Oh, yay! The furnace died.

[LCaulkins]

Most excellent. ;D The furnace died this morning, and technicians just determined that it's unrepairable. (It is, as it turns out, 30+ years old.) Will be a cooold, snowy weekend with no furnace!


Can I beam over to Australia for a week?

[annise]

For some reason it's not very warm here today. And in the last week there has been snow falling in the hills. Some warm days, lots of rain, ideal weed growing weather. I've a carpet of nasturtiums over a path that have escaped over the edge of a pot - that are so pretty I can't tell myself they should be dealt with.

Anne

[GettingTooOld]

In my opinion, I suspect that's code for 'we do not know how to fix it / fix things in general. We stick mostly to installing new stuff which the sellers show us how to do'

Not being able to fix something is not a reason. A reason consists of something that IS a reason, which has to do with the engineering. Not being able to get a part is not a reason either, as an engineer can make modifications for available parts. Restorers of 100 year old cars simply make parts because after 100 years for some reason dealerships don't want to know them anymore

There is little use in persisting with those sellers in my opinion as they probably have no idea what is wrong with the unit and will coverup their ignorance in every possible way, in my opinion.

I think you have a salesperson/installer, not an engineer. If their job was restoring antique furnaces, it would be different. However, talking to them about it I would not be surprised if they probably use irrational logic as first line of defense "Oh you can't have someone restore this antique furnace, what about covid ? (shocked look) what if something went wrong (e-gad danger looming look) you'll die as a homeless person because (cough) your house will burn down if you don't give me, and me alone all your money right now."

There are costs involved with restoration, and it is possible to actually find out what part of the furnace has failed and what the parts and labor would cost from various repairmen or restorers. Often a proper analysis is not free in itself, but does come off a final bill if you go with that person if they also give you a quote, because they already know how to fix it.

My perspective is a little different to most as my day job is inventing and building things that never existed before.

[LCaulkins]

Oh, I definitely agree with you in many cases, and I am a person who hates unnecessarily replacing things. I hate the waste of materials. This situation wouldn't be worthwhile repairing, though, even if we could find someone who was capable of, and willing to, reinvent and manufacture the what's-it assembly that is disintegrated. (Speaking of a large, complex assembly, not just a part.)

First, we use a local service company that is known for their integrity in fixing things without selling unnecessary parts or service. They have more than enough work doing honest repairs than drumming up bogus sales. I literally watched a secondary portion fall apart (the gas flow valve thing) while he was seeing if there might be a way to repair the portion of the furnace that had failed in the first place. (And seeing that fall apart wasn't confidence-building in terms of fire-safety or gas-leakage issues. . .)

Second, this isn't a classic, forever-lasting-if-cared-for-properly furnace worth salvaging. It is a late-1980s piece that was inefficient at its best, a crumbling relic of non-permanent manufactures in reality, that would end up being remade every single portion in repeating failures, except perhaps the outer shell. And like 100 year old cars, manufacturers have abandoned making the key pieces of this one years ago, so everything would have to be rebuilt from scratch.. It was a flawed design that they quickly moved away from.

Third, even if this were physically worth remachining parts for, and we had somebody capable of doing so, to have that assembly, alone, recreated (forgetting all the rest of it that is rather decrepit), would cost far more than replacing the furnace with a better unit made of more reliable materials and engineering. It would also take a whole lot more time than I'm willing to wait in Colorado mountain winter without heating.

I did jokingly ask if we could install one of those awesome monsters from 150 years ago, since the basement likely has the room for it. He said we do actually have a couple folks in the region who have done so, and the ballpark cost of them made me laugh, reinforcing the idea's fantasy status for us. So a new unit it is, in our case. If we can get 30 years out of it, it'll last us until we'd be ready to relocate, should we be fortunate enough to be living still.

[LCaulkins]

I am grateful this happened in November, and not the far more brutal months of January or February!

[GettingTooOld]

There is only just so much they can charge before people realize such things as cement costs less than $8 a bag, and bricks are less than $1 each. Then they start looking up masonry heaters on the internet.

There are plenty of rubbish sites for everything. I recall seeing some good sites though. Such heaters are popular throughout Europe with some sophisticated designs. The Japanese Onsens also have some awesome Wood heaters which send the heat into the floors..

I recall seeing one design put up at an open day for the purpose of demonstrating that, if you know what you are doing, you can get smoke to flow down a hill. Can't find links to any of it and don't have the time, but it's out there.

There are some lovely Japanese Rocket stoves out there, but they're not furnaces. They look great though.

[GettingTooOld]

Also, if all else fails, you can take a leaf from primitive technology's channel.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAL3JXZSzSm8AlZyD3nQdBA/videos

most of his huts he builds have indoor underfloor heating. It looks rather economical too.

So there is probably a compromise between masonry stoves and primitive huts to suit the budget or lack thereof.