sigh When it rains, it pours UPDATED: I've mended something!

"shop-teacher" (shop-teacher)
01/08/2020 at 21:50 • Filed to: Home ownership sucks

I was awoken by Mrs Shop Teacher at 5:20 am, because we’ve got no hot water. The pilot light will not relight. Gadamn it Skeeter.

Update:

I consulted with my plumber friend, aka lapsed Opponaut Birddog. He said it was likely the thermocouple, a generic part that can be had at any proper hardware store, and gave me a few pointers for how to tackle the job.

I headed to the local Ace at lunchtime, and dropped $12 on the part. After I was done with school, I drove straight home to tackle it. The burner unit being self contained, it was a bit trickier, but four torx screws and three sizes of wrench later, it was out. The thermocouple did indeed look pretty crispy.

Some persuasion with a set of channel locks and a side cutter later, and the old one was free. Now the challenge was to get the new one back through this rubber plug.

The rubber was not pliable or forgiving at all. I consulted again with Birddog, who suggested what I was wondering if it was OK to do. Put a slit in the side of the plug.

That worked, so I buttoned it back up, and crossed my fingers.

Successful operation doctor!

Whelp. That was a huge pain in the ass, but it could have been a lot worse.

DISCUSSION (44)

pip bip - choose Corrour > shop-teacher
01/08/2020 at 07:10

she’ll be *loving* that

shop-teacher > pip bip - choose Corrour
01/08/2020 at 07:11

Most certainly.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > shop-teacher
01/08/2020 at 07:17

Damn....that is, as my friend Dan would say, ‘balls’. :/

shop-teacher > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
01/08/2020 at 07:18

Very balls indeed.

boredalways > shop-teacher
01/08/2020 at 07:26

Is it one of those Honeywell pilot lighter?

Kinja'd!!!

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > shop-teacher
01/08/2020 at 07:40

Hopefully it’s just an easy fix!

shop-teacher > boredalways
01/08/2020 at 07:42

Nope.

shop-teacher > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
01/08/2020 at 07:42

We'll find out tonight.

boredalways > shop-teacher
01/08/2020 at 07:44

Thank goodness! Those things are a POS, and I'm on my second one.

WilliamsSW > shop-teacher
01/08/2020 at 07:58

Crap that sucks. What a way to start a winter morning.

Hope it’s an easy fix - presume you have gas still and the heater etc run? Maybe time for a new water heater...

Monkey B > shop-teacher
01/08/2020 at 08:02

beat, happened here in October. Got it fired up to have it last 30 minutes. Paid to have it repaired...lasted an hour. When gas goes, it goes all the way I guess...e lectric are easy to band aid for emergencies in my experience.

And apparently you get a Bradford White period. And if you can’t get one due to it being the weekend or after hours for supply houses apparently the choice is Rheem. GL!

shop-teacher > WilliamsSW
01/08/2020 at 08:15

Yeah, we have gas and heat still. The water heater is only five years old, almost to the day, so hopefully it's just a thermocouple.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > shop-teacher
01/08/2020 at 08:38

At least you had cold water. You could still brush your teeth, just rinse your hair, and flush.

A while back, one of the tenants in my building left the basement door open during winter. No water flow at all. I managed to find the problem before the pipes burst, but we still had to wait for them to thaw. To prevent this I managed to get a pneumatic door closer for the basement, but years later the landlord has yet to install it...

nerd_racing > shop-teacher
01/08/2020 at 08:44

Perhaps it is the thermocouple?

TysMagic > shop-teacher
01/08/2020 at 08:56

I hear that’s a pretty good way to wake up

https://www.healthline.com/health/exercise-fitness/ice-bath-benefits

shop-teacher > nerd_racing
01/08/2020 at 09:07

Hopefully that’s exactly what it is. I’ll find out after work tonight.

shop-teacher > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
01/08/2020 at 09:08

Ugh, that sucks!

functionoverfashion > shop-teacher
01/08/2020 at 09:18

On a related note: we’ve been having a weird thing happen with our heat, where it seemed like the boiler was on, but nothing was happening on the first floor. There is only one pump, two zone valves. There is also a “zone controller” which does witchcraft and makes the heat work.

