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[jreimer]

I'm in IT Support, so one of our first questions to the end user is "Did you try rebooting?"  They don't like to hear it, but sadly enough that often fixes the majority of issues.

The equivalent in the world of outdoor wood furnaces could be:

1. Take a full firebox load of wood and bake it in your kitchen oven at 250F for 8 hours.
2. Run this load in your stove and report back any problems.

Knowing this 12 years ago could probably have saved me a lot of headaches, backaches and heartaches.

I don't mean this to sound like a snooty jerk at all.  What they TOLD us was dry wood, what we THINK is dry wood and what our moisture meter SAYS is dry wood, and what is ACTUALLY dry are sometimes very different.  Water is a sneaky, cruel ba$t@rd.  The only place it belongs is as a solid form in your favorite beverage.

Any other generic "Try this first" ideas?

[wreckit87]

Measuring temps across any exchanger is a big one. Low flow means huge delta T. Second furnace not heating? Probably because the first one is taking all the heat due to the Taco 007 running a 500 ft loop of 1" pex and no flow. Flow will make or break a hydronic system- more is better!

[hondaracer2oo4]

Time how long it takes for the boiler to go from the high set point to the low set point. This information coupled with the differential temp and gallons of water in the boiler will tell us how many btus per hour the heat loads are using at a given temp.

[Bud Man]

We run 4 planters in the spring and keeping all those monitors working can be a challenge. Whenever I get a call about a problem my first question is always "Did you turn it off and back on again?". Fixes the 80% of the time.

[mlappin]

Actually read the manual?

[wreckit87]

Actually read the manual?

What's a manual?

[Bigbaddave]

Oh that's a manual  I thought that was to light my first fire with!

[heat550]

All you do is ask how many years did you dry your wood ? and then all other assumptions can be drawn from there. 


Heat550

[Roger2561]

Actually read the manual?

   But, we're men, we're not supposed to read the manual!   

[heat550]

Good point... It's amazing when you look at the Manuel 5 years later .. and shxt I never knew that .... 😆

Heat550

[mlappin]

Manuals have a ton of information in them. About May I start going thru all my manuals for the hay equipment as it’s been over six months since I last used it. Anymore it seems people call me first for round baler issues then the dealer.

[heat550]

Yes who ever uses it the most is guy that knows the most . Rule apply s to everything .
Think of a chainsaw repair guy that burns wood . Or here is one that's gold a engineer that first was
a tool maker / machinist . Those guys are unbelievable only met 3 of them .  They can build anything .
using least amount of machines .. These guys are always in there 45-60s . and stand around with a
coffee in there hand and have the appearance of nerd old guy . There Brains run on math . 

Heat550