Sunday, March 15, 2009
For my fans
I know we did lot of these in a lump but I am trying to catch up. This Christmas we stayed 2 weeks with family in Kalispell. (100 miles away) Other than being an experience I never plan to repeat, I was worried about the house sitting un-occupied in the extreme cold. Lets face it, the stuff around here does not have the best track record. I zip home to check on it and when I walk in I hear a nose like a garbage disposal running with nothing in it. Track that down to the cellar and the furnace is responsible. Turns out the exhaust or forced draft fan has spit off a blade.
The fan's metal keeper had rusted loose and gone through the blades. It was out of balance and vibrating something fierce. This is a real bad time to be without heat while I order parts, and it would have meant coming home to baby sit the space heaters. Genius that I am I decide to see if I can epoxy a little weight on to the broken tip of the blade. Thinking I might be able to balance it and get it running. I am sure you can see where this is going. The idea worked in principle but over night the weight came loose, took more of the blade with it and made the whole thing worse. Crap. Well if I can't add weight maybe I can take some off. So I cut the tip off the opposite blade to balance it. Success! Except that all the vibration had started to crack the hub. I epoxied on a thin wafer to stabilize the cracks put it all back in and it worked fine. A minor vibration but I could leave it and head back to the family. The idea was to replace the fan asap, but it was working and you know how things go. Cut ahead 2 months to the incident where we ran out of propane and the fan ran non stop for some 24 hours. The little vibration had grown and I noticed than when I shut the furnace down manualy there was a bit of a grinding noise.
Total failure was immanent that was obvious. So I put it off another week and a half because that is how I roll. Start looking for a fan only to find out they cost $400+. What the crap, for a hunk of plastic that whirls around? I researched what other furnaces used the same fan (lots) then used their model numbers, found the same fan listed for another furnace for $240. On Amazon.com of all places. Genius. Direct bolt in and none too soon. The other fan had started to drop off the shaft, it was only its momentum that kept it up while spinning, the grinding was it hitting the case as it slowed. Well the old monster is back up and running again. Heat is good.
The fan's metal keeper had rusted loose and gone through the blades. It was out of balance and vibrating something fierce. This is a real bad time to be without heat while I order parts, and it would have meant coming home to baby sit the space heaters. Genius that I am I decide to see if I can epoxy a little weight on to the broken tip of the blade. Thinking I might be able to balance it and get it running. I am sure you can see where this is going. The idea worked in principle but over night the weight came loose, took more of the blade with it and made the whole thing worse. Crap. Well if I can't add weight maybe I can take some off. So I cut the tip off the opposite blade to balance it. Success! Except that all the vibration had started to crack the hub. I epoxied on a thin wafer to stabilize the cracks put it all back in and it worked fine. A minor vibration but I could leave it and head back to the family. The idea was to replace the fan asap, but it was working and you know how things go. Cut ahead 2 months to the incident where we ran out of propane and the fan ran non stop for some 24 hours. The little vibration had grown and I noticed than when I shut the furnace down manualy there was a bit of a grinding noise.
Total failure was immanent that was obvious. So I put it off another week and a half because that is how I roll. Start looking for a fan only to find out they cost $400+. What the crap, for a hunk of plastic that whirls around? I researched what other furnaces used the same fan (lots) then used their model numbers, found the same fan listed for another furnace for $240. On Amazon.com of all places. Genius. Direct bolt in and none too soon. The other fan had started to drop off the shaft, it was only its momentum that kept it up while spinning, the grinding was it hitting the case as it slowed. Well the old monster is back up and running again. Heat is good.
Labels: exhaust or forced draft fan, Fixing the furnace
