I think that this comment on my furnace problems is worth elaborating on:
If you blow yourself up trying to save a few bucks by not hiring someone to do this for you, I don’t want to hear any complaints! Good luck.
It’s not (just) about “saving a few bucks.”
I come from a line of people on my mother’s side who would never think to call someone to fix something that had an obvious solution, and the tools/knowledge to do it. In fact, during the Depression, my grandfather was the guy who got called, doing auto repairs. But he also built his own cabin in northern Michigan on the Muskegon River, and built by hand inboard-motor boats to put in the river, by steaming and bending mahogany, and adapting Chrysler drive trains to put in them, including dashboard instruments. He built them in the basement in northern Flint, and knocked out the wall to get them out when they were complete and ready to be trailered Up North.
My uncle (his son) followed in his footsteps, except that he actually got a college degree (ME from Michigan), and he always (at least until late in life), though he was a well-paid engineering manager at AC Spark Plug, rebuilt his own car engines (back in the days when this had to be done every hundred-thousand miles or so), and his own plumbing and electrical work and drywall (at least after he retired).
My first car, at sixteen, was a used MGA. That summer, I tore it apart and put it back together, to improve the performance and end the blue smoke of the burning oil coming out of the tailpipe, and get smoother gear shifting with new synchros. Before I went to college, I was a professional VW mechanic. I’m just not by nature someone who likes to pay people (and in many cases, trust them) to do things that I think I can do better and cheaper myself. When I was in Florida in May, starting to prepare the house to sell, I got a quote of $500 to replace a leaking hose bib, which involved opening up a block wall, sweating in new copper pipe, then resealing and repainting it. I did the whole job in a couple hours after fifty bucks in tools and parts at Home Depot.
A few weeks ago we had a water leak in the main supply line coming into the house that had the meter swirling like a dervish. We did call a plumber, but a thousand dollars later, while they did a good job (I watched), I regretted not doing it myself. All it would have taken was renting a jack hammer to open up the sidewalk, digging some dirt, cutting out the bad pipe and replacing it, reburying, and replacing the pavement.
Anyway, I assumed that when a furnace failed suddenly, it was likely something simple. I read the service manual, tracked down the problem to an obviously failed igniter, and changed it myself. I have pride in my own ability, and a larger bank account.
Also worth noting that many credentialed experts are really ‘Experts’. And that third-party focus isn’t always the same as first-party focus.
That is: The fellow installing the dryer needed to add a cable to convert the adaptable dryer to “Plug in use” as opposed to “fixed cable use”. It is a five minute job with a screwdriver and a heavy duty 6 foot cord. They’re focused on getting in, getting it done, and leaving. So… my circuit breaker is popping. A fifty amp circuit breaker… popping. Why? Multimeter, switch-flipping, confusion. Seems like a thermal overload in the dryer …
Nope. They were sloppy on the install, and simply didn’t crank the screws down really tight when they installed the electrical cord. Sloppy connection -> intermittent failure.
It’s awfully pleasing to fix a big, expensive thing yourself. My great coup was replacing a $35 thermostat that had crapped out the clothes dryer, saving the replacement cost.
For those of us who like to fix things, the modern age of unrepairable, non-upgradeable electronics (thinking of you, Apple) is a frustrating time.
I learned to fix cars starting with a ’66 Bug with the 6 volt system. I got to where I could remove and install Beetle engines without assistance. Poverty is a great motivator. I have saved a ton of money over the years DIY-ing, and now my son is an ASE Master Tech at a Ford dealer so nowadays I only do minor car repairs.
And Al, another sloppy trick the installers do is failing to take the burrs off the conduit for dryer hookup. My electrician brother-in-law has seen more than a few of those which could cause a house fire once that sharp edge wears through the insulation.
Agent J, Karl Denninger had a post a few years back about that very topic. A lot of what fails in your TVs and whatnot are due to crappy Chinese capacitors failing. With a soldering iron and/or a fairly inexpensive hot air station if its an SMD capacitor, you can replace those and maybe be back in business for just a few cents in parts.
I’d like schematics to become more common though.
Figuring out what something was -after- the magic smoke has been released is even tougher than figuring out what it is when the identifying marks were still somewhat legible.
