Helped a friend out today.

Geo-TH,In · Jan 15, 2014

I have a friend in the HVAC business. He has a small business. 3 years ago he sold an electric furnace to a guy at $500 over cost. Furnace worked fine for 2 years until the buyer added a second thermostat. The second thermostat was to turn just the furnace fan on so he heat from the wood boiler would come out of the ducts. Well the second thermostat turned the electric furnace on as well as the fan.

The buyer was mad at my friend for his furnace not working the way the he wanted it to work.

I rewired the second thermostat to make only the fan come on. When second thermostat gets to temp, second thermostat opens, fan shuts off. This guy installed an outside wood boiler and he put the hot water heating coil below the electric heating elements instead above the electric elements. That's a big mistake. When the boiler runs out of hot water, the house cools off, the electric heat comes on. The electric heat will heat the boiler water. The boiler's circulating pump never shuts off. So the electric heat will heat the boiler water and transfer the heat back to the boiler. CAN YOU SAY MISTAKE?

Now here is the insane part. The buyer claims he has about $14K in his wood boiler. Until I moved a wire around he was mad at my friend for selling him an electric furnace that didn't work the way he expected it to after he added a second thermostat.

My friend is happy I saved him from a lawsuit. Which my friend's only mistake was selling an electric furnace to this man.

The man also was complaining that when he lost power his electric generator failed him. I wanted nothing to do with that, so we left.

No way a generator can power up an electric furnace that has 4 heat strips that uses 20 amps each on 240v.

Perhaps now the generator will power up just the fan.

Everyone is happy, especially my friend.

George

Joe Scribner · Jan 15, 2014

I once put four new tires and a couple of tie rod ends on a customers car and did a four wheel alignment. The customer came back complaining that he had just had this work done a couple months before and now his front tires were severely worn. I vaguely remembered this fellow and as our business was all on computer I looked up the invoice. It was 27 months and 60K ago that we had done the work. Just shows that some folks will always try to blame the guy who worked on it last instead of living in reality.

oldtanker · Jan 15, 2014

(quoted from post at 19:44:42 01/15/14) I once put four new tires and a couple of tie rod ends on a customers car and did a four wheel alignment. The customer came back complaining that he had just had this work done a couple months before and now his front tires were severely worn. I vaguely remembered this fellow and as our business was all on computer I looked up the invoice. It was 27 months and 60K ago that we had done the work. Just shows that some folks will always try to blame the guy who worked on it last instead of living in reality.

LOL when I was working as a mechanic we had a customer that had a reputation all over the area of trying to beat people out of business/money. He came in claiming that we needed to pay a repair bill for a distributer part he said was less than a year old that he claimed we put in his truck. He actually got angry when I pulled up the invoice on the computer and we had indeed replaced that part, on his wife's car, more than a year before but never on his truck. Guess he thought we would just take him at his word. Before the guy passed he was at the point that no one would work on his stuff.

Rick

IH2444 · Jan 15, 2014

I work at one of the home improvement store chains.
The other day a lady came up to me at work and demanded to know why her seminar on home decoration was not going on.
She started screaming why could we not get our act together and she would see me fired, etc after I told her we had no such seminar.
Turns out she was scheduled for a seminar at our competitors store.
Hope she keeps shopping with them.

730 virgil · Jan 15, 2014

a friend used to a.i. cows.
a farmer called him saying a cow friend had a.i. ed was still open after many breedings.
i think if cow didn"t settle next one was free.
well friend is thinking this is another cow so he checked her vac tag. not the tag on breeding chart. farmer got all mad when he was billed for the breeding. got really mad when friend said you are trying to pull a fast one on me that is not the same cow you pay up and don"t call me again.

RusselAZ · Jan 15, 2014

You should not have touched it. Modifying makes you a manufacturer so when his house burns down it will be a long lawsuit.

howdy1960 · Jan 15, 2014

All the comments sound like the people next door.
Sued us for their survey because I mowed 5' of their 4' tall weeds (while dumping thier burn barrel in our woods)when bush hogged fence line. Real reason for survey was trees fell on their house and they wanted to sue us over them. Turns out was their own trees LMFAO
Court ruling "Case Dismissed"
I did learn we installed about 30' of fence on their land 5 years earlier and moved it off a week after having by-pass surgery.

