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YOU WANT TO HEAR A GOOD ONE?

EdTheHeaterMan
EdTheHeaterMan Member Posts: 7,713
edited February 2022 in THE MAIN WALL
I have seen so many times that a discussion to resolve a problem is hijacked by persons that like a particular answer that reminds them of another story that is completely off topic. Perhaps this is a good forum to tell those stories but it may be a disservice to the original poster who's problem gets buried in all that good fun.

Maybe we can refer those stories to this discussion to let the OP get back to problem solving.

Here is an example:

Your have a real issue that may be unique to your installation. This reminds me of a story about a BlueRay oil fired furnace. This was a failed experiment where the BlueRay Systems Inc developed a oil burner that burned with a blue flame. It was more efficient than the conventional yellow flame we all know and understand. There were thousands of units sold over the few years they were popular. The maintenance was difficult and if not completed properly the furnace or boiler would soot up rather quickly.

On one of the successful systems the furnace was installed in a basement directly under the living room where the homeowner had a rocking chair that was her normal sitting position for the majority of her time in the home. When ever the burner operated the chair would vibrate with much annoyance to the home owner. No adjustment would resolve the issue. When the factory technical people arrived at the job, it was determined that if the chair was moved to the left or to the right by just 24" the vibration was not detectable. As this was the least costly way to resolve the problem, the factory requested that the chair just be moved.

The customer was old and set in her ways and did not want to move the chair. So after months of consternation and negotiation, the furnace was replaced with a different furnace of the same specification and model number. The problem was resolved. The factory engineer report concluded the a harmonic vibration inside the equipment was in perfect tune with the structural members of the home directly above the furnace and directly below the rocking chair. The rocking chair acted as an amplifier of the vibration. The replacement furnace flame/heat exchanger combination did not have an identical frequency and therefore the vibration was not detectable.

I also experienced something called Tank Hum in a fuel tank connected by a copper tube to a Sundstrand model J pump. The customer complained about the noise after I completed the annual maintenance. It may have has a small wafer called an anti-hum device that fell out of the pump while i was cleaning the pump strainer. The fuel tank acted as an amplifier for the vibration frequency of the 1725 RPM gear set in the fuel pump. I was told by the service manager to take a piece of copper and coil it around a coffee can to create a loop and install that loop at the tank valve with the other end connected to the fuel line to the burner I just removed from the tank valve. ...HUM was gone!

To your point, you have a harmonic hum that is being amplified by something. It could just be that adding a vibration damper somewhere, or a loop of pipe, or bending a fitting, or loosening a screw, or moving a support hanger will interrupt the unusual harmonic vibration that is being amplified to your particular home. I don't think the equipment is at fault... I just think your home is just really tuned in to that heater!

Edit.
Try adding a u shaped trap the the piping near the suspect mixing valve, or try a different pump. Process of elimination. one thing at a time



Another poster added:

As I recall after a couple of years they came out with a 'Conversion Kit" to change the original Carlin burner back to "yellow flame"

Most of the complaints were of smell and you would find the burner carboned up.

If you were one of the lucky ones you could have the burner cleaned twice a year and it would run OK. They had draft issues.

When the company owner sold the business in the mid 80s my last job for him was to install a new Weil McLain boiler in his house. Since I was starting my own business at the time he had given me a "deal" on a truck and some tools. The pay back was he would buy the new boiler and I had to install it for free.

Unfortunately for me I not only had to remove the blue ray boiler and install the Weil but I had to remove the old original boiler which "his boys from the Hartford office" left their because they couldn't figure out how to remove it when they installed the blue ray. I took it apart and slid the sections through the cellar window.

There was only cellar access through his front door, across white carpeting to the door to the cellar which had a turn in the stairs. We covered the carpeting with tarps and plywood. 3 guys 1 long day and never went back.

A job I would like to forget



Then @Daveinscranton added this really great story
@Daveinscranton Member Posts: 108
2:13PM
My great great grandfather grew up starving in the times of Charles Dickens. Ran a push cart as a child with his father dealing junk off the push cart for a drunkard. They bought the business. He eventually became a “metal broker”. Near as I can tell, that meant salvage yard operator. Became quite wealthy. Spent it on alcohol, fast horses, and many marriages. The rest he wasted.

He bid a job salvaging a big boiler from a factory. Got the bid. Everyone thought that he would lose his shirt on the deal. Dynamite had become available a few months prior to the job. At 6 am on a Sunday morning he blew the wall off the factory. Uneventfully. By 8 am the boiler had been cut loose and was being dragged out by a team of horses. By 9 am the bricklayers were bricking up a new wall. By noon, the boiler had been dragged down the street, and sold to its new owner, who was tickled pink.

