YOU WANT TO HEAR A GOOD ONE?

OK, I'll be the first to add a story.

The day I quit the family business.

I did not like delivering oil, I preferred to do service calls. You dress differently for service calls. After getting off the Oil Truck on any given Tuesday, I asked my Uncle Joe "Will I was driving the oil truck tomorrow or will I be on Service? Unk said SERVICE!

Wednesday I was dressed to be mostly indoors on a very cold day. Uncle Joe tells me to go in the back room and get some more clothes on because a driver called in sick and I needed to get on B-13 and Deliver some OIL. So I get some layers of oversized pants and shirts and covered them up with a baggy set of coveralls. I felt like (and looked like) Ralphie's litter brother in the red snow suit, only it was blue. Not real happy, i started my deliveries.

The neighborhood was changing in the area i was delivering from a upper middle class customer on automatic delivery with charge account, to a less affluent Cash On Delivery customer. At that time 100 gallons of fuel was $29.95... A lot of money back then. A pulled up to my 5th or 6th stop and knocked on the door. The customer answered the door and I asked for $29.95. The customer said he would pay after the oil was delivered. It was a company policy that if a driver delivered oil to the wrong house or was unable to get paid for the delivery, the driver was docked for the cost of the fuel.

Not wanting to be the victim of a deadbeat customer, I returned to the truck and continued on to my next stop. Then a call came over the 2 way radio. "B-13 COME IN... B-13". It was Uncle joe. "Did you just leave a stop on Old York Road with out delivering the oil?" I answered in the affirmative and told Uncle Joe that I had a bad feeling about this customer. Unk assured me that this customer would pay and to return to the customer. So i drove around the block and blocked traffic again and did the trick my dad taught me. Put the ticket in the meter, connect the oil hose to the customers basement fill connection and tell the customer the oil is going in. But don't open the valve on the hose nozzle. Then I asked to get paid because the oil was going in. The customer said after he gets the metered receipt. Well I knew I was not going to get paid so I rolled up the hose and left again.

Then a call came over the 2 way radio. "B-13 COME IN... B-13 DO YOU READ ME?".
I replied "This is B-13"
Unk JOE: "Eddie, this is your Uncle Joe, you left the customer again."
ME:"Yes sir, I believe this customer will not pay"
Unk JOE: Go back, they will pay"
ME: "But they won't pay until the oil is in the tank"
Unk JOE: "They will pay"
ME: "As long as it won't come out of my PayCheck"
Unk JOE: "It won't"
So I drove back, put the oil in the tank, brought the Receipt to the customer... and the customer refused to pay. They had no money.

I was already miffed about driving the DARN oil truck that day, then after playing footsie around the block 3 times on a busy Philadelphia street and My Dear Uncle Joe not taking my advise about this deadbeat, I stormed down to my truck and drove away in a rage. There was a odd wherring sound then a bang as I Raced away (As fast as a fuel oil truck could speed anyway) Then there was horn honking, So I looked out the side view mirror. To my surprise there was a 150 ft. long orange tail following me. The delivery hose was dragging behind me. Oil was spilling on the roadway. I stopped and applied the emergency shut off valve, rolled up the hose and discovered there was no nozzle at the end. It was still connected to the house.

I drove around the block AGAIN and recovered the nozzle from the deadbeat customers home, replaced the fill box cover and returned to the office/shop to have the mechanic repair the nozzle. I told the mechanic, "Al Kelly... There is something wrong with the nozzle on this truck." I took the balance of my delivery tickets to the dispatch office to tell my Dear Uncle that he needed to get someone else to deliver these stops. Uncle Joe was nowhere to be found. I got in my car and drove home.

Again From another discussion


Picture this: You are a Coast Guard enlisted man in your dress blues. You are 2 hours from reporting for duty. You are going to deploy for 30 days on a Coast Guard Cutter. Your wife and new baby are saying goodbye and as you are ready to get in your car, you happen to see a little rust under a paint chip on your oil tank. Just before getting in the car you decide to flick off that rust. Then a pin hole opens up and oil starts to trickle out in a steady stream. You put your finger on the hole and yell for your wife. She calls the oil company, and within minutes my phone rings.

