So... over the last few days my furnace (which gets it's heat from the hot water heater) sprung a leak.

At first it was just a slow drip that we could stop by putting towels around the furnace, and replacing every few hours.

Well the leak steadily increased, causing the carpet of my finished basement to be soaked in a six foot semi-circle away from the furnace.

We would keep putting towels down- but within an hour they would be soaked, allowing the carpet to become worse each time.

When we would wake up in the morning (or come home from work) there would literally be a puddle in the carpet.

On Monday afternoon, we had a service guy come in to look at it. He said that the main coil had burst a leak, and would have to be replaced. They cost about $1000.

He said another option would be to replace the entire furnace, and rent it instead of buying it. That way it would always be covered should anything go wrong again. He left unable to do anything about it.

Last night we took the cover off, and removed the filter. There was about 5 inches of water (probably about 6 gallons) in the bottom of the furnace that I had to bail out. The damn thing was still leaking like a broken faucet, and we couldn't replace the towels fast enough to keep the carpet from being wrecked.

This morning I turned off the water taps to the furnace, stopping the leak.

It also means I have no heat in my house.

So today an adjustor came to look at it, assess the damage and suggest what to do.

She said that in order to replace the entire furnace, they would have to tear down our finished ceiling in the basement to redo the vents. The furnace would also take 4 to 6 weeks to arrive as they are imported from Texas. Meaning no heat all this time.

All of that meant nothing as my wife and I are unwilling to have the ceiling torn apart.

So our only option would be to replace the part itself.

We don't have $1000 to spare. We don't have $100 to spare.

F--K!

Our only option will be to put it on credit, which we are paying hundreds of dollars a month to anyway.

She is supposed to call us back to let us know if the replacement part is in stock. If it is, they can fix the furnace Wednesday.

If not, it will be 4 to 6 weeks for the part to arrive.

DOUBLE F--K!!!

My nerves are shattered enough as it is.

Thank you for your time.

Good day.

Kevin

[img]http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0TgDnAloXyJBkYBZV7s*Kj9!1Bc8b0FJ!WEmX8BpHJk8yRyABH697OsLy1Bm1knQrHcDDdHqDnRAmyoDB6vy6w!ASmCM57J8W6cyCxY8Y84TWwwCw7UVNAA/Burton%20004.JPG[/img]

"I know I'm human. And if you were all these things, then you'd just attack me right now, so some of you are still human. This thing doesn't want to show itself, it wants to hide inside an imitation. If it takes us over, then it has no more enemies, nobody left to kill it. And then it's won."

Edited by: [url=http://p220.ezboard.com/bthealienslegacy.showUserPublicProfile?gid=ssgtburton>SSgt Burton[/url]  at: 2/20/07 10:16 am

Hey Sarge

If you have a PayPal account I'd like to contribute a few dollars toward the repair.

Just in the spirit of the USCM brotherhood.
Mike

<span style="font-family:times new roman;font-size:x-small;]"We're not heroes - we're from Finchley"

2nded.

...in the spirit of inter-species brotherhood!

Guys,

I truly, truly thank you for your generosity. I kinda half expected this knowing the true spirit of this community.

I meant this as a rant thread to get it off my chest more than anything else (just looking for some moral support).

I would not be able accept your offers with a clear conscience. My wife and I will simple have to tighten our belts for the time being. We will get through this. This is just a big bump in the road, and by no means the end of the line.

Once again- many many thanks for the offers!

Kevin

[img]http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0TgDnAloXyJBkYBZV7s*Kj9!1Bc8b0FJ!WEmX8BpHJk8yRyABH697OsLy1Bm1knQrHcDDdHqDnRAmyoDB6vy6w!ASmCM57J8W6cyCxY8Y84TWwwCw7UVNAA/Burton%20004.JPG[/img]

"I know I'm human. And if you were all these things, then you'd just attack me right now, so some of you are still human. This thing doesn't want to show itself, it wants to hide inside an imitation. If it takes us over, then it has no more enemies, nobody left to kill it. And then it's won."

