I guess I was just lucky
Yesterday morning I got up and the furnace was making a noise when the blower started. By 8 am it smelt like electrical over heating, enough so that honey got out of bed wondering what was going on. I shut down the furnace and since it was 25 degrees I dug out the oil filled electric radiators and put one on each floor. They are slow to warm up but once there they can keep our 2700 sq ft house comfy.
After that I had to go down and start figuring out what I needed to do to get the furnace up and running. It could have been a easy fix but nooooo. the squirrel cage had to come out and the control panel was mounted to it meaning all of the wiring had to be removed. I got the numbers I needed and started calling around. Most of the big suppliers didn't have the part. I did finally find the motor at a small shop 30 miles away, I just had to get there in 25 minutes.
Once back home I took a picture of the panel, then wrote it all down as a back up, took a deep breath and started yanking wires. It took a hour or so to R&R the blower assembly and clean the blades. After wiring it all back up I held my breath as I hit the switch, thank goodness the blower came on. Only 8 hours after hearing the sound, we had heat again. good thing too because the forecast is for sub zero highs here soon.
So how was I lucky? First the furnace held out until the morning to go out. I would have freaked if I had woken up smelling that at 2 am.
The second was actually finding the motor on a Saturday between holidays.
Third was the highways were nearly clear as I flew to the shop to get there before they closed. No LEO's either.
The last lucky thing is that many, many years ago I went to HVAC school and can fix the furnace. We would have had to wait till this week to get a repairman in here. So I guess it was my lucky day. :)
After that I had to go down and start figuring out what I needed to do to get the furnace up and running. It could have been a easy fix but nooooo. the squirrel cage had to come out and the control panel was mounted to it meaning all of the wiring had to be removed. I got the numbers I needed and started calling around. Most of the big suppliers didn't have the part. I did finally find the motor at a small shop 30 miles away, I just had to get there in 25 minutes.
Once back home I took a picture of the panel, then wrote it all down as a back up, took a deep breath and started yanking wires. It took a hour or so to R&R the blower assembly and clean the blades. After wiring it all back up I held my breath as I hit the switch, thank goodness the blower came on. Only 8 hours after hearing the sound, we had heat again. good thing too because the forecast is for sub zero highs here soon.
So how was I lucky? First the furnace held out until the morning to go out. I would have freaked if I had woken up smelling that at 2 am.
The second was actually finding the motor on a Saturday between holidays.
Third was the highways were nearly clear as I flew to the shop to get there before they closed. No LEO's either.
The last lucky thing is that many, many years ago I went to HVAC school and can fix the furnace. We would have had to wait till this week to get a repairman in here. So I guess it was my lucky day. :)
