So, anyway, a few weeks ago, right before Christmas, my furnace started acting up, and at the time we were having record low temps.

I knew my heat and air guy would be swamped, so I watched some YouTube videos and babied it.

Later when I called my heating guy, he told me that my furnace problem had to be the control panel, and it was 200-300 bucks.

He was supposed to stop by, never called back, and his voicemail is full now, and I rode by the other day, and his work trucks are parked, so pretty sure he died, and that is sad, I liked that dude, I have had other estimates in the past, and he was always a lot lower price, and very friendly.

Anyway, I bought the part myself, cost 113 bucks, and was way more complicated than what I wanted to deal with, with all the wires, and some were different colors and easy, but way too many were white, or black, so had to change one at a time.

In reality, took 2 hours at the most, after I drove to get the part, and worked perfect for a week, now messing up again.

Anyway, I learned that I can just buy parts for a furnace, for my house and rental houses, and even if it was the wrong part and I need something else, my furnaces can have all new parts, for less than free, from the labor charges companies charge.

And I am about to get organized I hope, for dealing with water heaters.

I thought mine had gone out, but the leak is in a solder joint right above it, and the water heater itself should be fine.

A friend is going to stop by and take care of that, and I plan, and hope, they will go with me to Lowes, to get everything I need when I do need to replace a water heater, because my plumber is way too high with that stuff.

Once I have everything I need in a bag, I can figure out where it goes.

I am really good at anything that has to do with PVC pipe, and other pipes, but I have never messed with copper pipe, I know it is easy now, just not sure what all I need, so far, I have never been down that isle at the store.

Hell, over half the battle is learning what you need in the first place.

Not looking to make any money off stuff I am trying to learn, because just like changing the furnace control panel that I did not enjoy at all, I am just trying to save myself money now.

Always something. Water heater is a priority now, but furnace also needs more attention, and now I also have a chainsaw that is acting like it is out of gas when the tank is full, then reeves right back up, and cycles back and forth to doing good, or almost going dead.

At least my radio station is back on the air now, 99x, I always have it on while I on here at night having a few beers. It suddenly went away back in 2008, and radio for me here just sucked. Now all good again!

I hope all of you have a great weekend, and any advice about working on anything is appreciated!

As far as the furnace goes, cleaning the flame sensor next, although in the past, that problem acted differently.

Clean the carburetor.

X2 for cleaning the carb, then make sure you use only 89 octane or higher, use a synthetic 2 stroke oil with an included fuel stabilizer (Husky and Stihl make good ones), only mix what you’re going to use in a reasonable time, run the saw empty and store it empty.

Thanks for the advice!

TZ shipping to Windsor?!

When you're done getting organized, come visit the idiots in the Boob thread. We miss you.

I thought we had drained that thread?

Hell, I have been very busy, when things calm down I will stop by.

You have really opened up your life here, more than most. That means I feel like I know you, or at least, more about your life than a lot of people in my life locally. Sorry, if you felt slighted, but we all "love" you man. Don't take that the wrong way.

Nothing at all like that.

When beelzeboob posted about draining the tread, I went with it as a joke. Read my last post there, I said something along the lines of may as well drain the tread, now that 99x is back on the air.

The truth is I have been very busy lately, and I still am very busy.

I have only been posting a little anywhere here, just to stay active here. (In case any achievement points for certain number of days posting).

Anyway, I have 99x on now, and I am about to go over there and catch up on upvotes, but doubt I will post anything tonight, I do not need to get wound up and stay up too late.

Ditto. I love all of you also.

What is that? What do the water panel filters go in?

Those filters look like a virus waiting to put you in the hospital.

I have a de-humidifier, and I have to clean the air filter every now and then.

So just making sure there is not something I have never done, and mine would look way worse.

I have a few air filters to take care of, but as far as I know no water filters.

I really need to check the HVAC filter at a rental house that I take care of.

About 3 years ago I was going to replace it, had already been 3 years because I had forgot about it, and it still looked brand new, and I didn't change it.

I try to remember to check my HVAC filter at my house every 6 months, and sometimes they look fine for 2 years, and sometimes need to be changed after 6 months.

As far as air filters go, I wish they all were like one chainsaw that I have. It will idle bad and act up and let you know big time to clean the filter.

Right now, I am lucky that my main problem is a pinball machine flipper messing up, I have been PMing EJS about it, it is weird, works fine at first.

Well, actually that is my 2nd main problem, with the main problem being my furnace. It wakes me up messing up, and it has been several weeks since I had a good night's sleep.

My HVAC guy that I have used for years was supposed to take care of it, but then all of a sudden, he did not show, and all calls go to voicemail, and it is full.

His work vans have not moved in a while, and I thought he must have had a heart attack or something and died, but nothing in the obituaries, my girlfriend has been looking, she knew him.

Best I can tell is he won a lottery and disappeared. I hope that is what happened anyway, he was very likeable, and very fair with his prices.

In the meantime, I replaced the HVAC control panel myself, what he said the problem was, and worked perfect for 6 days, and now messing up again.

Confess the main reason I have not been posting much lately, is lack of sleep because of the HVAC system, and trying to deal with it myself, and save some money, until I find another reasonable HVAC company.

A while back a storm knocked a tree down on a HVAC unit at a rental house, and the insurance company wanted me to get estimates, and some of those estimates were twice as high as my guy's price.

In the meantime, I am trying to learn some of that stuff myself. And water heater stuff, since so many companies want way too much for that also.

I may just eventually pay for a flipper rebuild or replace on the game though, just to get to know a local repair guy, in case I ever really need one.

Trying to do all I can to save money these days, but I already know that I suck at soldering anything. Which is a good thing about water heaters now, now copper pipe has slip on fittings, no need to solder.

Not a lot of call for humidifiers down GA way, I’d guess…

You've got really nice hands.

Funny shit

Our snow total for the year: 3 flakes.

Totally depressing.

I'm loving it. Yay global warming.

You and who are the other two?

Fock, that's a lot of snow.

I wish I had one so you would have to pay international postage.

That’s awesome!

I haven’t been posting much. Still lurking daily!

You have a nice little blog here. Wish we were closer