Berkleying furnace

You know that scene from the Christmas Story where the dad is swearing unintelligibly at the furnace? That was me last night. Arrived home late from a 2-day trip to the sunshine state... to find my furnace had gone on strike, the house was icy cold and two tanks of tropical fish were frozen. Very sad, I had raised some of them from tiny babies to big guys over ten years old.

Messed around with the stupid furnace til almost midnight and it's working now, but it's gotta be replaced. Scooping out dead fish (especially the big ones) is just horrible. Miraculously, I noticed the fins quivering on the two blood parrots, so I did a water change on the smaller tank, and swooshed them back and forth in it to get some oxygen into their gills. They appear to be fully recovered.

Rough, sorry about the loss

What caused the strike? Messed with it until midnight, what did you do? What needs replacing?

Dan

I turned the power switch off and "rebooted" it, then put the thermostat up high. Just had the ingnitor and the gas valve replaced on it, no idea what's wrong with the stupid thing now. It runs fine, but doesn't want to come back on after it's stopped... I'm afraid to turn it down in case it stops again. Thermostat is only three years old, furnace is almost 20. Basically, I need a new one but just don't have the money right now to replace it.

Oh wow, sorry to hear about the fish. On the furnace: there's a thing called a 'thermocouple' on gas water heaters and furnaces which, if the thing goes bad, will shut the pilot off therefore no heat. I don't know if there's a similar thing on igniter type gas furnaces but it's worth looking into.

tough luck on the furnace .... great move on the life saving... I assume that's enough for the the life saving merit badge ?

D'ya think? LOL. I'm so happy they're okay. Broke my heart that the big blue one died, he was a relatively rare Frontosa that I'd raised from a little baby.

Another Chiclid owner...I'm amazed by how hardy they are.

sidenote...Gas furnaces usually have a flame sensor by the burners. clean gently with emry cloth. If they are dusty/dirty will get a no-start situation.

Yes... my BIL did that for me last year... and it worked. What in hell does it look like?

OK, got it. Looks like an 02. thanks.

Oh yeah - agreed on the cichlids. Except for blue ones. For some reason, anything blue seems less hardy.

A little late, sounds like you've found it. I've been told due to the furnace being in the laundry room to clean that sensor yearly.

You'll get a lot of lint / humidy / stick dust because of the dryer.

Thanks so much!

thermocouples are pretty easy to replace. I did it a couple of times on the old furnace in our condo. In the end we replaced it with a high efficiency unit that works much better. of course that also cost the landlord almost 3Gs but it was totally worth it.

Lesley wrote: OK, got it. Looks like an 02. thanks.

Wow... a woman who knows what an 02 sensor looks like.

Yeah, imagine? I've sworn at those bastards enough...

Must be something going around. My furnace is also down! House was 62* when we got home tonight.....blew out the filter/trap and cleaned the sensor....nothing. Gotta love it. They always seem to get finicky around 15-20 years (had to do major service to the A/C this summer too).

Thankfully our 75 gallon fish tank holds residual heat pretty well .

Best of luck with yours.

Thanks, glad to hear that your fish are okay. I turned the furnace down when I left on a press trip, judging by how cold the house was, it must never have come back on the two days I was away. And it was bloody cold when I left - around -22 with windchill.

don't you usually put heaters in the fish tanks? my brother and his wife used to have a whole buttload of fish tanks in their apartment- something like 1000 gallons total in a 2 bedroom apartment- and they heated the place in the winter with the fish tank heaters. this was in Fargo and the apartment was always too warm for my tastes..

they used to buy fish at Wal Mart, raise them, and sell them on ebay and make decent money at it..

Yes... but I unplugged the one upstairs because it gets too warm with the furnace vent behind it... and found out the hard way that the heater in the big tank downstairs was kaput.

Neat, check out the frozen fish now! These two were upside down, and stone cold:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ha4PKD6VvE

It is one reason why I am glad my goldfish is so hearty. Of course he has outgrown a 20 gallon tank as well.

not only should that have been enough for the life saving merit badge.... you probably should be hired to teach the life saving classes.......

Curmudgeon wrote:

Lesley wrote: OK, got it. Looks like an 02. thanks.

Wow... a woman who knows what an 02 sensor looks like.

do i smell internet romance blossoming??

Dayum... this is like the weekend from hell for me! The space heaters I put in the basement to warm up the pipes blew some breakers, which I discovered thanks to an ice-cold shower. No hot water.

My beater needed some work last week to pass emissions... was gonna pick up my license sticker tomorrow. Popped down to the store to get some coffee cream - you guessed it, got pulled over. $110 fine for no sticker.

Oy vey... enough already!