I've made the leap from wagon lurker to wagon owner

Discussion in 'General Station Wagon Discussions' started by Cyber-Wizard, Nov 10, 2010.

  1. Lazrcng

    Lazrcng New Member

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    Congrats!!!
     
  2. Cyber-Wizard

    Cyber-Wizard Well-Known Member

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    Well...we're in!! We finished moving on the 30th. It took longer than expected as we have more crap than I thought. We argued over which truck to rent. The Mrs. wanted to rent a 16' truck and take two trips. I wanted to rent a 26' truck, do it all at once, and have the benefit of a hydraulic lift on the back for my tool chests.
    ...I rented the 26' truck and we still had to make two trips. That doesn't include my having over packed the wagon full of spare parts and taken it over the night before! Despite it being pretty cold, it was the warmest of the days available to us for moving. The wagon is still packed full as it's been too bloody cold to go out to the garage!!

    I'm loving that big window in the living room. I find myself sitting beside the fire watching the snow fall a fair bit. This is a crappy cellphone pic because I haven't gotten to unpacking my cameras yet.
    [​IMG]

    We still have some unpacking to do. I haven't found a desk yet that I like and am willing to spend money on. Mostly I've been getting my computer rack and home automation gear set up and pulling in lots of cabling for geek goodies. The HVAC guy says that our squeaky blower can't be lubricated after all and that replacing the motor isn't worthwhile so we need a new furnace (current unit is only 11 years old). I wish I had the cash to drop on a Geothermal system. The same guy told me that it would cost $600 to replace the blower in the gas fireplace...after telling us twice that we didn't have a blower in the gas fireplace and the blower knob on it was a dummy. I'm pretty sure that I know just which "knob" was a "dummy". I found the original bill that listed the blower motor as having been purchased as a $100 add on. I think what needs to be replaced is the HVAC guy :taz:.
    I'm currently putting together some wiring diagrams to put LED lighting in the closets. Low Voltage lighting is absurdly expensive and Class2 wiring installation even more so. It seems insane so I'm packing the light modules and doing the wiring myself. I have more than enough spare power supplies, relays, and timer modules around that I don't need to put somebody's kid through college to get what I want. I don't really want anyone but me drilling and fishing cable in my house anyway. The telephone and CATV "techs" who've worked in this place before I got here didn't have any idea how to run and hide cabling. They've just drilled wiring in through the door and window sills and stapled it to the baseboards. I've been yanking out poorly installed wire since we moved in!
     
  3. Cyber-Wizard

    Cyber-Wizard Well-Known Member

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    Sorry, I thought I had posted more photos of the place than I had. Here is a photo of that window I'm so fond of from when the house was listed.

    [​IMG]
     
  4. Fat Tedy

    Fat Tedy Island Red Neck

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    Yup, replace the HVAC guy! Depending on your furnace, your blower may have replaceable bearings. But this leads to another question..... is the motor and blower 1 unit similar to the pic below?............

    [​IMG]

    Or is the motor separate, as in pic below?..............

    If below, well there you have it, your oiling points and you can do that yourself, and or the blower may have a replaceable bearing...... another thing you can do by yourself
    [​IMG]

    Either way the blower itself CAN be replaced and yes I am including the first pic. Been there done that many times back when I was still wearing a tool pouch.:yup:

    I'd like to see some pics of your blower, and all and all I can't understand why after only 11 years even how crap is built today your furnace needs a complete replacement...."maybe" it does, but something smells fowl to me....WHY the entire furnace?????

    There is also available non flammable rattle can lubricants. They won't cure a problem but with a regular "squirt" now and then you can get a couple more years out of a squeaky blower, again some thing you can do yourself.


    BTW, I can see how you would get mesmerized sitting in that living room looking out the window.
     
    Last edited: Feb 16, 2015
  5. ModelT1

    ModelT1 Still Lost in the 50's

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    Moving? Seems like we are asked that question a lot. Our oldest son and his wife are here for a month to adopt a baby. While waiting for the two states important people to get off their butts and sign some paperwork they have a month to waste helping us pack and do some odd jobs getting this place ready to sell.
    I don't need a 26' moving truck, I need a frieght train and a 100 empty box cars !.... Or close!:banghead3:
    Today we did get the one peak repaired where the aluminum had come loose and did a lot of talking about moving.:D
    My biggest hold up is being without my pick up truck forever. Now the heads need rebuilt and the engine put back together again. :banghead3::banghead3:

    Another thing son said it was 3 degrees when they left Illinois early Sunday morning. Today as I supervised him in a sleeveless shirt it was 72 and sunny. I'm in no hurry to move.:49:
    The green grass, Azalias, and other flowers look much better than that white stuff.:p

    About ten years ago our gas furnace blower motor squeeled. I squirted a few drops of WD-40 and some 3 in One oil here and there. It's been quiet ever since.
     