Edited by: [url=http://p220.ezboard.com/bthealienslegacy.showUserPublicProfile?gid=ssgtburton>SSgt Burton[/url]  at: 2/20/07 11:21 am

Kevin,

I wish you well in your "angst". I am sure as things pass you will be able to find a meaning in all of this. I lost a lot of personal and valuable things to a flood in my home last year because of a broken water line (I was away for 5 days) It was a horrible lost for me, but I managed to get through OK, as I am sure you will as well.

Keep your chin up Brother!

Can you get the broken coil welded up?

As this would be a lot cheaper and faster than getting a new one or replacing the whole thing.

I guess the coil is made of Brass so you can sliver soilder it up.
If made of steel you can have it M.I.G or T.I.G.

Cheer's DATA

Funds standing by Sarge. We can't have top getting cold.
We also know you'd do the same for us.

I concur with Data. Any chance of a repair to the coil?
[img]http://www.colonialmarines.net/Banner.jpg[/img]

I'll have to look into this. It's made of brass. Thanks for the suggestion- it never really occured to me.

The house isn't as cold as I believed it would get- were at about 17C (or 63F ). If worse comes to worse- we figure we could turn it on for an hour, deal with the leak, and turn it off once a day to heat the house.

The adjustor was supposed to call us back today, but never did. Needless to say I will not be pleasent on the phone tomorrow!

Kevin

[img]http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0TgDnAloXyJBkYBZV7s*Kj9!1Bc8b0FJ!WEmX8BpHJk8yRyABH697OsLy1Bm1knQrHcDDdHqDnRAmyoDB6vy6w!ASmCM57J8W6cyCxY8Y84TWwwCw7UVNAA/Burton%20004.JPG[/img]

"I know I'm human. And if you were all these things, then you'd just attack me right now, so some of you are still human. This thing doesn't want to show itself, it wants to hide inside an imitation. If it takes us over, then it has no more enemies, nobody left to kill it. And then it's won."

Hey Kev
Man that really sucks
Sorry to hear about the bad news.
Scott

Thanks Scott.

I turned the heat back on this morning as my house was less than 15C (59F). I'm waiting to see how long it will take before the leak begins to pour out the front of the furnace like before.

I'm also going to raise holy hell on the phone in a couple of hours.

Kevin

[img]http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0TgDnAloXyJBkYBZV7s*Kj9!1Bc8b0FJ!WEmX8BpHJk8yRyABH697OsLy1Bm1knQrHcDDdHqDnRAmyoDB6vy6w!ASmCM57J8W6cyCxY8Y84TWwwCw7UVNAA/Burton%20004.JPG[/img]

"I know I'm human. And if you were all these things, then you'd just attack me right now, so some of you are still human. This thing doesn't want to show itself, it wants to hide inside an imitation. If it takes us over, then it has no more enemies, nobody left to kill it. And then it's won."

Sorry to hear, Kev. Will your house insurance kick in? I mean if the furnace went and did in all your downstairs carpets, wouldn't the insurance company sort this out?

Mike
A06/TQ0.0.22134E1
There is nothing more impressive than a bloody big Alien
wiggling on the end of a sharp stick!

Come on guys...work party !!
We can redo Kevins whole basement in a day !
Scott

Remember when the Lt said, " collect mags, we can't have any firing in there...blah...blah..."?

Sorry to hear Kev.

What are you doing with a gun in space?

Thanks again guys!

We are looking into the house insurance about the ruined carpet (it now smells like a wet dog ).

I got ahold of the adjustor- she said that the part we need is out of stock (and the impression she was giving me is that my model of furnace has been discontinued ).

Anyway they are looking into getting me a compatible replacement part.

The (semi) good news is that I can run the furnace for a couple of hours before it starts leaking like the Titanic- the house will be relatively warm at least.


