Well I got a phone call from a guy who had a 80,000 btu universal diesel fired heater that he said he has installed in his house-qualified mechanic he says on the phone, Ive installed the hole system and just need someone that knows how to pipe the tank to the unit and fire the burner. Offered me about $1000 to cover time and fittings etc that he had already worked out.
I thought -well just down the road and off I went too see this heating unit in place.
When I arrived he showed me the nice return air he had put in- 14" duct and grill to suit- that was fine, infact it was the only thing that was right. He ran 7 wires to the thermostat-not sure why-the unit being second hand allowed him to just copy what was in his old house-perhaps the old place had time clock/thermostat/fan only-didn't matter as I installed a chronotherm giving him time clock/thermostat with just two wires
The flue just cleared the spouting let alone the ridge by any amount The heater had not even been cleaned out from the last house. The unit had not been checked for leaks in the heat exchanger One of those wires to the thermostat came straight from the switch board with obvious results to the uninitiated- The fan bearings were stuffed No draft control-It must have been there at some stage as the hole was in the flue but he had just slipped the liner over the hole(real helpful for draft I can tell ya) and left it.
I got this phone call Monday- after some real renegotiation he decided to let me remove it and take it back to the shop. He just had to install the rest of the ducting and connect it up. After I rebuilt this 25 year old heater-made new heat exchanger-new stainless insert etc etc I returned there today to install the unit and finish the wiring of the power supply and thermostat circuit. It was then I got to see the last thing I expected from a so called mechanic. he had finished the hot side of the ducting but run it from the heater to the first boot then to the next then the next and so on until his run took him back in a semi circle to just 8 feet from the place he started. just to make things even more difficult for him self against my advice he ran the main heating duct in 5"- but he went to the trouble of putting 20'' in the return---grrr
I immediately ask for payment for the rebuild and he says but it's not going- I say yes it is but it's tripping out on the top limit as there is not enough air flow over the heat exchanger earlier I received another phone call, this time by the wife-I explained the situation and she was under the impression that I had come out each day and did the work my self(hubby not so honest'a') and he had paid me around $4000 to do the job-cash?????????? Not I -i told her and she said she would be back in contact with me.
Well she did ring back and now I've got the hole job- The silly thing is that if they just paid for a rebuild to start with they would be about $2000 better off. And the heating unit would operate like new.
It's funny how some people know everything but can do nothing!
cdd