I suspect that he was quite good at writing contracts. I also suspect that things could have gone terribly wrong. They didn’t.

The above is clearly off topic. I apologize. Ed’s story, which I found fascinating, reminded me of some family history, long ago and far away.

best wishes
ayetchvacker
mattmia2
EdTheHeaterMan
Edward F Young. Retired HVAC ContractorSpecialized in Residential Oil Burner and Hydronics
CLambErin Holohan HaskellMarjPinardPeteA
«1

Comments

  • mattmia2
    mattmia2 Member Posts: 9,572
    Were there any non-=family members willing to "agree" to this you're a collection agent policy?
  • EdTheHeaterMan
    EdTheHeaterMan Member Posts: 7,713
    edited February 2022
    mattmia2 said:

    Were there any non-=family members willing to "agree" to this you're a collection agent policy?

    That was the policy when you were hired. There were over 15 drivers. Only 4 were family when I worked there. My older brother, Me, my father, and my Uncle Joe.

    As my younger brother got old enough to drive, he and his friend Ernie, got jobs driving. Ernie made so many wrong deliveries that the office manager needed to issue him an account number to keep track of his mistakes.

    In the city there are so many streets that look the same, it was easy to get on the wrong street, but the correct address. The Drivers knew the rules and this made them more diligent in getting it right. and for the most part, wrong deliveries were eventually collected by the company's bill collector. They had over 60 employees and 5000 automatic delivery accounts at the time the business was sold.
    Edward F Young. Retired HVAC ContractorSpecialized in Residential Oil Burner and Hydronics
    MarjPinard
  • EBEBRATT-Ed
    EBEBRATT-Ed Member Posts: 15,452
    I have two good stories.

    #1

    We had a good oil customer (commercial business) who had one of their employees that had a house with oil heat. He wanted to convert to gas so the company called and asked if we would go to his house, pump his 275 empty and take the oil down and put it in their tank. He was going to remove the tank and fill pipe the same day. Usually would decline this but is was summer, not much going on and they were a good customer

    I got on the phone with the employee and told him I would swing by that evening to take a look.

    the next day I got one of the drivers (smart) and a service tech (stupid) and gave the driver written instructions. Address,city town 275 gallon tank in basement, hatchway will be left open no one home etc etc

    The address was Somers Road East Longmeadow, MASS. They went to Somers Road in Somers, CT (adjoining towns) and pumped out a 1000 gallon tank that was buried in the ground. And when THAT owner came home and surprised them they spilt oil on his driveway.

    I had to do some fast talking but got out of it for a little money.

    #2


    This one is my screw up.

    We were installing a couple of 45gph #4 oil burners in a high school. The oil piping all 2" black pipe was a mess and came in the building went up in the air and back down making a huge air trap.

    This I had to fix on a Saturday as we couldn't shut the heat down on a school day.

    So I went out Saturday morning and met the custodian he let me in and then without saying anything he took off and went home. This was before cell phones but I wished I had his # as I had only contacted him at the school.

    I set up the threader and looked over the pipe and fittings I had because once I started sawzalling this stuff I had to get it back and running before I left.

    No valves to drain the 12' 2" risers so i drilled a hole in the pipe and was catching all the oil in buckets. That went pretty well until

    I stood up slipped on some oil on the floor that spilled from draining and fell down on top of the 6 or 8 buckets I had just drained. WHAT A MESS. I quickly exhausted the rags and speedy dry I had brought and had no spare clothes so now I am covered in smelly #4 oil. So I cleaned it up the best I could, I sure wasn't going to walk into a store for rags or more speedy dry although I thought about it.

    After that fiasco I had to work all day piping the thing working in oil soaked clothes leaving oily foot prints on the boiler room floor that I had to clean up.

