Success With a New Furnace Motor!

Well, exceptionally great news!!!  I WOKE UP THIS MORNING!!!

Yes, the house was a fridgid 57 degrees with the furnace turned off, but I was alive!  And the fire alarm didn't go off the rest of the night.  So I decided to try out the furnace.  It just hummed.  Hmm.  I turned it off, then back on.  Hummmmmmmm.

Something was wrong.  Well, after some research, I determined that it was likely my capacitor or motor was shot.  Aghhhhh, this house just keeps falling apart on me!!!  A new furnace would be expensive, so I did some research on how to test out the capacitor itself.  Of course, I called up my electrician dad to come help out.  He brought over his capacitor tester, and we learned that my capacitor was good.  Hmm...that could only mean one thing!

The motor was shot!

So we called around and priced motors.  And I was tickled pink to learn that a local motor shop had what we needed for just over $100.  Umm, if I could fix my furnace for $100, I would be ecstatic!!!  So I went to studying the motor in the furnace and learned that it just sat in a frame that was held on with little machine screws.  I took those off and slid the whole unit out.  Nothing made it appear that the motor was shot.  It spun freely.  Hmm.

But we decided to load it up anyway and take it to the shop.  And that's where I encountered some of the best customer service I've ever seen.  The gentleman was so kind, so full of information, so eager to answer our questions.  At other places, you can tell they don't want to help because it's like they are losing business.  This guy was not only eager to help, but he was eager to teach.  I was so impressed with the shop that I actually wondered about "owning" it.  What a niche company.  But they had motors for just about everything imaginable.  I was intrigued with the place, and I could tell Dad was, too, as he asked me later about working there!  You could acquire a skill!

And to top it all off, the new motor had extra wires that had to be wired a certain way for my particular unit.  When the gentleman watched us ask questions of ignorance, he simply volunteered to go above and beyond and wire it for us right then and there.  It was such an act of kindness.  Dad told me that's  how shops used to be: willing and eager to help the customer.  I was in such shock that I didn't know how to take it.  I was mesmerized with this sort of customer service.

The original motor had run its course.  26 years of run-time!

The new motor replacing the old.

Well, we were all wired up with our new motor and capacitor (I figured I might as well update, that, too, for $10 as it was 26 years old, even though it tested well).  Once back home, I took the power washer to my furnace fan fins.  They were so caked with dirt and dust it was disgusting.  It's so gross to think that every square inch of air in my gross first goes through these fins!  Ew!!!

The blower fins.  26 years of dust!

Before...

And After.  Shows surface rust but back down to 100% metal and no dust!

I power-washed the motor housing, too, and then installed the motor and blower back into the housing.  But because no project in this house can go easy, I also had to clean the furnace unit itself!  I had noticed MORE black mold INSIDE the unit.  So not only did every ounce of air pass through dust but also mold.  This house was so gross.  After cleaning up the furnace unit itself, I re-installed the blower with the new motor and capacitor.  And guess what?!  She fired right up!  And she ran quiet!

Black mold found inside the unit!  Aghhhhh!!!

Cleaned and bleached.

The very dusty unit before washing.

And After!

The new motor installed in the old blower housing.

I was back in business for about $110.  Quite frankly, I would have spent that much just for a service call at some companies!  But for a few hours' worth of work, I had new knowledge, a new motor, a new capacitor, a clean blower, and a clean furnace.  I was so thrilled.

The furnace is back together and working great!  Woo hoo!!!

So what a surprise!  The motor literally burned itself up and sent smoke through all of the air vents in the house, including the ones next to the fire alarm.  The smoke didn't last long, but it was enough to make me jump out of bed to a burning smell!

And what a neat accomplishment, too.  Pa and I were able to fix a fairly significant issue for just over $100.  A job well-done.  Here's to another 26 years on that furnace!

Oh, and one more comical thought.  When I told Dad about the fire alarm in the dead of night last night and about me considering jumping out of my house if the hallway was blocked, he asked why I wouldn't just use the fire ladder I had purchased last year.  Oh, you mean the one laying next to my bed in a box ready to be used in case of a fire?

Wow.  Yes, that one.  I would have literally broken my leg to jump out of a house only to remember later that I had a fire ladder there.  Sometimes I wonder...

Fire!!!

I was in a dead sleep when I woke up to my fire alarm.  BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!!  Aghhhhhh, it was so loud!!!

And I will probably not be able to convey to someone exactly how what happened next felt like, but I'll do my best.  Ok, so it's not the first time I've heard a fire alarm go off.  I've heard 'em go off numerous times over my lifetime.  Smoke from cooking inside.  In my last house, mine went off when I took a hot shower with the doors open.  And, of course, the infamous chirp with a low battery.

But here I was, in the middle of my sleep, between 1:00 and 2:00 A.M. when I hear the alarm go off.  But that's not all.  While that certainly woke me up, it's the next part that was terrifying.  I SMELLED SMOKE.

My house is on fire!!!  I literally jumped out of bed, my heart just a'pounding.  I prepped myself for jumping out my window to the ground two stories below.  But I saw no smoke.  So I began to search to see if I could figure out where it was coming from.  Nothing in my room.  So I checked the rest of upstairs, room by room.  Nothing.  The kitchen, perhaps?  An outlet?  I didn't know!  But the house smelled of something burning!!!  I then headed downstairs and checked.  Nothing!  But my house smelled of burning!!!  I grabbed my phone and started to dial 9-1-1.  But something just didn't seem right.

Where was this "smoke" coming from?!  I didn't see a haze in the house.  I found no smoke.  I found no fire.  But when I walked down the hallway downstairs, the smell seemed to strengthen.  So I finally traced it down to my furnace...or thought I did anyway.  I felt like the pungent, burning smell was stronger when I opened up the bathroom that houses the furnace.

But I wasn't 100% sure.  I debated back and forth about the fire department.  Back and forth.  But I really did think the smell was stronger in the furnace room.  Hmmm....

I opted not to call 9-1-1.  And I felt like my furnace was making a really odd noise, too.  Hmm.  What could it be?  All of this happened in less than 10 minutes...wake up, jump up, search the entire house, diagnose!

So I turned my furnace 100% off.  But now what?

I wasn't 100% sure it was the furnace!  But there was no smoke.  The smoke detector had gone off by now.  And every other room in the now seemed normal.  Hmm.

I did what any prudent man would do.  I grabbed the other smoke detector in my house and took it with me to my bedroom.  I then tried to sleep.  And I'm not going to lie, it was pretty difficult.  Because I wasn't 100% sure about the cause of the fire alarm going off, I wasn't comfortable sleeping in a house that had a burning smell to it.

But I had two fire alarms in my room now.  If the house was going to burn down, I was going to be awakened and jump out the window.

I slowly drifted off to sleep.  Would I wake up?