Salespeople sure look at you funny when you ask if the schematic is available when they’re trying to convince you to get the extended warranty though. 🙂
The challenge was that the manual I used was sort of generic, for a wide variety of furnaces (including mine), so it took a while to figure out which parts were relevant and which weren’t.
That is irritating.
I had the added bonus that the ‘sticker’ with the exact model # on it (for my dryer investigation) had a scratch/ding right through two digits of the model number.
I was very happy to realize it fell under “Check the bleeping Connections.”
There were no diagrams in the manual of the actual layout of the parts. They just had crummy pictures of them, and a description of the general region in which to find them. Because there were too many different models being discussed…
Trying to fix things while knowing your limitations is an important skill in itself. I do several jobs around the house, but won’t mess with a gas connection due to leakage issues. Everyone has their own comfort zone, and entire industries are based on people not confident enough to fix anything.
Meh. Use yellow teflon tape, and gas leaks are easily checked for with soapy water. But it wasn’t a bad valve, so I didn’t have to mess with gas lines. It was about the simplest possible thing to fix (though a bad limit switch or temperature sensor would have been about as easy, and probably cheaper).
Everybody used to do their own heater maintenance by adding replacement logs as the old ones burned up.
We lived with my grandparents when I was young. Their equivalent of that was adding more coal to the pot-bellied stove in the living room and the cook stove in the kitchen. (And taking out the cinders, and chopping wood for kindling, etc.) Back then, there were very strict rules about boys’ and girls’ jobs, EXCEPT when it came to carrying coal and cinders, chopping wood for kindling, mowing the lawn (with a push hand mower), etc.
So I can honestly say the most work I want to do to heat the house is turn up the thermostat. We lived in blessed times, in a blesses country.
Coal is still by far the cheapest way to heat your home, but you do have to look around for a coal stove because nobody has made them in a while.
Is a coal stove too much work for modern Americans? Not if you hire a live-in illegal alien nanny to do the shoveling. ^_^
I sometimes mow my neighbor’s lawn with her hand reel mower just because it makes a better cut. But I don’t do it if it’s really hot outside.
Fixing things feels just as good as creating things. Sometimes you don’t want to be bothered, other times your time is more valuable than paying someone to do it, and sometimes it just feels good to do something yourself.
The internet is great for helping fix things. YouTube has been very useful in diagnosing and fixing car and computer problems.
Bravo, too many people shy away from even trying.
A couple of weeks ago friend had her furnace crap quit. She put a call out for help and by way of a couple of photo’s to facebook and some time on the phone she and I did the troubleshooting by phone.
She is a trained vehicle mechanic so using a multimeter is a skill she knows.
After trying a couple of the likely suspects we deduced the door switch might be the fault.
And what do you know, when she went to disconnect it to check with the meter it came apart.
A simple bypass until a new switch could be bought and they had heat for the night.
Rand, you are a perfect example for a martian or anyone that lives on a ranch. Most city folk do not have a clue.
My favorite fix was in SOHO installing a POS at a jewelry store (gaudy and expensive) around 1981. The PC was kept in the basement which got very cold at night. It kept getting parity errors. So I used my thumb to seat all the chips on the board and told them to leave the computer on a night. The problem went away.
(at night) not (a night)
You are in violation of USC 7902.03F, Federal Plumbing and Heating Repair Regulations, and we hereby, as the federal government, order you to undo all repairs and modifications, and pay a fine of $11,775,002.67 for each millisecond that you delay beyond this point…Three…two…one…GO!
I can get what Rand is saying. My Father worked on a motorcycle repair shop when he was a kid. He assembled his own radios out of parts and he used to build his own R/C planes from balsa wood. He’s repaired his car engines more than once. I’ve never had quite a much of a knack for it as he does, not nearly as much practice or attention to detail, but I don’t like hiring people to do tasks I can do by myself either. When we repaired the house I broke down mortar and ripped out tiles and plaster. I’ve layed down CAT cable around the house. It’s something pretty much anyone can do and I had the time so why hire someone to do it?
You know the story of the plumber that charged $100 to bang a pipe with a wrench. The owner was furious and demanded an itemized bill which came…
Hitting pipe with wrench to fix problem… $10.00
Knowing where and how to hit pipe… $90.00