Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Trane XL 80 Repaired (at least for tonight)

Ok, another post from Tony. I know folks probably prefer Rett's ramblings but I thought I would share how the furnace was fixed tonight (are you excited???).

Tonight we noticed it was a frigid 60 degrees in the house. Everyone knows I am cheap and try not to use the furnace to save money. In fact, we had such a large credit on our gas bill from last year (we were on the budget plan, same amount every month) that we have yet to pay a gas bill this year and still have a small credit for next month too.

Well tonight it was stinkin' cold in the house. I bumped up the furnace during lunch today and Rett bumped it up again when she got home from work. The furnace was blowing cold air. Not a good thing when it is 25 degrees outside. After a thorough analysis of the situation (staring at the furnace not having a clue), Rett handed me the phone. Her dad was on the line. I told him the situation and he suggested that I check the manual, it was likely a thermocoupler.

Luckily, the previous homeowner left us with a folder full of manuals for everything from faucets to the furnace. There was no mention of a thermocoupler in the manual, bummer... The next step was ask.com. There were only a few posts on the highly efficient Trane XL 80 furnace/heat pump system. There were solutions to our problem covering all scenarios (circuit boards, sensors, shorted wires and etc...). I had about resorted to getting out some additional thermal socks when I found a post on a HVAC help site. A lady had written in and wanted to impress her husband with her knowledge about their furnace's problem. Her furnace had the same symptoms.

Some nice person posted a reply to her question. He said it was possibly the flame sensor (I assume the same thing as a thermocoupler with a different name). He said to take some sandpaper or steelwool and lightly sand the sensor.

I grabbed some sandpaper (from my dad's Black and Decker Mouse sander, what a cool little sander) and made about three swipes across the ceramic flame sensor. I put the cover back on the furnace and went back upstairs. I bumped up the temp on the thermostat and ran back downstairs...IT WAS WORKING!!!!!!!

As I type this, the furnace is still working. Even if it quits, at least I know what part needs to be replaced. So for those of you that check the blog and are tired of seeing the cool autoshow pictures, you now know how heat was restored to the household.

So, as you can tell, there has not been much going on if all I have to blog about is the glorious warm air from the furnace. Well, the exhaust did break on my Jeep Grand Cherokee...my dad was nice enough to come pick it up and repair it Saturday (I had the stomach flu and felt like I was dying). I would have blogged about that repair but I did not participate in the repair since most of my day was spent in the bathroom...but thank you to Dad for fixing the Jeep.

Well, I am sure you are thoroughly bored by now so I will sign off...Have a good (warm) day...

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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wasn't the thermocoupler what broke on Santa's sleigh in ELF? That was just my first thought. We Sadler girls think our Daddies can fix everything! Good for you for doing the repair! I am surprised that 60 is chilly for you guys. You and Richie are cut from the same cloth and he thinks that 63 is a very comfortable temp for the house. Maybe a comfortable temp for the wallet, not for my body, though. Good for you on fixing the furnace.

Tony and Rett said...

Actually I believe a thermocoupler is what Han Solo used to fix the Millenium Falcon. - Tony

Anonymous said...

Oh, my bad. Good for Han.

Josh and Cammie Delph said...

You can fix anything, can't you?! I'm impressed!

Anonymous said...

I love reading your writings on the blogs and you are like your Dad, of course you can fix it.
Kristy of course doesn't know this but you grew up in a home where the thermostat stayed around 65 (to save money). But we have electric heat and we use a wood burning stove that really helps to keep it warm.
Stay warm, love you, Mom

Anonymous said...

Thank you - you just saved me a service call. Luckily I found your repair suggestion before they arrived.

I took a scouring pad and sure enough it worked. The house is heating up again, after a cool night in Alberta.