Kevin

[img]http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0TgDnAloXyJBkYBZV7s*Kj9!1Bc8b0FJ!WEmX8BpHJk8yRyABH697OsLy1Bm1knQrHcDDdHqDnRAmyoDB6vy6w!ASmCM57J8W6cyCxY8Y84TWwwCw7UVNAA/Burton%20004.JPG[/img]

"I know I'm human. And if you were all these things, then you'd just attack me right now, so some of you are still human. This thing doesn't want to show itself, it wants to hide inside an imitation. If it takes us over, then it has no more enemies, nobody left to kill it. And then it's won."

I am glad that I could be of help on this matter.

Due to the fact it is brass it is very easy to fix. Sliver soilder is very easy to do and all you need is the rods and a blow torch. Use a wire brush or wire pad to clean the area. Heat up the area with the hole and add the sliver soilder on until the hole is gone.

Bob's your uncle.

I drilled a 1/8" hole in my brass barrle for my TM M1A1 wrong and had it sliver soilder up. It takes about 10 seconds to do and the guy charge me £5 or $2.6.

Plus you could do it in your house.

Cheer's Steven AKA DATA

Here's the latest:

Good news: they were able to locate a compatible replacement part that they can install within 5 days.

Bad news... it will cost $1600.00. (As much as I would like to soilder it myself- I've never done anything like this before, and the wife would never trust me with a blowtorch ).

Fortunately they have installment financing for any repair cost over $500.00. They still have to call us back about how the payments will work.

The house insurance is going to completely take care of the carpet! New carpet- no charge!

Kevin

[img]http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0TgDnAloXyJBkYBZV7s*Kj9!1Bc8b0FJ!WEmX8BpHJk8yRyABH697OsLy1Bm1knQrHcDDdHqDnRAmyoDB6vy6w!ASmCM57J8W6cyCxY8Y84TWwwCw7UVNAA/Burton%20004.JPG[/img]

"I know I'm human. And if you were all these things, then you'd just attack me right now, so some of you are still human. This thing doesn't want to show itself, it wants to hide inside an imitation. If it takes us over, then it has no more enemies, nobody left to kill it. And then it's won."

Edited by: [url=http://p220.ezboard.com/bthealienslegacy.showUserPublicProfile?gid=ssgtburton>SSgt Burton[/url]  at: 2/21/07 8:49 pm

Awesome news Kev.
Not perfect, but hey.....could be a lot worse.

Just be careful with financing........easy to get too many iems financed and be overwhelmed. But we all know you can handle it

Keep warm!!
[img]http://www.colonialmarines.net/Banner.jpg[/img]

I think that picture of you in your WoK uniform screaming "Khaaaaan" would be appropriate right about now.
Replace "KHAAAAAN" with "WATER HEATERRRRRRRR!".

Sounds like things will be back in order soon enough, and you and the missus will be laughing about it all in....10, 20 years?

Hang in there!
"How lucky are the few who know where they belong."

Hang in there Kev. You have one of the best attitudes around man I know you can handle it. But know we're thinkin' of you too.
Chris

<span style="color:orange;font-size:large;]"Long live the fighters!"

Kevin my friend!

I haven't been on the forum for eons it seems (only 3 months or so actually -- but it still seems like forever), but I wish I had seen your thread earlier. I am so sorry to hear of your situation, and can completely relate to nearly every aspect.

As far as my 58 year old oil furnace goes... been there, fixed that:

- Over Christmas vacation the blower motor vibrates loose only to spin violently and thus shorting the electrical wires on the frame blowing out the last of my nearly obsolete fuses. Suffered with only radiant heat for a full day and a half before finally finding replacement fuses, and remounting & rewiring the motor.

- Furnace runs out of fuel in the dead of winter and won't kick back in even after getting the tank refilled with 10 gallons of diesel from a gas station from up the street. Priming the pump fails. Ultimately it turns out that crud floating on the top of the oil in the tank clogged up the oil filter. Again, another hunt and search for a suitable replacement part -- this time an archaic oil filter. Two full days without heat before finally locating one and replacing it. Reprimed and the furnace kicked right in. That was the best sound ever! Brrrrrr!

