Time to light this thing up.
Mind you, once the cold moves in permanently the bedroom heater is my bestest friend. But for the next six weeks or two months it’ll only get cold at night, and not every night, which just makes it a propane suck. Plus, traditionally it’s a bitch to light first thing in the season.
I think this is the first time since I installed it in 2017 that the pilot lit right up. I wondered if that would be the case, because this is also the first year where the pipe was pressurized all through the hot season. Finally got the plumbing to the point where it didn’t need some sort of tinkering.
Also, last autumn I had to evict a mother and babies from the firebox, and then painstakingly remove a whole bunch of mouse nest. This time I put a screen over the outside vent, and that successfully kept mice out.
In fact the closest thing to a problem…
…was remembering how to work the thermostat. 🙂 So no problems.
Except right now I’m letting it run to burn off all the accumulated dust, and it’s stinking up the cabin. But that won’t last, and it’s a one-time thing.
Have you ever changed the battery in that thermostat?
I guess this means you’re hip deep in the winter preps now. That accumulated dust stink is something I’ve always disliked. My workaround is to get the service work done before it gets too cold and open the windows to air the small out.
Ben read my mind – our thermostat burned out the battery and we thought the A/C had gone on the fritz. A replaced battery – done.
I had a hell of a time getting the heater to work in a small building until I started to leave the line pressurized all summer. That turned a 1 hour task (hold the damned button to force the pilot gas to flow, and click) into a couple of minutes.
Protip: If the propane line is long (my case, maybe 12′), the pilot can take a long time to light when the line’s been pressurized. OTOH, another building has a 5′ line. No problems, though that pilot is a lot more energetic. Heats the pumphouse (8 x 12′, heavily insulated) without much help from the main burner until it gets really cold.