The Furnace Saga

Yesterday afternoon, the furnace company sent out two service guys to try to get to the bottom of our leak because the owner couldn’t resolve it on his emergency visit on Sunday night. None of their detectors were picking up on our problem; however, our detector kept going off with stellar precision.

It was a sight to see these two guys, one of them middle-aged, around 50, and another in his 30s, come into my basement with me home alone. They thought for sure they were going to end this matter simply because I was a woman, and uneducated in the science of gases and furnaces. Too bad for them, they didn’t know I am great at reading body language and I know when I am being lied to, or attempted to be fooled with. I knew by the way the owner left the night before, he was convinced I didn’t have a problem, my detector was flawed, and he or his employees were going to convince me of that fact one way or another.

Read moreI showed the guys in, let them test for the leak with their equipment, and then when their equipment didn’t go off, I asked them for the technical specifics of their tester, as I showed them mine. Lo and behold, they didn’t know. So I educated them on average statistical facts about gas detectors and told them they likely had a tester less sensitive than mine (LEL 10%). You can imagine it didn’t go over well. They didn’t say a word.

They quickly grabbed my detector and started going over the room. When my unit hit on a dime, each time over their furnace near where the gas line entered, they were annoyed. It was palpable. They couldn’t explain it. They knew the owner had changed the union three times and all three times my detector picked up a leak, so they were just certain my detector was flawed, but how were they going to convince me?

I asked them if they brought a carbon monoxide detector, and they told me they didn’t know they needed one. What a nightmare. I personally suspect the owner didn’t suspect carbon monoxide, and when he couldn’t blame the water heater on me, because I told him it would still be part of his contractual obligation, he decided not to focus on that anymore.

The second thing these two guys did was bubble test the unions from the night before. They didn’t see any bubbles, but I could see they couldn’t see behind the union, because it was in a tight enclosure on both sides, so I asked if they had a mirror. They did not. It pissed them off even more. How could they be sure it wasn’t leaking then, I asked? “We can see all sides, and there are no bubbles,” the younger man said. I stood and watched.

Getting frustrated, I wasn’t the uneducated housewife they had hoped for, they both put their backs to me and started scouring the room with my detector. I knew exactly what they were up to. They were going to find another leak, they thought, because my detector was so sensitive. They were sure they could blame it on something else, even though there was clearly a leak at the site of their new furnace. It was funny to watch. It was ridiculous.

They tested all our old gas unions and values. I was confident they wouldn’t find anything, as we had done it all already. Nothing. They then tested the rest of their work, and nothing, at which point I reminded them, it was a good indication my unit performed perfectly. They couldn’t blame my detector for being faulty at that point. They stood there, with their backs to me, dumbfounded, sharing glances at each other, not acknowledging me. If only you could have been a fly on the wall. It was priceless. I knew exactly what was going on.

So the guy covers the detector with his hands, and it goes off. He turns around and comes right up to my face. He says, “See, anything will set this thing off. It’s not dependable.”

I quickly corrected him. “Actually, no, you emit carbon dioxide,” I said, “and that is what is setting off the detector. It picks up on carbon dioxide and monoxide. Breathe on it. You’ll see, it will go off.”

You should have seen them slump. They weren’t doing a good job of convincing me, and they knew it! I just smiled back, politely.

Frustrated, they put their backs to me again, all the while exchanging what they believed to be non-obvious eye-rolls. They are thinking hard, how can they convince me, it is my detector. I continue to watch intently, wondering what the next thing will be.

Then the older guy pipes up and says, “I know! It’s picking up on the bubble liquid that we just used.” He quickly opens up the bubble soap, and the alarm goes off.

“See, this machine isn’t reliable,” he says to me.

I grin and say, “Not so fast. The owner was here last night, and it alarmed over his unions, and there was NO bubble soap used then. Sorry, that’s not it. He even tested his pipe dope/teflon. It didn’t go off. It’s obviously picking up on a gas, perhaps alcohol (which it is rated for), but not the gas we are looking for.”