Billy Shafer · Jan 16, 2014

My grandfather moved into a new house. Neighbor called the city because my grandfathers work shed on skids was to close to the fence. Inspector came out. Yes 1/2 inch to close.So he helped my grandfather move it over the line.

Grandfather said how about the neighbors shed on concrete pad. Yep two inches to close. Has to come down or be fined for every day it is there.Sometimes it is better to keep your mouth shut.

Bret4207 · Jan 16, 2014

(quoted from post at 19:22:17 01/15/14) I have a friend in the HVAC business. He has a small business. 3 years ago he sold an electric furnace to a guy at $500 over cost. Furnace worked fine for 2 years until the buyer added a second thermostat. The second thermostat was to turn just the furnace fan on so he heat from the wood boiler would come out of the ducts. Well the second thermostat turned the electric furnace on as well as the fan.

The buyer was mad at my friend for his furnace not working the way the he wanted it to work.

I rewired the second thermostat to make only the fan come on. When second thermostat gets to temp, second thermostat opens, fan shuts off. This guy installed an outside wood boiler and he put the hot water heating coil below the electric heating elements instead above the electric elements. That's a big mistake. When the boiler runs out of hot water, the house cools off, the electric heat comes on. The electric heat will heat the boiler water. The boiler's circulating pump never shuts off. So the electric heat will heat the boiler water and transfer the heat back to the boiler. CAN YOU SAY MISTAKE?

Now here is the insane part. The buyer claims he has about $14K in his wood boiler. Until I moved a wire around he was mad at my friend for selling him an electric furnace that didn't work the way he expected it to after he added a second thermostat.

My friend is happy I saved him from a lawsuit. Which my friend's only mistake was selling an electric furnace to this man.

The man also was complaining that when he lost power his electric generator failed him. I wanted nothing to do with that, so we left.

No way a generator can power up an electric furnace that has 4 heat strips that uses 20 amps each on 240v.

Perhaps now the generator will power up just the fan.

Everyone is happy, especially my friend.

George

You must have the patience of a saint George. People like that are what drove me out of my former career and out of the body work business too. I swear 99% of the people out there think they can get ( at that times prices) $5000.00 of bodywork and paint for $750.00, and even thought you tell them it will be 4-6 weeks, they were at the shop 3 days after I got it wanting to know when it would be done!!!

Geo-TH,In · Jan 16, 2014

RusselAZ,
I'm not worried, my friend has a $10 million policy.

Chances are the waranty is up on the electric furnace.

All I did was put a second thermostat in parallel with the manual fan on switch of the second thermostat.

The guy wanted the fan to run to remove heat from wood boiler. When house gets too hot, fan shuts off. If he is away on vacation, house gets cold, the electric furnace thermostat, which is set at a temp below the second thermostat will turn on electric heat.

George

Geo-TH,In · Jan 16, 2014

Bret4207,
I've been retired for 10 years. I had nothing to do yesterday, so I helped a friend get out of a bad situation. My friend is the one who has the patience of a saint. He made 5 trips to help this guy get things straightened out.

Friend also told me of a story that during our -14 below, an elderly lady called him. She had no money to pay him, yet he bought parts and fixed her furnace. Not too many people would do that.

George

Bryan inIowa · Jan 16, 2014

Had guy that had three cube vans. Worked on one , few months later get read riot act , getting sued for fire . Pulled invoice with VIN, turns out it was another van ! Still would not give up .Called insurance agent. Turns out we both had same agent . My agent rear HIM the riot act. lol

massey333 · Jan 16, 2014

You didn't say if the furnace is a upflow or downflow.If a upflow then the water coil would go before(below) the electric coils and wouldn't be heating the water.Either way,you need to be able to shut the water pump off.

Mike M · Jan 16, 2014

No Good deed goes unpunished !

Or so it seems anymore ?

Geo-TH,In · Jan 16, 2014

Down draft, circulating pump runs 24/7.

IMHO, there is no way he will ever recover his $14k investment. That is just insane.

Helped a friend out today.

Geo-TH,In

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Joe Scribner

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oldtanker

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IH2444

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730 virgil

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RusselAZ

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howdy1960

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Billy Shafer

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Bret4207

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Geo-TH,In

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Geo-TH,In

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Bryan inIowa

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massey333

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Mike M

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Geo-TH,In

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