I was out of town the last couple of days and we got a huge snowstorm. When we got home the hot water wasn’t working.
I checked the unit, looked up the error code, the issue was the pilot not lighting. The cause was 4’ of snow covering the entire exhaust pipe.
I shut down the unit, cleared the snow, built a snow barrier and slope to avoid drifts coming back, then rebooted the unit and it all works!
My sister-in-law is over and she was saying “wow, you’re really handy”, which is seldom true, so I feel very good tonight.
Plus my wife got a fun picture of me chest deep in the snow shovelling. I’m angling to get it a place on the fridge.
Buddy of mine bought an older place in a good sledding area for staying in while they’re up there. He had a company put a new furnace in, basicially gave them the keys and said go for it. I went up with him for the first trip that winter and it was frozen solid. They company had put the vent and intake under two slopes that came together, and the pile of snow over the pipes was almost to the eaves.
It took a full day of shovelling by the two of us to get it cleared and get the furnace to run, and while he took everyone sledding, I drove to the nearest store about 2 hours away, picked up some System60 CPVC and rerouted the pipes, since getting the installers out wasn’t even vaguely an option as they were from even further away and it was a long weekend.
Some of these “professionals”…