Good morning!!!!

[sodamo]

We'll be going to Mesa in June. Wife's sister has house there they bought when their son went to ASU. Our best friends here just bought a house in Prescott. They sold their 20 acres here last year and will be settling in on .6 acres in Prescott, no tractor.

David Sent from my iPad Air using TractorByNet

 

[sseelhoff]

Why are there so many houses for sale in that small area?

Arizona got hammered in the 2008 housing crisis. Arizona also has a state statute that bars the banks from taking a deficiency judgment after a foreclosure. In many other states, if you owe the bank $100K, and the house is work $50K when they foreclose, they can get a judgment and collect the difference from the borrower. Arizona law prohibits this. Bank eats the loss.

Thus, when the housing values fell, many people were able to just walk away. Bank got stuck with the house and the loss, and the owners were able to hit the reset button and start over clean.

 

[rswyan]

12F and mostly sunny @ 15:00 ...

House is up to 63F after feeding the stove some firewood ... it still had a few small pieces of not completely burnt wood and a nice bed of coals when I woke up a couple of hours ago. Unfortunately Cupcake shut it way down last night before she went to bed and almost put the fire out ... was 59F in the house when she woke up @ around 04:00 ...

Furnace dude just left ... it looks like ... I dunno what ... maybe another bad gas valve ...

Essentially no ignition ... which is weird ... because the gas valve is supplying (at least some) gas to the pilot burner (next to the igniter) ... and the igniter is on ...

WTF ?

According to the mfg. date codes the valve that was being replaced was built in the 19th week of '14 ... and the replacement was built in the 45th week of '12 ... in Mexico ...

Tech says he's had so many problems with some Honeywell electronic component (igniters maybe) in the last couple of years that they will no longer use/install them - they have gone to 3rd party/aftermarket source.

He also said that in talking to the guy at Honeywell (distribution center, plant, whatever) the guy was totally worthless as far as actually understanding/following what he was telling him.

I'm starting to get the opinion that Honeywell is run/staffed by bunch of completely worthless clown @#$^! ... (begins with a "F" and ends with "ks")

... lo siento ... no habla ...

Supposedly this was the last time that Honeywell was going to replace the gas valve ...

We'll see about that ...

The tech's father (the owner of the company) is supposed to be out tomorrow to do some further testing diagnosis ...

In the meantime old "Trusty" keeps pumping out the BTU's ...

 

[murphy1244]

I did Heat and Air for a living and I can Guarantee that you would have had heat by the end of the second day. I don't care if I had to rip off my own gas valve this is totally wrong!

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Riptides , praying you get well soon. That is not a good way to diet.

 

[rswyan]

I did Heat and Air for a living and I can Guarantee that you would have had heat by the end of the second day. I don't care if I had to rip off my own gas valve this is totally wrong!

murph,

Appreciate the thought ... it confirms my feelings on the matter ...

You know, I could understand it ... if it was some specific, critical part that was no longer available ... and had no substitute.

The response from the Honeywell guy was apparently "There has to be something wrong with that furnace that is making our gas valves go bad."

Shyeah, right ... absolutely no possibility you could have a quality control problem ...

Last time I ran into this sort of a situation was with a tape drive used for data backup ...

It failed within the warranty (repair) period ... and, long story short, I got jacked around by about half a dozen people (company acquired by another, repair depot relocated, everyone is on vacation) trying to get it fixed/replaced ...

In the meantime, I've got a client that I need to get data off some tapes that I need the tape drive for.

So I found the number for corporate, called in and talked to the CEO's secretary sounding like I knew the guy, and told her I needed to get him some important info and got the fax number directly into his office ...

I then wrote an absolutely scathing letter - basically questioning his competence as a manager.

Within an hour I had call from his secretary apologizing on his behalf ... and letting me know they were overnighting me a brand new tape drive.

I thanked her and the CEO and casually commented that apparently my letter had must have had some effect.

Her reply: "You have no idea ... many heads are going to roll ..."

Talking with her a little further, she indicated that several folks would likely lose their jobs.

... $@#! with the bull, you get the horns ...

What is so hard about doing one's job, doing it reasonably well, and taking care of the customer ?

 

[JDgreen227]

It is now TEN DEGREES here and the wind is strong enough to freeze your face after 100 feet of walking into it...I recall back to December of last year and the calender says it was 55 degrees on December 20, 2014. BLEEP !!!!

 

[rswyan]

On a somewhat happier note, U.B. were able to score a piece of 8 x 6 1/2 W28 H-beam for cheap yesterday ... and Logsplitter 2.0 is on it's way:

That piece of H-Beam is nearly 8' long ... so it will need trimmed down a little. The box tube that serves as the axle/cross beam/hydraulic reservoir will be flipped 180 degrees so the supply and return fittings are located on the rear.

 

[rswyan]

After a little bit of flame cleaning with the O/A torch - to remove the rust and mill scale:

 

[farmer2009]

Rs. Hate your still having trouble with the heater. All I use is Honeywell gas valves. Yet to replace a new one. Now that's the only part to my knowledge that comes from them.

When the gas valve comes on and it won't light can you take a zippo and light it that way?