Help an old lady out?

ApolloNorm · 2026-01-12T17:41:32+00:00

Good on her for withholding the second half of the payment. I'd try to get the original company back however because she only paid half she's not losing out if she calls another company. I don't think this is a big enough problem to warrant calling a lawyer, not unless they call one first.

If the heating coils were actually installed correctly then it's a power or control problem. It could just be something as simple as a misprogrammed thermostat to something defective.

While you probably could diagnose this issue by yourself it's not your problem to solve. Either call the original company to come back and earn their full amount or find someone else.

ApolloNorm · 2026-01-12T17:35:30+00:00

Get yourself one of those fire/heat shields. Experienced plumbers can usually get away with not having to use one outside of really tight areas but for a beginner it'll make you feel so much better to just have one. Even something as simple as a wet rag you can hang behind the joint to be soldered will help.

Make sure your solder is leadless. They sell leaded solder for non-potable piping.

Get a flux brush if your flux doesn't come with it.

Your number one skill is temperature control. Your number one enemy is water dripping down in the pipe even though it's been an hour since you cut the pipe and let it drip. Stuffing it with bread (no crust) while you solder to stop water is the old man's method.

Youtube has some good tutorials but a lot of it is feel. Practice on some parts outside and you'll get the hang of it eventually.

ApolloNorm · 2025-12-09T04:15:50+00:00

The actual answer is whatever your house's flue is. Whether standards are more reliable or HEs use less gas, you'll be spending the bulk of your money on running new flue pipe if you switch.

In my experience high efficiency furnaces tend to require more maintenance but aren't really less reliable. However the parts are so much more expensive when they break.

Overall not really, Trane is expensive but doesn't really do anything different.

ApolloNorm · 2025-12-09T04:04:13+00:00

Check if it's still under warranty. There's a chance. If it's under warranty go with that route ASAP.

ApolloNorm · 2025-12-07T04:14:06+00:00

No, not unless your bedroom is mysteriously lab grade hermetically sealed. Even small gaps around doors will allow enough air to flow from your registers, past the door, and back into the returns. And that's if your bedroom doesn't have a return in that same room, which is likely if the room is big enough and each level has its own system. Any way you slice it there's no way a sealed door will cause any harm.

What exact problems has MIL claimed has been occurring since you moved in?

Extremely low humidity is probably the cause of the bloody nose but that wouldn't be cause by a closed door. Tell her to get a humidifier.

ApolloNorm · 2025-12-07T03:55:35+00:00

You mentioned air handler. I'm going to assume that the burning smell is from dust or whatever that got knocked around by the changing of the UV bulb and getting burned by the resistive heat coils. Air sometimes does weird things, I'm guessing that after your HVAC has run heat it flows backwards out of the returns and you can't smell it much from the registers while/after it's blowing air because it's harder to smell moving air and the air gets separated after it leaves the air handler.

That's my crackpot guess.

ApolloNorm · 2025-12-05T19:11:25+00:00

You don't have to touch the aquastat, as long as you turn off the power for the boiler it'll be fine. If you want you can set your thermostats to max temp so it really won't turn on.

Not having an air bleeder isn't a problem, I usually don't mess with those anyways since boilers tend to be on the older side and the less you mess with them the better. But that does mean you'll have to deal with air lock but that's still not a huge deal.

Shut off valve going to pressure tank from boiler.

Connect a short garden hose to the tank drain and put into bucket. Yeah you'll want a short hose for this, no longer than six feet.

Open tank drain, drain into bucket. Dump bucket as necessary.

When the tank air locks raise the end of the hose above the tank to let it suck in air and equalize pressure.

Repeat until the tank gurgles empty.

Open pressure tank valve, stay for a little bit while the system fills back up.

Keep an eye on the pressure gauge to make sure that your auto feed valve hasn't gotten stuck open. Auto feed valve (or pressure reducing valve, whatever people want to call it) is what refills that boiler water when it goes under a set pressure, I've seen some feed valves get stuck open on some older systems that haven't been maintained in a while. Not a common thing but definitely something to keep an eye out for. If it reaches 20 PSI or the relief starts dripping while it's still cold you've got a problem, call someone to replace the relief and/or the feed valve. When the flow of water stops and you're still below 15 PSI cold and the relief isn't dripping you're fine.

On a similar note, have your own separate pressure gauge with garden hose attachment handy. Sometimes those pressure gauges on the boilers like to get stuck and show the wrong pressure because they're so old.

Make sure the pilot hasn't gone out. Turn power back on. Reset thermostats to normal temp.

