EricV
Riding, farkling, riding...
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We woke up to a cold house this morning. Furnace didn't come on.
So fine, check the thermostat, it's fine, system on, set for correct temp, no hold or low batt, etc. Turned fan to on instead of auto, hear the click, no furnace fan coming on. Great, no power to the Furnace.
Out to the garage to check the breaker. Breaker is still set, no indication of being tripped. Flip the breaker off anyway, wait 10 seconds, flip back on. Feels normal. Grab the outlet tester and DMM and back into the house to the furnace.
This furnace has no on/off switch, just a cord plugged into a wall outlet. 2002 vintage 80% cheapie. Zero LEDs or indicator lights. Burners covered with a tin plate with an inspection window to see the flame. The wall outlet circuit is shared with the guest bath. (not my preference, but ok by code)
Pull the plug and test the outlet. It's hot & wired correctly. Plug the furnace back in, pull the lower panel and test continuity to the panel door switch. Tests good. Pull the 5 amp fuse and it's visually Ok, test it with the DMM to be sure, it's good. Pull a wire off the switch and test for 120V to the transformer. Have power there. Test for 24V on the other side of the transformer... Nada.
Le Sigh. Call the HVAC guy we use for twice a year PM. All of the above only took about 15 minutes. No big deal.
Fast forward to 2pm. HVAC guy comes, pokes, yep, it's the transformer. Installs one from his truck, furnace works again. He gives me a good natured hard time because he prefers to get his $75 service fee for a blown fuse. Mentions, "oh, I hooked up the common wire from the thermostat, at the furnace. It was never hooked up when it was installed. And you really need a ground prong on that power cord."
So $200 later the furnace works again and the wife is happy that the house is warming up. Here is where the 5 minute job comes in. I figure I will swap the two prong plug to a 3 prong plug once the house warms up. I'll feel better about that as the install was probably done by a friend of a friend instead of a HVAC professional.
I poke around my electrical stash and no male plug. Off to the Walmart since it's closest. No plug. Off to the local hardware store. No sweat, pick up a 15 amp plug of nice quality for a mere $3.49+tax. Drive back home. The furnace kicks off when the house warms up.
I unplug the furnace and remove the two prong plug...
Fu** me, it's a two wire cord. I can't believe some idiot actually wired a furnace to a two wire cord. Out to the garage to pull some nice heavy gauge 3 wire cord out and cut the length I need. Trim, snip, strip and wire it to the new plug and prep the other end for the furnace side.
Back inside, unscrew the metal box with the power connection inside. Normal stuff, common, hot and ground to chassis right there. Ground wire is virginal, never having been hooked up when the install was done. (face-palm) Unscrew the strain relief, remove the wire nuts and remove the old cord.
Feed the new cord in and wire nut the three wires from the new cord to the furnace side. Re-install the box to the sheet metal, re-secure the strain relief clamp, plug the furnace in, (after making sure the thermostat wasn't wanting to kick on immediately). Bump the thermostat a degree, furnace comes on nicely and life is good again. Re-set to program and return to PC to poke the web.
I can't believe this killed most of the day. When we bought the house and did some light remodel we discovered a bunch of half ass stuff and fixed it as we found it, but this wasn't something I expect to need to fix.
Sorry for the lack of moto content, but I just needed to rant a bit. I usually keep a female plug end on hand for repairing extension cords or making a new one from an old cord off something else. But I didn't have a male one. That by itself wasn't a big deal, but finding something as power intensive as a gas furnace wired w/o ground is just appalling.
Feel free to share your task or job that took longer than you expected.
So fine, check the thermostat, it's fine, system on, set for correct temp, no hold or low batt, etc. Turned fan to on instead of auto, hear the click, no furnace fan coming on. Great, no power to the Furnace.
Out to the garage to check the breaker. Breaker is still set, no indication of being tripped. Flip the breaker off anyway, wait 10 seconds, flip back on. Feels normal. Grab the outlet tester and DMM and back into the house to the furnace.
This furnace has no on/off switch, just a cord plugged into a wall outlet. 2002 vintage 80% cheapie. Zero LEDs or indicator lights. Burners covered with a tin plate with an inspection window to see the flame. The wall outlet circuit is shared with the guest bath. (not my preference, but ok by code)
Pull the plug and test the outlet. It's hot & wired correctly. Plug the furnace back in, pull the lower panel and test continuity to the panel door switch. Tests good. Pull the 5 amp fuse and it's visually Ok, test it with the DMM to be sure, it's good. Pull a wire off the switch and test for 120V to the transformer. Have power there. Test for 24V on the other side of the transformer... Nada.
Le Sigh. Call the HVAC guy we use for twice a year PM. All of the above only took about 15 minutes. No big deal.
Fast forward to 2pm. HVAC guy comes, pokes, yep, it's the transformer. Installs one from his truck, furnace works again. He gives me a good natured hard time because he prefers to get his $75 service fee for a blown fuse. Mentions, "oh, I hooked up the common wire from the thermostat, at the furnace. It was never hooked up when it was installed. And you really need a ground prong on that power cord."
So $200 later the furnace works again and the wife is happy that the house is warming up. Here is where the 5 minute job comes in. I figure I will swap the two prong plug to a 3 prong plug once the house warms up. I'll feel better about that as the install was probably done by a friend of a friend instead of a HVAC professional.
I poke around my electrical stash and no male plug. Off to the Walmart since it's closest. No plug. Off to the local hardware store. No sweat, pick up a 15 amp plug of nice quality for a mere $3.49+tax. Drive back home. The furnace kicks off when the house warms up.
I unplug the furnace and remove the two prong plug...
Fu** me, it's a two wire cord. I can't believe some idiot actually wired a furnace to a two wire cord. Out to the garage to pull some nice heavy gauge 3 wire cord out and cut the length I need. Trim, snip, strip and wire it to the new plug and prep the other end for the furnace side.
Back inside, unscrew the metal box with the power connection inside. Normal stuff, common, hot and ground to chassis right there. Ground wire is virginal, never having been hooked up when the install was done. (face-palm) Unscrew the strain relief, remove the wire nuts and remove the old cord.
Feed the new cord in and wire nut the three wires from the new cord to the furnace side. Re-install the box to the sheet metal, re-secure the strain relief clamp, plug the furnace in, (after making sure the thermostat wasn't wanting to kick on immediately). Bump the thermostat a degree, furnace comes on nicely and life is good again. Re-set to program and return to PC to poke the web.
I can't believe this killed most of the day. When we bought the house and did some light remodel we discovered a bunch of half ass stuff and fixed it as we found it, but this wasn't something I expect to need to fix.
Sorry for the lack of moto content, but I just needed to rant a bit. I usually keep a female plug end on hand for repairing extension cords or making a new one from an old cord off something else. But I didn't have a male one. That by itself wasn't a big deal, but finding something as power intensive as a gas furnace wired w/o ground is just appalling.
Feel free to share your task or job that took longer than you expected.