Ah yes, Saturday morning service call

Saturday morning service call

I'm heading out soon for a no heat on an ancient Bard oil furnace with an equally old OEA series Wayne burner on it.

The HO called last Wednesday and son Andrew went out on the call. An hour or so later my cell phone rings and I hear Andy's voice, very solemn and serious sounding saying, "Dad.......... you got to come out here and see this".

So I went.

I have never in my life seen so much soot in a basement. The cobwebs were literally hanging like black 1/4" cable from the ceiling, there was soot about an inch deep on top of the furnace. Andy had replaced the nozzle and filter and gotten the old beast running but the thing he was freaking out about was that the flue temp was pegging 1,050*F. I surmised that the old girl was full of soot (duh) and some of it was burning off. CO2, O2 and CO readings supported that assumption. We let it burn for a half hour to try and dry things out and while doing so I had a conversation with the homeowner, Larry.

Now here's a couple things about Larry, he's an older guy, about Dan's age,;) a bachelor farmer who kind of just let's things happen until something breaks and demands attention. He is in possession of both oars but it seems that he very seldom rows with 'em both at the same time. Or something like that........ Any way the conversation went something like this. I said, "So Larry, how long has the furnace been smoking like this?" while standing in the soot covering the basement floor. "Ohhhh..... A while" was the response. Then a pause during which I could see he was thinking. "Maybe a month or so. Couple times I had to open the windows to air out the house last week".

Jeepers!! You just have to wonder sometimes............Thank goodness for gaurdian angels and drafty, leaky old farm houses. The CO in the basement had to have been BAD!

We got it up and running, burning clean, but I told Larry we would come back in a couple days to try and brush and vac the HX. No cleanouts on the old Bard. Drew and Matt were there yesterday and all was well. 3:45 this morning, Larry is on the phone telling me he doesn't think the furnace ran since the boys were there yesterday about noon. I think I'll ask him why he waited until 3:45 AM to call me and tell me this tidbit of information. I'll gaurantee it will be an interesting reply.

Details at 11

Isn't life a blast!??

cold

I hate to say this, as we ALL have done it at one time or another, but how upset would you be if the boys left the switch off. "I thought that YOU turned it back on..."
That was always a humbling service call.

I'm out too.

I have 2 customers that I still take care of the refrigeration for.

Yesterday, I got the call the walk-in freezer was down. Okay, I went out and found the expansion valve was bad. Called 5 places to find one and one had the exact one I needed, but it'll be here in the morning. Right.

So here I am, surfing on their wireless connection, waiting for the (dirty word, dirty word, dirty word) recovery machine to get the R409a out of the system.

The best news is that they feed me. Waffles for breakfast and (maybe) prime rib for lunch. Wonder why I still work for them?

Note the word, had

As in past tense. CO is no longer a concern.

I knew it would be interesting

I opened the door and hollered to see if Larry was in the house, which he wasn't, and trekked to the basement, past the loaded deer rifle leaning against the door casing. (I checked) Down by the furnace, which was considerably cleaner than the last time I saw it, the old W/R primary control was tripped. I reset it and it fired right up. Let it burn and it ran fine so I shut it down after 3-4 minutes to hook up the Simpson to the cad cell. I had a hunch what was going on but I wanted to see.
About the time I was doing that procedure, Larry came down the basement and says "Wall, we got the old dog out this morning," with a big grin on his face. "Yep, thought I'd let the lads sleep in this morning," I replied. Larry says, " I see you got it runnin' awhat did ya do toot?" After telling him what I did and what I was now doing to test the cad cell, Larry said " I thenk theeres a snek int". The burner is running nice and quiet so I replied, "I don't hear a snick or any other noise that sounds different". Larry kind of looked at me strange and then said, " No, I mean a snek, like a garter snek. They crawl into stuff sometimes." Hiding my grin, I told him I didn't think there was a "snek" in the furnace. At this he launched into a story about how a snake crawled into a pump motor once and burned itself and the motor into oblivion........maybe 25 years ago.
While he was telling me that I watched the meter fluctuate more than normal while the flame continued to appear good. I told him I was going to replace the "eye", which brought about the need for a lengthy explanation of what exactly the cad cell is and does. "So, says Larry, it works sumpthin' like tha eye on tha merky light by tha barn". "Yep, a little like that" I said, thinking to myself that he put that together pretty good in his mind.
I test ran the burner with a new cad cell which I had retrieved from the van and we made some small talk about spring planting while I watched the new eye on the meter. It produced a much steadier reading. Larry still wondered about a snek or maybe even a mice (his pronunciation) or two getting into the burner. I showed him how much calmer the meter was with the new cad cell and told him I had a feeling the the old "eye" had been severely overheated due to the excess heat retained in the fire pot when it was plugged up. I explained that if the "eye" didn't read right it would cause the burner to lock out like it had overnight. Sounded good to him.
The other thing that I found was that the flame had a little too much air. This was probably due to the fact that it was now burning without the extra soot/fuel load since the boys cleaned it out. Andy had left the burner settings where we had dialed them the first time we were there. The flame looked a little tight and too white. Drew doesn't have a lot of experience on these old non retention burners and tried to get the CO2 up to where he is used to seeing it on newer stuff.
I test ran the furnace for about 1/2 hour after replacing the cad cell. All seemed good so I told him no charge for today and recommended that he think strongly about replacing the old girl this summer. He said to call him back with a price so we'll likely wind up doing a swap for him.

I just get such a bang out of people. They come in all shapes, sizes, intelligence levels and it's just fun dealing with them all. I love the challenge of relating to someone like Larry one minute and someone who is way above my own intellect the next. Variety is the spice of life.

Y'all have a good day. I got another dead one to go look at now.

Wow...

... congratulations on the save. As Dan says "you can't make this stuff up!"

Methinks that the old farmer may have alaready lost a number of neural connections due to the CO. I wonder if he can be persuaded to change his ways and get a regular service contract to save the few neural connections that remain.

That farmer never did

fix that gate, did he, Kevin??

Good call, the characters.

Brad

I don't think

That P/E would have helped that one. The cap tube going to the sensing bulb was rubbed until it blew the sensor charge. I had a little fun once it was empty of R408A. I replaced the head pressure/fan cycling control, the compressor discharge service valve, and the receiver service valve. If the receiver service valve had been any good I wouldn't had to wait 45 minutes while the recovery machine did it's thing. Of course, I wouldn't have found the unit had about 12-14 lbs of R408A extra in it either.....

Once it was turned back on, you could stand there and watch the thermometer drop. Good feeling.

First beverage is on me after the class.

What makes you think

creative writing and creative hydronics are mutually exclusive? Look at Dan!

True

But he's Irish...........

That's the only thing I could think of just now

Roger that, Steve

Yes, The Curse...

But do exercise your gifts!

c-o's

On older Bards, you pull the side panels off the unit. If you notice, the cabinet is in sections.

To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"

Stuffed an onion

up a Cow's arse.

Did anyone see that one, I pee'd myself laughing.

Herriot was only about 100 miles from me back home.

The callenders are still available, with photo's of the Yorskhire Dales.

Brian.