    ayetchvackerSolid_Fuel_ManAlan (California Radiant) ForbesMad Dog_2
  • DanHolohan
    DanHolohan Member, Moderator, Administrator Posts: 16,513
    That’s a good one, Ed! 😉
    Retired and loving it.
    wmgeorge
  • DanHolohan
    DanHolohan Member, Moderator, Administrator Posts: 16,513
    😳
    Retired and loving it.
  • ayetchvacker
    ayetchvacker Member Posts: 63
    I will tell you a funny one I got a phone call around 1:00am from the custodian from the Bald Eagle School District in Center county, Pa. that both boilers had shut down and would not restart in one of their schools and they needed service ASAP. It was a cold and snowy Winter night so I said that I could there in a few hours. I made the trek from My home near Pittsburgh, Pa. Usual drive time is 2.5 hours however the roads were slippery with snow. The custodian said that he would meet me at the school and if he wasn't there he would leave the boiler room door unlocked. I get to the building, the custodian was not there, and there was no door open. What to do? They had a type of awning window that many boiler rooms have that are opened with a chain pull that was open just enough that I thought I could slip through. Well, I got half way through and got stuck. After about 1/2 hour, I was relieved to hear a car pull into the area behind me. Great, I thought, now II can get unstuck. Due to the noise in the boiler room where half my body was I could not hear the commands the person who was outside was giving me. However I did hear the ratcheting of the shot gun and felt the cold barrel of the gun that was jammed into my side. I almost peed myself. They got me out of the window, put me on the ground in hand cuffs, and read me the riot act. Just then the custodian came and told me it was just a "JOKE". The cop was his brother and they were waiting for me to get to the school. We all laughed and drank a cup of coffee. The Joke was on me.
    That sounds like a local PA cop prankster haha! You’re a good humored person to handle it so well after a long drive in the snow!
    Fixer of things 
    Lead Service Technician
    HVAC/R
    ‘09Moto Guzzi V7
    ‘72CB350
    ’83Porsche944
    EdTheHeaterManMad Dog_2
  • EBEBRATT-Ed
    EBEBRATT-Ed Member Posts: 15,452
    @retiredguy

    don't think i would have been happy!
    Solid_Fuel_ManMad Dog_2
  • retiredguy
    retiredguy Member Posts: 898
    @EBEBRATT-ED When I heard the cliick of that shot gun I was petrified and because of the noise inside where my head was I was afraid of what they would do when I did not respond.
  • EdTheHeaterMan
    EdTheHeaterMan Member Posts: 7,713
    I just stole this from another post

    My great great grandfather grew up starving in the times of Charles Dickens.  Ran a push cart as a child with his father dealing junk off the push cart for a drunkard.  They bought the business.  He eventually became a “metal broker”.  Near as I can tell, that meant salvage yard operator.  Became quite wealthy.  Spent it on alcohol, fast horses, and many marriages.  The rest he wasted.

    He bid a job salvaging a big boiler from a factory.  Got the bid.  Everyone thought that he would lose his shirt on the deal.  Dynamite had become available a few months prior to the job. At 6 am on a Sunday morning he blew the wall off the factory.  Uneventfully.  By 8 am the boiler had been cut loose and was being dragged out by a team of horses.  By 9 am the bricklayers were bricking up a new wall.  By noon, the boiler had been dragged down the street, and sold to its new owner, who was tickled pink.

     I suspect that he was quite good at writing contracts.  I also suspect that things could have gone terribly wrong.  They didn’t.

    The above is clearly off topic.  I apologize.  Ed’s story, which I found fascinating, reminded me of some family history, long ago and far away.

    best wishes 

    Could go either way
    Edward F Young. Retired HVAC ContractorSpecialized in Residential Oil Burner and Hydronics
    CLambIn_New_EnglandMad Dog_2
  • GGross
    GGross Member Posts: 1,022
    @EdTheHeaterMan

    Now that is a good one. Sometimes I wonder who found my secret stash of green army men in the ducts of the little house I grew up in, maybe they are still there waiting.
    EdTheHeaterManMarjPinardMad Dog_2
  • jumper
    jumper Member Posts: 2,226
    Must have been a very old house or really crappy pipe to rust out?
  • EdTheHeaterMan
    EdTheHeaterMan Member Posts: 7,713
    I was just reminded of a story about a plumber that wanted to start putting in air conditioning. At the time I was working at the tech support person for HVAC contractors at a local branch of Weinstein Supply Company in Pleasantville NJ. We were selling HEIL brand HVAC equipment at the time. The factory man from HEIL told me about one of our customers from a different branch of Weinstein in PA was having an unusually high amount of compressor failures. He described the the plumber was following all the factory instruction. He even tested the line set for leaks for 24 hours at 50PSI and found no leaks. Of course the HEIL factory assumed that was 50 PSI nitrogen pressure. or at (least R22 pressure). Eventually a Factor tech guy visited one of his job sites to see a hose bib with a pressure gauge holding 50 PSI. When the plumber was asked "why he is using a hose bib on a refrigerant line?"

    the plumber answered "How else can you put 50 PSI of water pressure in that line?

    If you are a hammer everything looks like a nail. If you are a plumber, everything looks like water!
    Edward F Young. Retired HVAC ContractorSpecialized in Residential Oil Burner and Hydronics
    GGrossCLambMarjPinardSolid_Fuel_Man
  • mattmia2
    mattmia2 Member Posts: 9,572
    Isnt 1 compressor failure an unusually high amount?
  • EdTheHeaterMan
    EdTheHeaterMan Member Posts: 7,713
    mattmia2 said:

    Isnt 1 compressor failure an unusually high amount?

