Life in a housewife’s day, never boring. We’ve been both blessed and spoiled by such a mild winter that all thought of our furnace had gone off to the recesses of my mind. It wasn’t until yesterday when there wasn’t any hot water to be had, that I realized that though the thermostat was turned all the way down, our hot water heater still needed some juice, oil juice to be exact. My bad, no worries, one simple phone call and the big bad oil truck comes to deliver. This morning I kept an ear out and boy were they stealthy, they came, they pumped and left. The only reason why I wanted to know when they were here, is because, it has been a while since I have bled a furnace. Since I know most of the servicemen, I figured that by politely asking, they would be amenable to bleeding it for me, besides the fact that I inadvertently lost our 3/8 wench last time the system needed bleeding, the service guy made off with my hubby’s wench, innocent mistake, but I have still to this day, forgotten to replace that wench. Since I missed the service guys, I had to bleed the furnace myself, I went through all of my hubby’s pliers and adjustable wenches and to no avail, the nut wouldn’t budge. The last man had done a brilliant job tightening that nut, lovely. Part of the reason that I love living in a small town is that you can call on your neighbors for a favor, which is what I did. Instead of going across the street asking for a cup of sugar, I asked to borrow a 3/8 wench, which our neighbor was only too happy to lend me. Armed with the appropriate sized wench, off I went to service our furnace. Bleeding a furnace is quite easy, you locate the nipple, put the wench to it and turn it counter clockwise, you are essentially opening up the stream to let out all the air bubbles. Once it stops sputtering and oil comes out cleanly, you turn the wench clockwise to close it up. This takes about a minute. Theoretically all you need to do to start the furnace back up is press the rest button. I did that and the furnace started but didn’t quite take. I had to wrack my brain, shake the cobwebs clear and think back to what additional steps needed to be taken when this happens. It took me a few minutes but I vaguely remembered that I needed to push the button, keep it compressed until amber and red lights started flashing and then count to 60 until the amber light stays steady. So that is what I did and it worked. I know that bragging isn’t attractive but I don’t think that I am bragging. I’m happy that I can bleed a furnace, it makes me feel independent and capable. Like I said, it isn’t very hard but it is not something that you learn at school. I learned how to do it over the phone one night long ago. Back then I didn’t realize that just because the oil truck came you were going to have heat. First and foremost you need to get rid of those pesky air bubbles. So it was late that night that I was on the phone in the basement sitting next to the furnace and the nice man walked me though the entire procedure and waited to make sure that I did it correctly. When I did it on the first try, he even offered me a job. He was really nice.
Handy woman
22 Tuesday May 2012
Posted in postaday, postaday2012
laurieanichols 