If looks could kill…

They turned their back to me a third time, and they continued looking around the room. Within a minute, I see one flash a grin to the other. They must really have thought I was clueless. Next, I see the older guy go to our sewer lift station, and put my detector there. It alarms slightly, very slightly and as he goes up the pipes, the alarm gets more intense.

“Of course it will alarm when you go up, ” I speak out. “Natural gas is lighter than air. We have a natural gas leak. We’ve pinpointed that already. No surprise there. I’m telling you, my unit works flawlessly.”

Without even acknowledging me, the guy then goes to the bathroom vent pipe, and my unit ticks faster there, and it slowly goes into an alarm. He is about ready to turn around and say to me, “See. This is your problem. This is leaking, and this is causing the problem.”

It was absolutely rubbish, and I knew it on multiple levels. While my detector picks up on multiple gases, it is easy to figure out. So I don’t give him a chance. I say to them as they are exchanging glances between themselves again, and still have their backs to me, thinking they are going to pull the wool over my eyes, “Of course it is going off, you are picking up hints of methane. That’s to be expected. You’re testing the plumbing pipes. I may have a leaky vent pipe, but we are dealing with gas, so let’s stay focused.”

Their body language tenses.

It is clear that they getting mad at me. I know they want to tell me to go to hell. I stood there wondering how often these service guys and all the other workers who have come to me over the years get away with their B.S. at other homes. I can only tell you from the reactions I get by calling people out, they must get away with this behavior frequently at other homes, because when I am done with most of these guys, they don’t know what hit them. They’ve never experienced anything like me before. I can see the bewilderment in their eyes once I get everything resolved.

Totally frustrated, the guys come up to me and say, “If our detector doesn’t detect a leak, you don’t have a leak. Period.”

I quickly remind them that my whole house was alarming the other night, that this problem is much larger than than a faulty tester. I explained if my whole house didn’t test positive and react appropriately to the airing out steps we took, I might consider it is my detector, but in light of that, they were wrong and needed to get to the heart of the matter. I confirmed I know my detector works like a charm.

They turned around, totally hopeless, and didn’t know what to do. Then one got a call from the owner, and walked outside, and then the other excused himself up the driveway. They ran into my husband and gave him the lousy excuse, because they forgot their CO detector, they were going to go to Home Depot to buy a wall unit by Night Hawk with a readout. They’d be right back. My husband told them not to, this wasn’t about CO, it was about natural gas. They ignored him and left anyway. I was not surprised at all. It was just so unprofessional. They wanted to get away from me! That was clear.

The problem with having the ability that I have is that I can keep people on the straight and narrow, like I did above, but finally, they don’t know how to cope and they just bolt. And that is exactly what these two men did. I immediately called the company secretary and told her to tell them not to bother with the CO detector as that was useless. We didn’t hear from the furnace company the rest of the day.

Clearly, these guys couldn’t figure out the problem and had hoped to put the blame on my ignorance, but it didn’t work.

Frustrated, we called the local gas company, because we could smell slight hints of gas. The gas guy came out, and within 10 minutes, we pinpointed the leak. When the gas company worker took off the sealed burner cover on the furnace, my husband ran our detector over the values at the same time, and nothing! We then knew the leak we were detecting was coming from the values inside the furnace and out over the union, which was supposed to be sealed. The gas company confirmed it, and wrote up a report for us. The leak is minor, but there.

Today, I immediately called the furnace corporate customer service number and asked if this area on our furnace should be sealed where the gas line enters the closed chamber, as I suspect it should be and she said “Absolutely”.

Today, we called the owner and told him to get out here tonight and fix it! He now says it all makes sense to him, and he understands why our detector was picking up gas. He suspects it is a value that is leaking. This guy probably thought I was a nut job Sunday night. I wonder what he thinks of me today…