CLamb
  • ratio
    ratio Member Posts: 3,616
    Wait, what‽ I don't even… Uhhhh…

    How do you accidentally bore through a telephone pole? The drain, I can see how that might happen, but a pole? Maybe on a dare?

  • JUGHNE
    JUGHNE Member Posts: 11,042
    This happened maybe 40 years ago. Perhaps boring machines were very aggressive then. The pole may have been punky below grade. The people had no reason to fabricate the story.....serious power line workers.
    "Anyway, that's the way I heard it"
  • EBEBRATT-Ed
    EBEBRATT-Ed Member Posts: 15,455
    Not a heating system but a good sized semi-hermetic air conditioning compressor. The old compressor was replaced with a "rebuilt" compressor from a supposidly reputable ac compressor rebuilder. Within a month the "new" compressor's motor failed. They removed the end bell and found a cold chisel inside the compressor