Coyote Ridge FarmsWelcome To Our Rural Blog

You know winter is coming when the furnace gives you problems… and your worried about it.

It seems as though the start of every winter season presents us with another furnace challenge .  The first year gave us a non-working furnace – the chimney filled with soot.  At that time, we called our favorite [and local] service shop – Freetly Electric, of Kerkhoven, MN.  The problem was so serious, the owner (Tom) came out.  He ended up doing some necessary repairs, but at the end of it all, he shut our furnace down due to the potential hazard of carbon-monoxide poisoning.  This all happened the evening before Christmas.  Tom only charged $100 for 3 hours of work.

Not having a furnace for heat was no big deal, as we also had/have electric baseboard heaters and a fireplace. We eventually resolved the furnace problem without the need for a new furnace.  We got lucky.

Last year, the furnace fan motor went out.  Man… was that a loud racket when that let loose.  We called Freetly’s and in no-time, we had a new motor.

This year we have a new frustration.  A simple, little $10 heat sensor is giving us problems.  It’s the sensor that turns on the blower fan when the furnace reaches a certain temp. – without it, the fan won’t kick on.  Over the last few weeks, we’ve been hitting the old sensor to get it to turn the fan on.  When that started to fail, we called Freetly’s again.  I ordered the fan switch.  They told me it would be 2-3 days… they had it in less than 24 hrs.  WOW!  That’s good service.

Being a DIY type person, I installed the new switch, turned the furnace back on and everything worked perfectly.  30 hours later, we had a cold house again.  It seems the switch was faulty.  Luckily, I saved the old switch and was able to re-install it.  After poking it with a screw-driver and breaking the back of the thing, it seems to be functioning as it should.

Since it’s the holiday weekend, I’ll give our service shop a call on Monday.  Hopefully, the furnace will treat us right until then .

Here’s hoping you all had a great Thanksgiving Holiday and were free of furnace problem.

~ Rich

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