Pellet heads!! What's up today?

A manual pilot flame in a boiler? How old is that unit? Probably needs a thermocouple….

 

Ugggg. Hope you get someone sooner than later.

At least you have 2 stoves to get by with

 

4* here. Filled the P43 with doug fir pellets last night, room stove/manual/feed rate 2 and the front room where the stove is was 77* when I got up, rest of downstairs 73, upstairs 72.

sam

 

A balmy -5 * here this fine am. And a dusting of snow!

I had to kick the Francesca's combustion fan speed up 30 RPM to compensate for the lower temps. .. I may need similar treatment, lol.

 

B, are you sure you got all the switches on / controllers active? Silly question I know - just might be worth another look @ the boiler / Boiler buddy, if applicable.

 

Also there is no wind. We have guardianship of our 10 yr old grandson, they delayed school 2 hrs because wind chills were supposed to be 10-20 below zero but we were just out waiting for the bus and it's cold but no wind.

When I was going to school in the 60's to early 70's we walked almost 2 miles in weather like this. Had to live 2 miles or more from the school to take the bus, we were 1.9 . No delayed openings, walked in rain, snow, heat yet somehow we survived.

sam

 

If your thermostat is old style,with contacts, you might consider jumping it and see. My Empire lp heaters have old style,and,if not used for a while,I turn them on and nothing except pilot. Usually all I have to to is remove the cover, make sure contacts are open,and blow on them. It only takes a minute amount of dust to cause no contact in a millivolt T/stat.

 

They still make contact type T'stats? Didn't know that. Even my cheap basic millivolt t'stats are electronic switched and the components are hermetically sealed.

 

I'm a 70's & 80's kid, it was much the same. Watched a program years ago that said the advent of better satellite technology/ w/ the personal "computer age" was the impetus of that change: better weather modeling / forecasting, etc. etc. .. Being an "Atari" and "Commodore 64" kid, it made sense at the time.
But I think our generation just decided they / their kids had "had enough" & weren't trudging thru the cold anymore.

No school delays in our area this am - apparently the 'powers-that-be' are "old school". Not a lot of activity on the road though this am - guessing many stayed home & warm today.
I just relented and got the electric space heater running in the laundry/mud room - it was "frosty" out there. ... No pipes freezing today. (One of these years I'll get a pellet stove out there.)

Back to the WFH thing: keeping the home fires burning ... Stay warm all.

 

Yikes! It's 7 *F over in Cornwall right now. ... Might be prudent to check those supply lines this afternoon.

 

They have a small set of contacts that open up when you turn/slide it to the OFF position. Not all do.

 

Mine don't. The switching is all in a hermetically sealed box.

 

I Don't Care.

 

Mine are both old school contacts-and work just fine without the condom

 

All great suggestions. gbreda - wasn't worried about the house warmth, plenty warm in here. Worried about the FHW pipes going thru the garage since it was already down to 37* in there and wasn't going to get warmer with a high of 10* I will have to get a larger electric heater for the garage because the teeny tiny ceramic heater I put out there couldn't really do the job.

31 years old. Put in a thermocouple a couple of years ago when the pilot wouldn't stay lit. Pilot light stays lit

I replaced my 1960 thermostat a year or two ago (I think the type you were talking about. However, I did redo the wiring just in case something had gone amiss or the wires / contacts corroded

Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner. The boiler settings were all fine, the thermostat was fine. I couldn't figure out why the Therm Guard did not light up when I turned it on (first clue that I had an issue, and why I rewired the stat to make sure).

So I called the local heating company that fixed my no pilot light issue a couple of years ago at 8am and left a message (all their lines were busy). At 10, they called and said they were 20 minutes out. AMAZING, since I figure no way they would get to me that day. Same pleasant young (to me) man came by, took off a few covers, checked the flame, then asked where the emergency shut off was. I looked up the stairway, and you guessed it, it was off . I never touch that switch so the only thing I can think of is that while I was doing work there over the last couple of weekends, one of the time I slid by the ladder, somehow clothing caught on it and flipped the switch. And, I had always assumed that the emergency switch would shut off the gas entirely, in which case I wouldn't have gotten the pilot light going. The guy explained what they really did (cut of the electricity to parts of the boiler which causes the boiler not to light).

I just started laughing at myself . Fortunately, mine wasn't the first bone-head call of the day. I mentioned I was just grateful that it wasn't a parts issue where I might have to wait. He replied that there were some parts that they literally had no lead times for. I went back to work, he stayed for 20-30 minutes to make sure that it was running fine and shut off when it hit temperature. I turned on the Therm Guard after he left, and voila, it lit up.

 

When you decide it's time to replace the boiler, these are the folks you want doing the install. * Glad it was an easy fix!

 

Exactly!!

We have been with the same heating co at work for 15 years.-Strogens Service Experts. They installed and have serviced both heating units as well as both ac units. On a yearly plan that includes annual cleaning and maintenance, so 2 maint visits for 2 units yearly.

They've been good up until last year or two.

Last summer they missed the ac service and that resulted in a billable service call for low refrigerant that would have been caught if they serviced the unit on time.

Let that one go as everyone has a hiccup now and then.

This winter they STILL have not shown up for the heating services. 4 missed appointments since October. They do not show, do not call and do not reschedule unless WE call them.

Escelated recently to managers and get the same "I'm so sorry you are not happy" bullsh it. We can get there in a month......finally went thru the roof with them. They still missed appointments.

Resorted to Yelp (first time ever but this company really sux now). They responded to the Yelp review, yet they STILL missed the appointment last week.

Updated the review on Monday and now they are going to be here tomorrow.... yeah, sure you will.

Let's see if they make it SIX missed appointments over a 2-3 month period.

 

Gino, that sucks - I remember when the Strogen's name was associated w/ quality. ... I don't think that Yelp review is going to improve chances of a service visit.

I wouldn't bother giving those clowns another call - sounds like they are screwing w/ their commercial customers, due to lack of techs/installers. * ( You are in the service biz, I know I'm "preaching to the choir" here. )

 

Yeah. They used to be a reliable company and I understand the tech shortage. Its the non-communication, unresponsive and lack of caring attitude that they have towards the customer now.

Yelp has at least got them in touch with us. Not a fan of this method but they brought it on themselves. I called several times on the billable call that was a result of their not showing for maintenence-never called us back.
Dont know if others in the area are any different but bogieb seems to have found a winner