    For me? Yes. That is why I am happy to boast a zero tolerance for moisture in refrigeration systems I install. But for this Weinstein Supply 1990s customer, there was more than one. Enough to get the factory's attention.

    Edward F Young. Retired HVAC ContractorSpecialized in Residential Oil Burner and Hydronics
  • EBEBRATT-Ed
    EBEBRATT-Ed Member Posts: 15,452
    My moral to that story is its fixed but unfortunately is a long drawn-out process. That's what it takes some time
    EdTheHeaterMan
  • EdTheHeaterMan
    EdTheHeaterMan Member Posts: 7,713
    edited November 2022
    looking over this post https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/190078/the-case-of-the-steam-noob-and-the-cold-bedroom#
    I wanted to sum up all that has gone on since last week.
    Here is the story: https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1721807#Comment_1721807
    The players may be a little different but it is a good story.
    @DanHolohan @Erin Holohan Haskell @Jamie Hall and @hot_rod are all in the opening credits.

    There are other players, So many of our regulars have pitched in for the OP Mike.
    I just want to wish everyone at HeatingHelp.com a Healthy, Happy, and Warm Thanksgiving day.

    God Bless you all
    Edward F Young. Retired HVAC ContractorSpecialized in Residential Oil Burner and Hydronics
    MikeAmannLarry Weingarten
  • EdTheHeaterMan
    EdTheHeaterMan Member Posts: 7,713
    edited January 2023

    OMG...

    I just found a new resource on Heating Help. It is a Quick Link called Best Of


    Once you get in there you can actually find all the posts that have been liked or awesomed or insightfuld or thanked





    But my favorite section is the LOL
    I want to thank @Erin Holohan Haskell and @DanHolohan for hosting this memorial to me on their Forum



    By the way.

    I'm looking forward to February 6 2023 at Atlanta. Hope to see you lots of you guys there. This will be my first ARI Convention. :D
    Edward F Young. Retired HVAC ContractorSpecialized in Residential Oil Burner and Hydronics
    GGrossErin Holohan Haskell
  • Erin Holohan Haskell
    Erin Holohan Haskell Member, Moderator, Administrator Posts: 2,276


    I'm looking forward to February 6 2023 at Atlanta. Hope to see you lots of you guys there. This will be my first ARI Convention. :D

    Looking forward to seeing you too @EdTheHeaterMan. We'll be here: https://heatinghelp.com/industry-news/carlson-holohan-industry-award-of-excellence-presentation-at-ahr-expo/
    President
    HeatingHelp.com
    EdTheHeaterMan
  • WMno57
    WMno57 Member Posts: 1,249
    edited February 2023
    Anyone else notice what is wrong about this pipe wrench for the time period?



    I DIY.
  • JUGHNE
    JUGHNE Member Posts: 11,042
    edited February 2023
    I have a small one of that vintage and the handle is tapered, not rounded on the end.
    WMno57
  • WMno57
    WMno57 Member Posts: 1,249
    @JUGHNE has half the answer. A couple other differences as well, one of which is visible on the statue.
    I DIY.
  • mattmia2
    mattmia2 Member Posts: 9,572
    Isn't the pointed handle to use as a drift? The one I have from the 40's has a straight handle that is more like steel bar, maybe drop forged and the part that holds the jaw and nut is a steel box that is riveted on.
    EdTheHeaterMan
  • JUGHNE
    JUGHNE Member Posts: 11,042
    Mine has guide ears cast into the handle for the hook to travel thru.

    Also is there a lower toothed jaw missing?

    And you would always carry your smokes in the left pocket. Unfiltered of course.
    EdTheHeaterManPC7060Solid_Fuel_Man
  • WMno57
    WMno57 Member Posts: 1,249
    mattmia2 said:

    The one I have from the 40's has a straight handle that is more like steel bar, maybe drop forged and the part that holds the jaw and nut is a steel box that is riveted on.

    Matt, your wrench sounds like a Stillson pattern, or maybe a Trimont. Those were very common in the teens and twenties before Ridgid and their heavy duty pattern took over the market.
    I DIY.
  • EdTheHeaterMan
    EdTheHeaterMan Member Posts: 7,713
    JUGHNE said:

    Mine has guide ears cast into the handle for the hook to travel thru.

    Also is there a lower toothed jaw missing?

    And you would always carry your smokes in the left pocket. Unfiltered of course.

    This guy might have been Left handed... And he would have been able to stay that way if he didn't go to parochial school. And how do we know that this gut isn't holding the first prototype of the newly designed Rigid 36" tool.
    Edward F Young. Retired HVAC ContractorSpecialized in Residential Oil Burner and Hydronics