Furnace Went Down Tonight

[Spectrism]

Oil burner furnace went down... no hot water.

It just so happens that I have played with this bugger a few times before and can figure it out. I cleaned the electrodes. They had some carbon on them, but not too bad. Got me a little suspicious but I was hoping for an easy answer.

Nope. No fire.

Fuel is there.

As I was feeling the newer electronic igniter, one side felt a little warm after trying to manually start the furnace. Hmmmm. I replaced the old coil starter with this electronic one a couple years ago. The old one was probably 20 years old. I happened to save the old one as I suspected it was still good.

Got nothing else to try tonight...so.... I put the old one back in. Fired right up. The new starter died in less than 10% of the life of the old one. When I bought it, I was told they are all electronic now.

Something to think about..... for SHTF times.

1. Be able to fix your own junk.
2. Have spare junk.... and don't throw away vital parts that you may need.

[hoarder]

Relax. Fire up the woodstove. If you need hot water put a 12 quart stockpot on the woodstove. That's enough to take a shower.
Tools needed: chainsaw.

[ximmy]

Sucks that they don't make things like they used too.. I replaced the water heater when I bought my house, had problems for months with pilot out and the idiot ignition on the new one... stupid crap...

My dad said they never had a water heater problem in the 30 years he owned his house...

[Libertytree]

We had an oil furnace in the basement at the bar we owned, it was an older unit (1930's) and we went through same problem. The smartest thing we did was switch back and buy more coils etc..

[Spectrism]

When I put the electronic igniter in, I figured it was better. Not everything new is better.

A bad side effect is more electrical noise with the new piece of garbage. Electrical interference when the furnace is on.

I will have to shop around and see If I can find any older style coil igniters.

[Sparky]

I find it hard to throw out the old stuff or leftover material after making a repair. I've been criticized for this...

[Dogman]

I find it hard to throw out the old stuff or leftover material after making a repair. I've been criticized for this...


I am a pack rat by nature, and when I worked in industry , electronics manufacturing for the last
17 years, my insertion and pick and place machines, whenever doing pm's on the equipment plus during breakdowns, I would r/r the bad or worn with new. And save the old and try to repair or rebuild. I never throw anything away! That practice has served me well over the years on keeping production up and running, You may not have a new spare, so in goes the old or rebuilt until the new part is available.

Anyone notice one of Murphy's unwritten laws? You can keep something for years and trip and stumble over it and it just sits there collecting dust! And then you give, sell or throw it away and within a short time later, You find you now need it big time? If you have it , you never need it, But once gone , Boom you need it. ;D

Is it just me that this happens to? ???

So far as the o/p the new stuff we buy in a lot of ways is crap compared to the old equipment , the new stuff has failure built in and will not last as long as the old designs in general.

IMHO!

[MNeagle]

It is called

Pre-engineered failure...

So you can spend more dollars on parts, on labor and do so more often.





also called Planned Obsolesence!