I arrived at the job site to find a well dressed Coasty lying on his back, with his finger on the tank. I connected a soot vac to the vent pipe and created a negative pressure zone in the tank. Air bubbles leaked in to the tank thru the hole and the Little Dutch Boy was able to take his finger away from the leak. The customer was able to get to the boat before it deployed and all was good.

I felt sorry for that guy. I bet he never scrapes rust off of a tank again. With the help of the oil company owner and some 55 gallon drums, we were able to get all the oil out of the tank that evening. Never a minute without heat or hot water. New tank delivered the following week. I didn't charge for the time to pump out the tank since the oil company owner helped at no charge too. I offered him 6 payments for the replacement tank job. We need to support out military... every branch... including Merchant Marines. What they do for us, it's the least we could do.

LEARNING THE HARD WAY IS SOMETIMES THE BEST WAY

Once upon a time there was a new heating contractor who started his own business in 1979. His name was ED. He was experienced in oil burners and did a nice trade in annual tuneup and repair of oil heaters. There was a time that one of those customers wanted a new gas boiler. Since Ed was new to the Gas boiler thing, Ed studied the instruction manual for the Weil McLain CG boiler and decided that this would be something he could do.

One Thursday afternoon after completing the days service calls, Ed went to the supply house and purchased a boiler, and many other parts loading his 1964 Chevy Van with a 30 gallon gas water heater (they were popular then) and a boiler along with a ton of pipes, fittings and hydronic accessories. You see, Ed was of the opinion that if you were going to get a new heater, you would also get all the other stuff that makes the heater work. No customer wants to hear that a service call was going to cost extra because a new thermostat (or any other valve, fitting, or relay) was not included in the original job. Include all the accessories and cover them under the warranty.

Well, Friday morning we started early, After installing the new system, Ed was going to commission the boiler by filling the system with water. Within 1 minute the water started to spill all over the basement floor, pouring out of the boiler from god knows where. My first gas boiler had a huge crack in it. I called the supply house right away and told them what I found. It was near 5:00PM and I wanted them to stay open so I could get the replacement boiler.

A very knowledgeable supply house owner said to look on page 6 of the manual and look for the ½” air vent tapping just next to the supply tapping. Then he asked if ED put a plug in that hole? Of course ED said no. (because the oil boilers ED was used to had no such opening)



Emergency avoided and after a few minutes we were filling the boiler again. But that was not the last thing that was to cause me grief.

The automatic fill valve was factory set at 12 psi and after manually filling and venting all the radiators, it was time to fire the boiler. All safety items checked out and after some cleanup ED was able to go home at 7:30 for a Pork Chop dinner. You see, that was a normal occurrence. My new bride would make Shake and Bake pork chops, and I would be late for dinner. It never fails. Over cooked pork chops are like eating shoe leather. I thought that was the way they were supposed to taste.

That night ED got a frantic call from the customer with the new boiler. Water is pouring from the attic above the bathroom. And ED thought, “what does that have to do with me? All my work was in the basement.” Being a responsible contractor and wanting to have a reputation for “service after the sale," So ED got the the job at about 11:00 PM to find water leaking from the bathroom ceiling. A closer inspection of the bathroom radiator revealed a pipe from the radiator connection was connected to a tee fitting and there was a pipe that extended to the attic. ED never saw that before.

ED looked in the attic, and what to my wondering eyes did appear, But a small little water tank with 8” gauge glass right near. (This happened in December). And there was a rusted pipe that was leaking water from the top of the tank. My guess is that the leak was just about 28 feet above the autofill in the basement. (Ask Me Why) The fill would not be enough to reach the leak, but when the boiler heated the water, it expanded past the 28 foot mark and poured out on the bathroom ceiling. Once the water cooled down, the water level in the tank would drop below the 28 ft mark and the autofill would replace the lost water. Then the boiler would cycle back on, the water would expand again and leak on the bathroom ceiling again …and so on ... and so on...




