I must share in my shame as well as my glory. And since nothing glorious has happened yet I'll kick things off with a little shame.
I have spent 6 hrs troubleshooting a 90% afue downflow furnace. And in order to defend my stupidity, I shall bore you (or just myself once again) with all the details. The initial call was "running constantly but not hitting thermostat set temperature". So I discovered the collection box off of the secondary heat exchanger had filled with condensate water. So i cleared the drain, poured some alkaline cleaner in it and flushed it. I ran the furnace through three cycles and checked to be sure it was draining correctly. That was fine for five days. Then a call "it's not working at all". This time the Induced draft assembly (more specifically the motor) was cooked. Stands to reason, it was slinging water for a while a week before. So I replaced it(the assy). Well now it would not pull in the pressure switch. Great, so Being as I no longer, no wait, never have owned a magnehelic guage, I assumed it probably was not the switch, a low incedent of failure part it is. I took some 18 guage copper wire and reemed all of the nozzles where the silicone tubing attaches, then ran some insulated 18 gauge wire through the length of the tubing.
Still no make on the pressure switch. I went and got an after market adjustable switch. Notta, I had to adjust it way down to nothing, and thjis was still not reliable and not the type of practice to allow for a good nights sleep. So back to the factory pressure switch (it was most likely fine). I removed the collection box, the burner box, new draft assy, gas valve, manifold and burners. Plugging all of the heat exchanger entries with rags, I one at a time blew high pressure c02 thru the primary and out the secondary, fully expecting a rewarding amount of something to come out.Nothing. I re-sealed the collection box with silicone, put everything back together, cut the flue pvc off the furnace as well as the combustion in take, in spected them for obstruction, nothing. Now I franticly went over all the collection attachments, the drain lines, plugged the silicone tubing and blew, expecting to find a leak, nothing. Re-attach everything jumper the furnace pressure switch after the board check for normally open position. Let it run ten minutes and checked for co in the house near the supply vents, almost hoping for a cracked primary, nothing 2ppm. OK smoke bomb the burner compart ment with the fan on , nope no cracks, dammit. Maybe the dang induced draft assy isnt sealing well, remove again, nope good gasket all looks well. Boredom, spin the draft blower wheel with my finger, what IS that sound??
Oh a piece of packing plastic covering a couple of the blower vanes, nice. What did we learn from this? Always inspect a new part very well before installing? I like to think I learned how to disassemble and reassemble a 90 % downflow gas furnace, you know , just for fun.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Friday, January 25, 2008
This Blog has a mission
For years I have worked in the heating and air conditioning industry. Along the way I have found many aspects in the trade that I question or just like to complain about. It is hard to find a format where I can exchange Ideas,experiences,or observation with my peers. So hopefully this will evolve into such a format.
It is my intention to create a place where technicians can find helpfull ideas as well as share thier own. Where the end user of Heating and air conditioning products can find advice and guard against injustice. Where hard working honest guys (or gals) can vent thier frustrations. And where I can share some fun as well.
Since this is my first experience at blogging, it will undoubtedly go through a long and painfull metamorphisis. But hopefully it will end up as fun and usefull endeavor. I welcome any comments and suggestions.
So, even though this first post is undoubtedly an exercise in talking to my self (which I do quite often), I will begin by telling me about myself. I am 43 years old, I have been in the Heating and air conditioning trade since I was 17 years old. My earliest years were spent doing grunt work for my stepfather who had his own Heating and refrigeration business. Later I would install central heating systems part time. When I was 23 I had my first job in counter sales at a small wholesale hvac distributor. I became manager there and soon left that company to open a new distributorship for a larger company(Hammond Dist.). After three years and some moderate success, I left Hammond to start my own hvac installation subcontracting business. After five years of Installation and a moderate amount of service work, I went to work for a locally owned hvac wholesale company. For three years I provided tech. assistance and counter sales. I left that company to manage a Carrier distributer (bad descision). After a year I went back to Tech assistance with more enthusiasm. It was the next three years that I would read tons of books, technical assistance manuals, and anything I could get my hands on. I took on a part time teaching job at a local community college. I taught some advanced courses on furnace and heat pump troubleshooting. I also assisted in developing a course and cirriculum for hvac training. By no means do I brag on my short jaunt in teaching. Half of the time I was ill-prepared and nervous. But it did force me to learn. After that, I went back into business for my self, doing primarily service work on residential and light commercial systems. And that is where I remain.
For the most part my work is rewarding, and I enjoy interacting with people. I have my bad moments, body aches, the occasional poor attitude. My main bitch is the equipment I work on. Now that I have a well rounded knowledge of all the brands of equipment and how they are "engineered", I frequently eye the equipment with disdain and disgust. A lot of the engineering on hvac systems is ill-concieved to put it mildly. Some of it is borderline pathetic. So a large portion of my Blog will consist of ripping a new ass for some manufacturers. I think I will have a post a week doubed "crummy reasoning approach to problems" or CRAP for short.
I will frequently include photos of stupid engineering as well as some of the "quality" installations and service I run in to. That is all for now. more later
It is my intention to create a place where technicians can find helpfull ideas as well as share thier own. Where the end user of Heating and air conditioning products can find advice and guard against injustice. Where hard working honest guys (or gals) can vent thier frustrations. And where I can share some fun as well.
Since this is my first experience at blogging, it will undoubtedly go through a long and painfull metamorphisis. But hopefully it will end up as fun and usefull endeavor. I welcome any comments and suggestions.
So, even though this first post is undoubtedly an exercise in talking to my self (which I do quite often), I will begin by telling me about myself. I am 43 years old, I have been in the Heating and air conditioning trade since I was 17 years old. My earliest years were spent doing grunt work for my stepfather who had his own Heating and refrigeration business. Later I would install central heating systems part time. When I was 23 I had my first job in counter sales at a small wholesale hvac distributor. I became manager there and soon left that company to open a new distributorship for a larger company(Hammond Dist.). After three years and some moderate success, I left Hammond to start my own hvac installation subcontracting business. After five years of Installation and a moderate amount of service work, I went to work for a locally owned hvac wholesale company. For three years I provided tech. assistance and counter sales. I left that company to manage a Carrier distributer (bad descision). After a year I went back to Tech assistance with more enthusiasm. It was the next three years that I would read tons of books, technical assistance manuals, and anything I could get my hands on. I took on a part time teaching job at a local community college. I taught some advanced courses on furnace and heat pump troubleshooting. I also assisted in developing a course and cirriculum for hvac training. By no means do I brag on my short jaunt in teaching. Half of the time I was ill-prepared and nervous. But it did force me to learn. After that, I went back into business for my self, doing primarily service work on residential and light commercial systems. And that is where I remain.
For the most part my work is rewarding, and I enjoy interacting with people. I have my bad moments, body aches, the occasional poor attitude. My main bitch is the equipment I work on. Now that I have a well rounded knowledge of all the brands of equipment and how they are "engineered", I frequently eye the equipment with disdain and disgust. A lot of the engineering on hvac systems is ill-concieved to put it mildly. Some of it is borderline pathetic. So a large portion of my Blog will consist of ripping a new ass for some manufacturers. I think I will have a post a week doubed "crummy reasoning approach to problems" or CRAP for short.
I will frequently include photos of stupid engineering as well as some of the "quality" installations and service I run in to. That is all for now. more later
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