* And the biggie....

- Oil tank in basement bursts (yes... bursts) and two-thirds of my partially finished basement is flooded with an inch or two of heating oil while I was out of state at a conference for work. Had my brother turn off the natural gas main to my house so that all of the pilot lights in my house would go out -- didn't want the water heater pilot or stove pilots to ignite an explosion because of the oil/gas fumes that were now filling my house. Forced to take an early flight home to deal with the nightmare. Personal property damage was far too much to list here... including a few rare collectibles. Had my insurance company stop by to assess the damages and claimed that the tank did not 'burst' (as covered in my policy), but 'slowly leaked' (as conveniently not covered under my policy)... but that is yet another nightmare of a story that I may save for another time -- perhaps over a beer at DC*07.

Every one of these situations had to be resolved with nothing more than about $50 in my pocket, and no assistance, support or guidance to speak of.

As far as your leaky coil solution... if you think you can locate the actual leak where you can try to plug it, here are a couple possible options for a quick and cheap fix.

My situation was unique because I had to basically find something that could stop a gasoline leak while actively leaking. My local auto parts store had this two-part epoxy clay/putty which was specifically designed for gasoline tank leaks. It worked perfectly!

During my search for this product, I remember coming across a similar epoxy/resin which would seal water leaks while they were actively leaking -- like for a swimming pool or a boat. Same principal as what I used, but it wasn't designed for gasoline or solvents. I saw it at either ACE Hardware or U.S. Boats since those were two of my stops while searching for a fix. It surely beats some of the alternatives -- but I would only do this temporarily until you could save up to get it fixed right.

Regardless of what you end up doing, please let me know if there is anything I can do to help... other than my moral support.

Go get 'em Kev!

Rick "Ripstick"

[img]http://www.ripstick.com/USCM/images/Ripstick_Aliens_Legacy_Banner_2006.jpg[/img]

Rick- that oil leak sounds like it was a complete nightmare!

As for self repair- first I thank you all for the advice, but let me put this into perspective as to what I am up against:

[img]http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y282/ssgtburton/Furnace001.jpg[/img]

This is the main panel removed- the arrow points to the heating coil. The leak is somewhere in the back. Unfortunately I can't even see the leak itself let alone attempt to plug it.

[img]http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y282/ssgtburton/Furnace002.jpg[/img]

And here is the bottom- the blue arrow is the level of water right now (this is after completely draining and mopping out the water and running the furnace for about an hour). The red line is how high it has reached unchecked.

The service department is jerking me around- they were supposed to call about the financing, they haven't. At least I have partial heat (aside from my blood boiling ). Time to raise hell again.

Once again thanks for the replies everyone!

Kevin

[img]http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0TgDnAloXyJBkYBZV7s*Kj9!1Bc8b0FJ!WEmX8BpHJk8yRyABH697OsLy1Bm1knQrHcDDdHqDnRAmyoDB6vy6w!ASmCM57J8W6cyCxY8Y84TWwwCw7UVNAA/Burton%20004.JPG[/img]

"I know I'm human. And if you were all these things, then you'd just attack me right now, so some of you are still human. This thing doesn't want to show itself, it wants to hide inside an imitation. If it takes us over, then it has no more enemies, nobody left to kill it. And then it's won."

Ah ha! ...and, ohhhhhh!