And that is how you learn about open system expansion tanks the hard way.

Here is a good one.

I will start out with the fact that my father was an expert “Mibster” as a kid. Google it. It’s about the third or fourth one down. Or just read on, it will become apparent. As a result of this childhood skill he had quite a collection of marbles in my Grandmother’s home. If anyone remember getting Charles Chips delivered to the home, they came in an extra large 2 lb tin. That can was about ¾ full of glass marbles of all colors, sizes, and designs. As a 5 or 6 year old grandchild visiting Grandmother's for the day, I discovered this treasure and was given permission to play with them.

The old row home on Lindley Ave in the Logan section of Philadelphia was huge by a 6 year old’s perspective. There were over 12 rooms to play in on the two floors. One of the greatest things about Grandmother's house was the Central Airconditioner. It was always comfortable in the summer and there were beautiful cast iron radiators to stay warm in the winter. But at that tender age, what do I know about HVAC?

Part 2 of the story.
That air conditioner was a new experimental system called SpacePac. You know the one with the 2” holes in the floors or ceilings to move hi velocity air to cool the home. In January there was no cold air coming from those holes in the floor. And it seemed that this might be a good place to hide marbles. Lots and Lots of marbles. Anyway it was time to go home from Grandmother's and leave all the toys and marbles from a day of hard playing behind.

Part 3 of the story
June arrived that year with the normal warm weather. And the service manager from the family oil distributer and service business was called to find out why "Mrs. Young has no AC!"
As the story was relayed to me when I started to work there, driving the fuel oil delivery truck, "Are you the little one that put all the marbles in the air conditioner?" When the service manager got there to fix the AC, it was like a Three Stooges episode. When he opened the service panel, it was as though he hit the jackpot at a Las Vegas slot machine. Then there were marbles were all over the floor. "I could not walk from one end of the basement to the door without stepping on a marble and ending up on my posterior."

This particular service manager went on to work as technical trainer for Crown Boiler Company in Philadelphia. Every time they had a tech training class, that story had to be told. Those were the good old days. To steal a quote from Dan “I hope you liked that story”

The tail of the wet whistling hatch back.

A friend of mine works as a mechanic for an auto dealership. Not going to say which brand of automobile. There was a problem with a brand new car with a mysterious whistling noise whenever the car was driven over 30 MPH and it was raining. Never happens when it is dry. Customer would call the dealer and complain about the noise. Of course, the appointment to check out the noise was always made on a following day, when the weather was clear and dry. The mechanic would take the car for a test drive and report "No Noise" and therefore no repairs were made.

This was very frustrating for the customer and after 4 or more similar occurrences, my friend was the mechanic that this repair fell on. Seeing the history and the frustrated customer at the service desk, My friend personally talked to the customer and discovered the part about "Raining" was never indicated on the previous work orders. This mechanic told the customer that he would perform a series of test drives that entailed making the car wet, using the hose from the detail shop wash bay, where they prep new cars for delivery to the customer, then doing the test drive.

The customer went on the first test drive and, Viola, The noise was heard by both the mechanic and the customer. Now here is the good part.

The mechanic performed the same test drive with the addition of a 1 ft section of painters tape covering a section of the door seam in the side doors and rear hatch back door. After adding about 15 feet of tape (15 wet test drives) the noise was eliminated by covering the center top of the rear hatch back. For test drive # 16 All the other tape was removed and only the successful piece of tape remained. The test drive was successful. So now he knew where the noise originated.

The permanent fix was then applied to the vehicle. In very technical terms he took a 2x4 and placed on the door seam at the aforementioned location and applied a percussion adjustment. (he hit it with a hand sledge). The slight adjustment moved the door seem just enough to eliminate the vibration. This problem happened on less than 5% of the vehicles of this type. A company bulletin was produced and sent to all dealers with this ingenious repair procedure.

The moral of the story: Changing more than one thing at a time is not the best way to apply the process of elimination. Make one change at a time. Then when the problem is corrected, you will know what the actual cause is/was.