Aha! Oh No! AAAUURRGHHH!!! *flail* AAAIIEEEEEE!!!!! bleep*bleep*bleep!!!

[equusmaximus]

     That's more or less the screamed monolouge from the boiler-room earlier today...

I had a more in-depth look at the boiler and its problem this afternoon, and after going through the various manuals that I either already had, or managed to download from the 'net, I was coming to the upsetting conclusion that the most likely cause of the

Comments

[kevinbunny]

Oooh, ouchie. That's definately a nasty little injury you did yourself. Personally, I have an annoying tendency to inadvertently slice open my finger with x-acto knives. My left index finger has four scars, two of which required stitches. I don't learn so well.

As far as sensor placement, I've had something similar with our old water heater here at the house.. Difference being, in this case the entire pipe that the sensor/igniter was bolted to had worked loose. That is to say, the burner of the heater had come off, and it was basically shooting a jet of uncontrolled gas instead!

The *fun* part came when it finally failed altogether, and I went out to try and coax it into lighting again, not knowing that the burner had detatched and the heater was basically doing what it was *supposed* to be doing and *not* light under those conditions. Ok, push the button, twist, reach in with fireplace lighter and *fa-WHUMP!* right.. turn *off* the gas, step away, then panic. Lost most of one eyebrow and a bit of hair at that.

[kevinbunny]

As for the not charging.. Well, you're in a rural area, and the amount of 'repairman karma' you get determines your business. I think you did ok. In the future, I'd reccomend at least *bringing it up*, in case they feel like paying anyway.

Perhaps something like, "Well, I'd normally charge for coming out here, but since there isn't a lot for me to *do*, I'd feel guilty charging you the full service fee. If you wanna cover the gas to get out here and maybe a sandwich, I'll call it even."

[palabrajot]

Sorry for your injury! You should know by now that fire tends to spook horses, though. ^.^

A fee just for coming out is fairly common sense. But I think building good will one customer at a time is important, especially to new businesses.