Posted By: Dana I
I broke down and called for help - 01/15/22 01:52 AM
8:30 at night with temps in the single digits and dropping. My heat died. I have a outdoor wood boiler with forced air in the house my blower died so I have lots of heat but can't get it out of the water and into the house. Normally I would dig into something like this and fix it myself but with temps like this and all the parts stores closed till morning I broke down and called in the pros. Hopefully they can get me up and running.
Posted By: KeithC
Re: I broke down and called for help - 01/15/22 02:01 AM
Sometimes that's the best call.
Once in similar temperatures, in the middle of the night, I had to run to the store and buy a propane heater, can and propane.
Keith
Posted By: EdP
Re: I broke down and called for help - 01/15/22 02:06 AM
That is why my wood burner is in the house, free standing on the hearth, no electricity required. On a loss of power we have a gas stove, gas logs, propane tank, free standing Jotul wood burner, and kerosene lanterns. Pipes will not freeze, house will be comfortable, food will be cooked, but we might be inclined to go to bed a bit early. I can live with that!
Posted By: Dana I
Re: I broke down and called for help - 01/15/22 02:10 AM
Sometimes that's the best call.
Once in similar temperatures, in the middle of the night, I had to run to the store and buy a propane heater, can and propane.
Keith
I was just doing some inter web searching for vent free gas heaters just in case it comes to that. I have nat gas in the house and a extra hookup as we just moved our cloths dryer into the new addition that we just completed on the house. I could hook a heater up to the gas line where the dryer used to be. But it seems as though it may not even be possible to find one of those till morning.
Posted By: Team V
Re: I broke down and called for help - 01/15/22 03:05 AM
Take dryer vent off wall and crank it up it will heat a lot of space . My out door furnace pump went out at 50 below on a Saturday and dryer and stove kept house warm till Monday .
Posted By: KeithC
Re: I broke down and called for help - 01/15/22 03:55 AM
I hate the smell of kerosene, but the important thing is to keep your pipes from freezing.
I hope it's a cheap and easy fix on your wood boiler.
Keith
Posted By: Camohoyt340
Re: I broke down and called for help - 01/15/22 04:08 AM
That sucks. We are currently at 6° Here. I’d recommend getting a secondary heat source as soon as possible. It’s not a bad idea to have two methods to heat your house. We have an lp furnace that only gets used when we aren’t home. When we are home, the big ol’ woodstove takes over. Just a month ago we were without power for three days. We were toasty warm. If it’s just the blower not working, there are not very many things that could cause it. Wish you the best of luck.
Posted By: Dana I
Re: I broke down and called for help - 01/15/22 04:51 AM
Well no luck on getting it fixed tonight. Needs a new motor and it is a unusual size. Smaller than those used today so they don't have one. So I spent the last hour cleaning the stove pipe from my old wood stove in the living room. It has not seen a fire in 15 years.
Posted By: Camohoyt340
Re: I broke down and called for help - 01/15/22 07:06 AM
Be safe. Glad to hear that you won’t be cold.
Posted By: Bryan Daigle
Re: I broke down and called for help - 01/15/22 02:08 PM
Peace of mind is what you would have if you had a back up blower for that unit. We live we learn. An amount of money sitting there but well worth it.
Posted By: 330-Trapper
Re: I broke down and called for help - 01/15/22 03:02 PM
I hope you're warm and sleeping in late.
Posted By: Trapset
Re: I broke down and called for help - 01/15/22 03:38 PM
You had a wood stove in the LR the whole time? I thought this was an emergency! Lol
I would get a vent free NG hooked up where your dryer was for a back up as well. Would also work great just to take chill off when you don’t want to fire up boiler or wood stove.
Posted By: Law Dog
Re: I broke down and called for help - 01/15/22 03:54 PM
I still have a kerosene heater for emergencies plus a LP stove my boiler heats the house without the blower when the temps are in the 40s.
Makes you wonder what people in NY and NJ are going to do when the power goes out and they were forced to go to electric heat only.
Posted By: Dana I
Re: I broke down and called for help - 01/15/22 04:51 PM
You had a wood stove in the LR the whole time? I thought this was an emergency! Lol
I would get a vent free NG hooked up where your dryer was for a back up as well. Would also work great just to take chill off when you don’t want to fire up boiler or wood stove.
Yeah I did exactly that. Got the old stove going last night. It's not big enough to heat the house unless you are right there to keep feeding it constantly and keeping going at it's max. But it managed to keep it from getting any colder overnight. Went down and got a vent free as soon as the store opened up and installed it where the dryer used to be and managed to source a new motor this morning.
Now have to feed cows before I can work on it anymore. Takes about 7 to 8 hours. Had 3 hrs of sleep
Posted By: Posco
Re: I broke down and called for help - 01/15/22 05:25 PM
You have forced hot air in your house? Like a Thermo Pride? If that's the case, you can remove the blower motor and use a fan to distribute air until you can get a technician there. Those motors are pretty simple to replace, the only thing you need to be mindful of is the rotation direction. The rotation is reversible by swapping wire placement on the terminals.
Posted By: trapdye
Re: I broke down and called for help - 01/15/22 07:21 PM
Never fail's, Had the power vent go out at two in the morning & twelve degrees last year
