Big news! I'm a proud new father. I'm still getting used to that title - even typing that last sentence was strange. My wife and I have been blessed with a beautiful baby girl. I will be starting a blog for her once I come up with a title for it.
She was born Wednesday the 28th of November, right on the due date. We all went home on the following Sunday. My wife was getting a little paranoid thinking the house was too cold for the baby. We usually keep the house at about 68 degrees so I bumped the thermostat up to 70 in hopes that would do the trick.
About an hour later I was sweating bullets. I convinced my wife that it truly wasn't that cold in the house so she let me turn it back down to 68.
Later that evening the temp dropped considerably and the winds really picked up. I checked the theromostat and it said the house was 65! WTF? It was set to 68 but allowed the temp to drop that much. After horsing with it a little, it still wouldn't kick in.
I reset the main power switch on the furnace and then upped the temp again - it then kicked on. Success! Oh wait, lets not pat ourselves on the back too quick. I could hear things spin up, and the gas clicked on with a hiss, but did not ignite. Wha?? Turned the power back off and pulled the front panel off. I had a problem last winter where the flame wouldn't stay ignited - and the culprit was the flame sensor. A quick cleaning with steel wool did the trick. This time it wouldn't even light up.
I popped off the ignitor and it didn't look too bad, but I could see a tiny crack in the element. I remember they should glow bright orange (hot!) when working correctly. I forced the furnace to kick on again, but this thing wasn't doing squat. I jumped on the internet and found that it doesn't take much for these to fail - even a little discoloration is a sign of failure.
Well this should be an easy fix right? Not at 9:15pm on a Sunday night.... everything is closed.
After three stops I got the part. Home Depot doesn't sell any of this stuff & Ace has a limited selection. I guess Ace IS the place with the helpful hardware man - the guy told me where I could get the parts and even drew me a map to find it. Millers Heating & Cooling in Grayslake hooked me up with the parts I needed. I got the new ignitor as well as a replacement flame sensor for about $70.
Here is a pic of the failed ignitor and the old flame sensor.
About 30 mins later I was home, and the parts were installed. Let there be heat bitches!!
I can't even imagine how much a service call would have cost... I would have kicked myself to watch a technician replace this simple part!
P.S. - I forgot to mention this and I feel like a jackass. I had emailed
Sean about my problem with the furnace after 10pm - without even hesitating he was ready to offer up a heater for me to use. He had emailed and called back just before 11pm saying I could come and grab it if need be. Sean - thanks for looking out for me and my family.