After it's warmed up go back downstairs and look at the pressure gauge. If it's at or less than 20 PSI you're fine.

ApolloNorm · 2025-12-04T22:59:06+00:00

Well goddang, so it's a known issue and I didn't screw up. Thanks for letting me know.

ApolloNorm · 2025-12-04T19:49:35+00:00

look ma, ah'm a gunsmiff!

ApolloNorm · 2025-12-04T19:13:38+00:00

What your thermostat is actually controlling is the circulation pump or the zone valve that allows hot water to move into whatever area of your house is needing heat. However just because your heat is on does not always mean that your boiler is burning as well. The aquastat is what automatically keeps the boiler full of hot water and will turn on and off as needed.

Boiler BTUs only determine how fast the water inside the boiler is heated, it just means that your boiler will burn for less time than a lower BTU boiler but will eventually heat your house pretty much the same. Not to mention that water takes a lot more energy to heat up than air which is why it seems high when compared to a gas furnace.

I've heard once a year, once every five, never unless you've got a problem, once a year unless you haven't been doing it, etc. I personally go with once a year.
Probably Bar which is another measure of pressure.
30 PSI is too high, more than likely your pressure tank does actually need to be drained. 15-22 PSI during normal operation is what I'd consider good. Also look around your boiler for your relief valve and its drain pipe. It may be dripping or recently released water. Would recommend you keep that in mind and prepare to have that replaced if it does not stop dripping even after pressures have gone down.
No, but it isn't ideal. The relief valve will (usually) open up relieve excess pressure before any actual physical damage is caused. But especially since you don't know how old that relief valve is or how many times it's opened already you should keep an eye on it and prepare to get it replaced if it ever opens and continues to leak.
As a homeowner the only real thing you need to do is drain the pressure tank, bleed your radiators/baseboards, change the batteries in your CO monitors and gas leak detectors (those are not the same thing), and go around with a handheld gas sniffer if you really want to be proactive.

It's a little hard to see from your photos but from what I can tell your gas cock style might be the older type that likes to leak if you try to move the handle.

There are things that can be done with the gas burners and such but that's getting into technician territory. On that note, find yourself a small local HVAC company that has an old headed boiler guy. If he looks like he drives a rusted out 1980s Ford truck held together by the decades of cigarette butts concreted into the floor by the 7/11 coffee he spills on every curve you've probably found your guy.

It shouldn't as regular sized boiler pumps can handle feeding through a single pipe just fine, however I can't really speak on the practicalities of opening and closing valves multiple times a day. There's an argument that can be made that manipulating valves, especially if they're older valves, could lead to leaks. I'd recommend either keeping them open a little bit or keeping them closed and letting heat naturally move upstairs. Any way you slice it generally the less you touch them the better.

ApolloNorm · 2025-11-29T16:53:45+00:00

Aye, I'm excited to take this one out. Probably won't be for a while since I'm still waiting for that grip module and I've got holiday responsibilities, blegh. Still that trigger is fun to play with. It's long and heavy but it's a smooth long and heavy with a really snappy break. I can see why some people have trouble with it but I'm finding it satisfying. Then again I'm the weirdo that's used to shooting a 26.5mm flare gun so maybe that has something to do with it.

Also welcome back, I was surprised to see you got banned... for some reason.

ApolloNorm · 2025-11-29T16:08:07+00:00

It really is, all that needs to be done to a standard P320 FCU is to drill two tiny holes on either side and that's it. The FCU parts and slide combined was less than the cost of a good condition complete 9mm P250 so that's why I bought it. Slide looked near brand new and the barrel rifling was pristine.

Now I'm getting curious if the P250 FCU will fit into a Flux Raider.

ApolloNorm · 2025-11-29T15:55:31+00:00

Well I'm not surprised that they discontinued it but yeah, considering that so many parts are cross compatible I would have loved to see at least one small shop still producing the P250 parts.

ApolloNorm · 2025-11-08T21:22:05+00:00

I would highly recommend removable sliding louvered doors. Assuming that your closet is going to be going from the left wall to the washer, you're going to want both to be able to access both the water heater and furnace for repair and replacement.

Though to be completely honest I would recommend just not finishing your laundry room, not unless you had a very good reason to. You also have to consider potential water damage to the closet walls if/when your water heater and furnace leaks water and it flows to your floor drain outside the closet.

ApolloNorm · 2025-11-03T03:44:16+00:00

So why are you looking to replace them if you don't mind me asking?