Thanks for the visuals... I was not invisioning the coil looking quite like that. However, those coils and all of the piping look like copper -- so I'm assuming all of the joints are sweat-soldered. Perhaps its just the mechanic in me, but I'd be kind of itching to see if I could disconnect and remove that coil unit (since it will most likely need to be pulled when the calvalry arrives anyways). If it is just a leaky solder joint (as I would be assuming at this point), it will be quite obvious to recognize once opened up for inspection. It will appear 'dirtier' than the other joints and should have white encrusted calcium built up around the point of the leak. Completely clean the joint up with a metal wire brush (usually included in any cheap soldering kit), wipe clean with a solvent like acetone -- let dry, apply heat to the joint with a MAPP gas torch (MAPP gas burns hotter than Propane), and apply a new sweat-solder bead to the joint. I never realized how easy connecting copper pipe was until I redid my entire bathroom plumbing for my water feeds a couple years back -- sweat-soldering copper is awesome. When heating the joint, you actually apply the heat above the joint -- meaning for example, where the copper pipe is within the elbow or coupler. This way, what happens is that the solder is drawn to the heat and gets sucked into all the little cracks of the actual joint. Here, you can actually cause solder to defy gravity and flow upward and into a joint.

Anyhow, now I'm probably rambling on...

If you do decide to get adventurous, I'm sure you can do a search on Google to get a clearer understanding of what I'm talking about if you don't already know.

Of course I could be completely wrong and actually there is some sort of internal core made of brass that has cracked and needs to be repaired. If that's the case, well... that's going to require brazing, and another $1.00 for the next 3 minutes.

Again, good luck with everything -- we're all thinking of you and sending good vibes your way!
Rick "Ripstick"

[img]http://www.ripstick.com/USCM/images/Ripstick_Aliens_Legacy_Banner_2006.jpg[/img]

More news---

We were supposed to hear back from the service department last Friday as to how financing would go for this ultra expensive part. They never called us back.

So today my wife called them from work. Apparently there was a "mis-communication" between the adjustor and the service department- they believed we were not going to repair the furnace and closed our work order.

So the part was never ordered. It will take five more days to order it. Which means it won't be fixed until next week.




<span style="font-size:xx-large;]AAAAHHHH!!!!!

[img]http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y282/ssgtburton/SSgtBurton505.jpg[/img]

<span style="font-size:xx-large;]I'LL KILL THEM ALL!!!


*sigh*

Kevin

[img]http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0TgDnAloXyJBkYBZV7s*Kj9!1Bc8b0FJ!WEmX8BpHJk8yRyABH697OsLy1Bm1knQrHcDDdHqDnRAmyoDB6vy6w!ASmCM57J8W6cyCxY8Y84TWwwCw7UVNAA/Burton%20004.JPG[/img]

"I know I'm human. And if you were all these things, then you'd just attack me right now, so some of you are still human. This thing doesn't want to show itself, it wants to hide inside an imitation. If it takes us over, then it has no more enemies, nobody left to kill it. And then it's won."

...and I'llllllllll help!!!

Hang in there Kev - please!!!!!
[img]http://www.colonialmarines.net/Banner.jpg[/img]

Well...

As unbelievably annoying as this is- it could be much worse with no heat at all.

So my daily routine has become:

Wake up freezing in a house at less than 58F.

Turn on the furnace.

An hour later- turn off the furnace and bail out the water (the house usually makes it up to 64F by now).

Go to work. Come home to a freezing house (we can't leave the furnace running as it will leak until the carpet is soaked again).

Turn on the furnace for a couple of hours (getting the house up to -hopefully- 69 or 70F). Bail it out. Repeat until bedtime.

Kevin

[img]http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0TgDnAloXyJBkYBZV7s*Kj9!1Bc8b0FJ!WEmX8BpHJk8yRyABH697OsLy1Bm1knQrHcDDdHqDnRAmyoDB6vy6w!ASmCM57J8W6cyCxY8Y84TWwwCw7UVNAA/Burton%20004.JPG[/img]

"I know I'm human. And if you were all these things, then you'd just attack me right now, so some of you are still human. This thing doesn't want to show itself, it wants to hide inside an imitation. If it takes us over, then it has no more enemies, nobody left to kill it. And then it's won."

Edited by: [url=http://p220.ezboard.com/bthealienslegacy.showUserPublicProfile?gid=ssgtburton>SSgt Burton[/url]  at: 2/27/07 7:36 am