  6. fannie

    fannie Well-Known Member

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    Glad your in, unpacking always takes more time then packing. That's a pretty room, love the window too. Does it have remote blinds?
     
  7. ModelT1

    ModelT1 Still Lost in the 50's

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    I love the room and the view.
    Our place in Illinois has remote drapes on the picture window. I'll just tell my wife it's time to shut the curtains and she will close them.:rofl2:
     

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  8. Cyber-Wizard

    Cyber-Wizard Well-Known Member

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    Not yet. :bouncy: I've been a home automation geek for years. I love taking simple repetitive and making them happen automatically. I'll likely incorporate some custom motors and light sensors to manage the blinds. While The Mrs is away of course. She's a little more old-school than I am and much prefers walking over to a switch or other device and manipulating it by hand.
     
  9. Cyber-Wizard

    Cyber-Wizard Well-Known Member

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    I haven't gone down yet to have a look. I figured that there might be something easily identifiable if I just took the time to open it up. The HVAC guy claimed that he could replace the motor for $800 but once he did that he would have to test the entire system and that would "likely" reveal something else wrong so we might as well just replace the whole thing. Seemed like an a$$hat response to me. I'll try and get some pics of the blower. Thanks FT!
     
  10. Cyber-Wizard

    Cyber-Wizard Well-Known Member

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    Well now that I've had a look at it myself, the noise makes more sense. I got my info 3rd hand via the wife as it was her step father who met the furnace guy for us. It's not the blower motor that's making the noise. This turbo-charger looking apparatus appears to be an exhaust gas fan. It starts up just before the flame ignites and the blower fan comes on a while after that. It's making a high pitched whine while it's running.

    [​IMG]
     
  11. Fat Tedy

    Fat Tedy Island Red Neck

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    That very well may be a sealed unit...you may not be able to fix it. I'd still get a second if not third opinion/estimate. I realize you work but maybe you could try to be there so there is no miscommunication. Hope you get it sorted, and not to expensive.
     
  12. Cyber-Wizard

    Cyber-Wizard Well-Known Member

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    The black wheel on the back of that device seems to spin, it has a very large motor coil in behind it. It almost looks like the motor could come off of the unit separately I'm just not certain that I want my unskilled hands messing with it.

    Standing there listening to it with the cabinet open, I'm thinking that there isn't anything wrong. I'm betting that it's supposed to sound the way that it does. It seems very similar to the exhaust fan on my hot water heater and those things are noisy as hell. It's just unfortunate that the furnace is directly below the master bedroom.

    I think I'll have someone else look at it anyway just for the sake of a second opinion now that my current guy has started giving such crappy information.
     
  13. Fat Tedy

    Fat Tedy Island Red Neck

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    Yeah they can be noisy and if you are hearing a lot through the floor in the bedroom....I can understand that completely as most likely there is no sound deadener in the floor and in your case I guess you are hearing it at night when trying to sleep ( is that the main problem with the noise, it's not noise so to say but it's almost keeping you up at night??).The furnace room/area is it open floor joists of finished (Drywall, plywood, etc) ? if it's open joist you can install acoustic (sound deadener) insulation, been there done that for customers and even in my own furnace room.... my basement is finished by previous owner, all dry wall ceilings etc. The furnace has it's own room a over sized closet you could say done by previous owners. Although our furnace is under the living room fire place you could hear it, but at a minimal and that was only in the living and dining room. I lined the open stud furnace room with acoustic way back and now we hear nothing.

    I'm just throwing out my 2 bits having experience in HVAC, wish I could be there and see it, see/hear the problem to help for real

    On a side note, previous owners of our house made the furnace room a oven even before I insulated, I knew it would happen the first time we turned the furnace on and it did. You could cook a roast in there yet the large finished storage room with no duct work for heating was cold. I cut the door and installed 2 rectangular grills in the door almost identical to the pic below.
    [​IMG]

    One at the bottom of the door with blades facing down and the other at the top with blades facing up....... heat rises, goes out the top, bottom one naturally draws the cooler air in from the floor, it circulates it. Now for the last 14 out of 15 years the furnace room and the un heated storage room stay the same temp, same temp as the rest of the house.
     
  14. fannie

    fannie Well-Known Member

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    AH!

    I have a remote truck started like yours only in reverse...:29:
     
  15. fannie

    fannie Well-Known Member

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    They looked to be very high up so I thought they might be remote.

    Happy tingering. :)
     

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