Due for a cold snap, I reluctantly lit the pilot on the bedroom heater yesterday.
Excellent timing, too – it got down to the low-twenties overnight, and when I woke up the bedroom temperature was … 46o? Oh, for god’s sake…
I had the same problem early last winter, and found out the problem was with a bad connection in the cheap thermostat. Not going through this again. I could clean the contacts – again – and hope for the best, or go with Plan A:
Two is one, one is none, and they’re not expensive.
And now the bedroom heater works perfectly again. 🙂
Will the failed one get cleaned/fixed and become your backup?
If your main goal is to WAKE UP in a warm bedroom, then a programmable thermostat could save you serious bux, whilst you are lugging fewer heavy propane tanks.
You can use a dollar bill (any bill works), place the long edge between the contacts and, holding the contacts closed with a finger, drag the bill through the contacts. Cleans without abrading.
TBD. I haven’t thrown it away yet but I’m inclined to replace it. Depends on the prices I see. I can clean the male connectors easily enough but a permanent fix for the female ones would be harder to verify – especially since it’s then going to go into storage for probably years.
That whole waking up and seeing your breath thing, sucks. I’m glad that you have a quick fix to this issue and that the part wasn’t outrageously expensive.
Joel and The Recalcitrant Thermostats: Another Hardy Hermit Adventure!
Recently had to replace a programmable Honeywell home thermostat. My non-professional opinion is that they are cheap in more than one sense. The up side is the replacement interfaces with the Amazing Amazon Alexa, giving its mobility-impaired user remote voice control of all the functions. A one-legged hermit might find that handy. The down side is no voice control without the internet. Not ideal.