What I think was happening, in the end, was that the zone valve is supposed to turn on the pump via relay after it’s open but it wasn’t doing that from the first floor’s zone valve. So any time the second floor’s heat was also on, the first floor got heat, because the second floor’s zone valve was turning on the pump and the first floor zone valve was opening, but not calling the pump.

Does that make sense?

Our heating guy is very intelligent, generally, but it took us both a lot of tinkering to figure out this was what was happening. And not before we both decided it was likely the zone controller, which we replaced and maybe didn’t need to after all.

But now the pump is 10 years old, and I’m thinking we should replace that with an updated version as a preventative measure, in part because it’s making a bit more noise than I’d like to hear from a pump. The new style pump doesn’t need a relay to tell it when to turn on, it senses the change in pressure as a valve is opened and just comes on by itself. Which of course isn’t one less point of failure, really, it’s just shifting it.

OH, the joys of home ownership.

MonkeePuzzle > shop-teacher
01/08/2020 at 09:22

as others have stated in attempts to distract your from this misery, it could indeed be worse. As in a recent case for a family member where it was assumed the hot water heater was the cause of no hot water in the house, but the heater was found to be functional and in good condition. The issue lay in that the water it was producing (good hot steamy water) was being dumped, due to a broken pipe, inside a wall.

WilliamsSW > shop-teacher
01/08/2020 at 10:18

Yeah it shouldn’t need replacement at 5 years. Hopefully just the thermocouple.

shop-teacher > functionoverfashion
01/08/2020 at 10:58

I’ve never had radiant heat, so I know jack squat about how those systems work.

shop-teacher > MonkeePuzzle
01/08/2020 at 10:59

Ouch!

That would have been immediately apparent, the way my house and plumbing is laid out.

shop-teacher > Monkey B
01/08/2020 at 11:00

Hopefully it’s just the thermocouple. We’ll find out tonight.

functionoverfashion > shop-teacher
01/08/2020 at 11:18

It’s just forced hot water baseboard heat, but same principles.

When it breaks it’s both complicated and expensive.

gmctavish needs more space > shop-teacher
01/08/2020 at 11:56

That happened to ours a while back. Dead thermocouple, and the part is NLA. So the landlord got to buy a new water heater because of a $15 part....

Monkey B > shop-teacher
01/08/2020 at 12:10

I hoped that was my problem too...and it was to a degree. But no such luck.

MonkeePuzzle > shop-teacher
01/08/2020 at 12:12

yeah, in most cases the leak would have certainly been evident, but becaue of the location of the heater, the leak was going between a wall in a storage area and the outside.

shop-teacher > gmctavish needs more space
01/08/2020 at 12:19

The water heater is only five years old, almost to the day, so I should be able to get the part.

shop-teacher > TysMagic
01/08/2020 at 12:20

Pass.

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > MonkeePuzzle
01/08/2020 at 12:55

That sounds expensive. Ouch

XJDano > shop-teacher
01/08/2020 at 22:24

I don’t see a hammer, must have been a success.

shop-teacher > XJDano
01/08/2020 at 22:39

It was. I barely even cursed.

Chariotoflove > shop-teacher
01/08/2020 at 22:57

This should be worth a lot of street cred with your students.

shop-teacher > Chariotoflove
01/08/2020 at 23:01

I discussed it with some of them today. I told them I was going to fix my water heater, even though I wasn't exactly sure how, and had never done so before.

Chariotoflove > shop-teacher
01/08/2020 at 23:04

You’re gonna be a god when they hear about this.

shop-teacher > Chariotoflove
01/08/2020 at 23:08

Lol! Probably not, but I'm still proud to have fixed it.