Early in November, I called my furnace guy to come out and do my annual tune and clean on my oil furnace (Beckett burner). While he was here, I mentioned that last winter, I had to press the reset a couple times on the Honeywell controller. He took a look around and couldn't say why, with the comment of "if the wind blows hard, it could disturb the flame and trip the sensor." The next day, it was dead calm out and I couldn't get the controller to reset...I'd get about 30 seconds of flame, then it would trip. 15 minutes later I would try it again with the same results.
So, I called the furnace guy back. While he was there, it of course worked perfectly. He didn't really have an answer, so I asked him if the controller could be bad. He said maybe. I said go ahead and replace it anyway (less than $100). He didn't have one in inventory so he had to order it.
Four weeks later and two blown-off appointments to replace the controller (no call, no show), I order the controller myself.
This afternoon, the controller arrived and I immediately went downstairs to install it. Two mounting screws, three wire nuts and four screw terminals is pretty much easy enough for even Skurka to handle.
While installing the new controller, I am pretty sure I found the root cause of the problem! For all the "troubleshooting" the furnace guy did, he sure must have been blind to miss the old and cracked wires with their insulation falling off! Thankfully, after trimming back more of the rubber jacketing, there was still good wire that I could use.
Needless to say, I will not be calling that particular service company again (and I have used him before, as well as many of my neighbors have!)
So, I called the furnace guy back. While he was there, it of course worked perfectly. He didn't really have an answer, so I asked him if the controller could be bad. He said maybe. I said go ahead and replace it anyway (less than $100). He didn't have one in inventory so he had to order it.
Four weeks later and two blown-off appointments to replace the controller (no call, no show), I order the controller myself.
This afternoon, the controller arrived and I immediately went downstairs to install it. Two mounting screws, three wire nuts and four screw terminals is pretty much easy enough for even Skurka to handle.
While installing the new controller, I am pretty sure I found the root cause of the problem! For all the "troubleshooting" the furnace guy did, he sure must have been blind to miss the old and cracked wires with their insulation falling off! Thankfully, after trimming back more of the rubber jacketing, there was still good wire that I could use.
Needless to say, I will not be calling that particular service company again (and I have used him before, as well as many of my neighbors have!)
