So the wife calls me yesterday:

Her: The furnace is blowing cold air.
Me: Okay - I'll check it when I get home.

So and hour or so later I'm standing in front of our less than a year old furnace doing as what the male of the household is required to do: stare at it. Hmmmm - unit is there. Check. Power is on. Check. Gas is on. Check. So after going through my exhaustive repair procedure - I call the A/C Heat guy. As luck would have it, he only lives 5 minutes away and was on his way home. Twenty minutes later he is standing in front of the furnace. He pulls the covers off the front - takes note of the little flashing red and green lights. Pulls out a screw driver and removes this little component near the top. Some little disk he referred to as a thermal disk. He wipes it off - leaves it hanging out and then hits the switch. Bingo - the unit powers up - fan kicks in - gas ignites - we got heat!

Him: Well this happens for one of two reasons - either the thermal is defective or the filters are dirty. If the filters are dirty then not enough air passes and the thermal shuts down the unit to prevent any damage. When did you last clean the filters?

Me: December

Him: Hmmmm. Well let's just check them.

Me: Okay

He removes the cover from the electronic whole house air cleaner and starts to slide the THREE filters out.

Him: Well these don't look to bad.

Me: Yep - like I said, cleaned them in December.

He reaches in and pulls out THREE more filters.

Me: Ummm - what are those?

Him: The back THREE filters.

Me: Back THREE?

Him: Yeah - you have SIX filters total.

Me: Crap. Man those things are totally clogged up

Him: Yeah - no air getting through those.

Wife: <laughs at my dumbass>

Him: So umm why don't you just go wash those SIX filters up and I'm pretty sure you will be good to go.

Me: <feeling like a freaking dumbass>


:-)


Ron
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Six FIlters? :-)

I'd be making that Dumbass repair call too.
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:-) You need a 4 hour class teaching you how to up keep that thing. :-)
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:-)
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At least you know how many filters to clean now. Why should you be expected to know that there are 6 filters? You're not a HVAC tech, are you?
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Hey you were smart enough to call the right guy. That is better than most. :-)
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I had the same thing happen last year -- learned about the *back* filter when the repair man pulled it out. Felt like a dumbass too. :-)
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oops mybad :-)
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:-) Same here... SIX?? :-)
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Don't feel like a dumbass!
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What's a furnace?



JK


:-) :-)
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Ouch!
Worst thing in life is when the Wifey laughs at your face...
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dude how big is your house that you need a unit with 6 filters!! :-)

My house is over 2500 sq.ft and I have 1 filter for the upper unit and 1 for the lower...
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C'mon... who would know about the BACK filters!

Sounds like "Double Secret Probation" to me. :-)
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I have had 6 houses and never heard of a back filter as the heaters I had you could only house one at a time. Is this a trick thing cuz now I am going to check both of my heaters,,,upstairs in the attic for the second level and in the basement for the first floor,,,,back filter,,,somebody somewhere is lauging right now,,,could be RGD's wife?
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Thanks guys - at least you all made me not feel like such a dumbass - :-)


It's not really the size of the house - the unit is a Honeywell whole house electronic air cleaner.

Click Here For Link

In this picture you can see two of the filters actually. I was only pulling out the one near the front. There are three in the front and then the three in the back. In my defense when the tech showed it to me after it was installed - he only removed the front three and said that's all there was to it - so I never looked in there to see the other ones.

Image

Ron
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Good lord 6 filters!?!

Well, at least it was capturing all the nasty stuff. Sometimes we need to spend a little cash to save some. :-)
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Sort of like a room size electric heater. Only its bigger and runs on gas, oil or electricity. (I wiki it)
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i would have messed that up as well
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Hey, it's better to "feel like a dumbass" then having to replace the whole unit. At least being a "dumbass" didn't hit your bank account too badly.

Don't beat yourself up, 6 filters? Who knew? I won't thread jack, but there is NO doubt I am on the "Dumbass award roster" at least in the Top 5. Don't get me started!! I can't even look at a furnace without breaking into a cold sweat. :-)
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