Bad Cold Timing

Last night before we were to go out for our farewell dinner I noticed that the heating ducts were putting out cold air. I checked the furnace and sure enough the heating part was not working, although the blower was. A call to the furnace company with whom we have a contract and a promise to come out last night.

That was too good to be true. We go another call saying they could come first call in the morning between 8:30 and 10:30. I’m not sure if daylight savings time had anything to do with it, but the guy showed up at 10:45. The good news was he replaced the igniter, which got us warmth, but reported new needed all five burners replaced and he didn’t have them on his truck.

This particular furnace is ten years old. Furnaces should last at least fifteen years I am told. It is amazing how the engineers were so good at designing planned obsolescence that they could have all the burners go out at exactly the time.

Growing up we had a seventy year old furnace that was like the pet Spot, in the old TV show the Munsters that lived under the steps and breathed fire. Our furnace had its own room that housed the giant iron fire box where we could see the fire through a big window. It was so big that when my parents added on to our house they did not need to add another furnace because our iron Spot had extra capacity. Of course it burned oil at an unfriendly rate, but then again it never had to be replaced or rarely fixed. It just worked and worked.

Boy do I miss Spot. I have no idea how bad replacing five burners is going to be, but it can’t be good.