Never have I been so happy to have an appliance fail me.
Last December I had a problem with the bedroom heater, which (after over ten years without overnight heat) I love beyond measure. It just wasn’t reliable anymore for some reason. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t. Turned out the reason was really simple, and after I found and (very simply) fixed the problem I had no more problem all the rest of the winter.
For the past couple of weeks the heater has barely run at all. I’m wasting propane on the pilot light. All this past week I’ve considered putting it to bed for the warm season but I figured there was probably at least a few frosty nights yet to come. And I was right: Got down to 25 overnight, and I woke to an unusually chilly world outside the blankets. Not super cold (probably should have gone ahead and shut off the heater, really) but cold enough that the heater should have been running. Sat up and looked at the thermostat…
…and yeah, the heater should have been running. And it wasn’t. Huh.
Rather than break my heart trying to figure out what was wrong with the perfectly-functioning heater, this time I just took hold of the two sides of the clamshell-like thermostat and gave it a shake. And the heater immediately lit right up. It is properly snapped together this time, so it’s probably some corrosion in the connections. And I have a perfectly good spare.
So I’ve made a note to replace the unit in the autumn, and call the whole thing good.
I suppose that most of us read Joel’s blog at least partially out of a longing for a simple life, and what could be simpler than life in a homebuilt off-grid desert cabin? Yet it’s ironic that he has many of the same technological challenges that the rest of us face daily! 😀
Yep. A hermits life is different now. All that technology to keep from freezing.
Damned right. And loving it. 😀
In defense of the modern hermitting profession, though, let it be said that I had a helluva technological hill to climb right at the beginning with such things as solar power. Jeremiah Johnson didn’t have problems like that. 😀
On the upside, you don’t have any Injuns gunning for your scalp (at least not that you’ve shared). So you’ve got that going for you. Which is nice.
🙂
Jabrwok, no roving bands of wild Indians perhaps, but Joel has mentioned at least one possibility dangerous neighbor.
A bit of CAIG DeOxit (or other contact cleaner) on those connectors will likely put an end to those issues, at least for another year or 3. I need to treat mine every few years when it fails that way.