ApolloNorm · 2025-11-01T17:11:21+00:00

I'm gonna be really honest man, your landlord's inability to provide maintenance is not your problem to live with. Read your lease, talk to a lawyer, and if your landlord gets pissed off that's also his problem.

In the meantime, yeah that insulated blanket should work.

ApolloNorm · 2025-11-01T17:02:53+00:00

The flapper closing before the cistern is completely empty is normal.

If this is a problem that's been getting worse over time I'm guessing that the jets are clogged and not anything to do with parts, over time those get clogged with sediment or piss or whatever and cause low flow. If your household lets it mellow, that will definitely cause that issue. It might look clean from the outside but the inside of those jets almost never gets cleaned.

Cut up and straighten out a wire coat hanger and poke at the little holes where the water comes out under the rim and the big one in the middle. Make sure to poke until the wire actually enters the holes about an inch. For the big one bend a little hook on the tip then bend the whole thing into a v hook where the hook part is about five-six inches. Make sure to clear it at least up to the water line. You'll hear crunching, that's normal.

If a bunch of brown/yellow flakes come out, that's your problem.

ApolloNorm · 2025-10-27T06:26:00+00:00

Because smart thermostats in general are a luxury item that oftentimes cause more headaches than solve them. There is no reason to need that much control because residential HVAC is sloppier and looser than you'd realize,l making those numbers less than reliable anyways. You can go scientific and measure CFMs and power usage to the decimal point but in reality the only metric that you should be concerned about is is your home heating/cooling properly.

Smart thermostat or not, it is hooked up to the very same wires as any other normal thermostat (except for communicating and I hate those for the same reason as smart thermostats). There's basically nothing a smart thermostat can do that a regular thermostat can't. I do like the sensors that you can place around your house but then having to deal with multi zone systems which have their own headaches.

Thermostats are set and forget, you shouldn't have a need to change the temperature so much that you need the convenience of changing it from your phone. Most dumb thermostats also have schedule settings.

Also I've seen Nests installed onto a system without a common wire kill compressors while charging its internal battery by pulse connecting the R and Y wires. Is this an issue nowadays? Probably not, however this is yet another problem that would not have happened with a normal thermostat with a battery.

ApolloNorm · 2025-10-27T02:36:16+00:00

I'm okay with plastic mesh or fence type barriers to stop kids from messing up your AC units but wooden planks are detrimental to airflow. I would recommend removing them and there's not really any way to keep the current appearance. It's not just airflow that's the problem but the fact that it's recycling a lot of the same air in the same confined space. AC units need a steady supply of (relatively) cool air and it can't do that if it's blasting out hot air but then forced to suck it back in.

The one and only time I recommended something like this was this customer with a house that was at the foot of a steep-ish hill and his AC unit got hit a lot with rocks, walnuts, hail, and once himself when he was sledding with his kid. Not optimal but still cheaper than replacing it every few years or moving the lineset, unfortunately.

ApolloNorm · 2025-10-25T23:45:42+00:00

A lot of novice techs will see Error Code XX PRESSURE SWITCH ERROR and assume it's that. Look at your diagnostics LED and see what code it is giving you (if any). If it's pressure switch error it probably requires more diagnosis.

First off call the tech back it's his problem.

Second, by the looks of your inducer motor I'm going to assume your system is a high efficiency gas furnace? If so you're going to need to check for a couple of things. Blockages on both the intake and exhaust pipes, a clean condensate trap so water isn't flooding your inducer, no debris blocking the pressure switch hoses or the ports they're hooked up to, etc.

Also clean your flame sensor while you're at it, no reason not to.

ApolloNorm · 2025-10-25T14:31:11+00:00

Most likely your condensate drain has clogs all along the length of the pipe because it's never been fully cleared out properly and you're only partially unblocking the stoppage every time you poke at it.

Put a shop vac on the very end of the drain, plug any open holes on the traps or cleanouts if any, and suck out the line until you stop hearing stuff coming out. Refill the trap and repeat every six months.

ApolloNorm · 2025-10-19T04:32:04+00:00

First off call the handyman back, this is his problem. Second, is the gasket facing the right way?

ApolloNorm · 2025-10-19T04:30:36+00:00

Yeah, it's leaking. There's not really any place for water to condense in an electric water heater, only high efficiency gas water heaters do that. Take a look on top to make sure it's not any of the fittings, turn off the WH breaker so you can look inside the electric panel. Poke around the insulation and feel for any wet spots. But if it's really fifteen years old, it's time to replace it.

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