Bad Connection

Yesterday morning, as I valiantly rallied out of bed, The Ravishing Mrs. TB caught me as I meandered towards the coffee pot. "The heat's not working" she said. "Can you take a look at it?"

The heat. Hmm. The battery was out the day before so I replaced it and reset the clock. It looked like it was working properly.

"I'll take a look" I responded, thinking it was no more than the settings not being right.

So I went to look at the program. Nope, it was set correctly. Power? Yes, the battery was plugged in (I had replaced it earlier, remember?). I unplugged the battery and replaced it, thinking that I had a bad connection. Power went back on, reset the clock, hit "Run Program". A click, but no heat.

Fine. I walked out to the garage and furnace closet and opened it up. I could hear the pilot light going, so the furnace wasn't out. Closed the door, went back inside, tried to cycle through the programs again, then threw my hands up and said "I've no idea".

Hoping against hope it would magically turn itself on, I went to work. Later, after arriving home and just before bed, I asked again. "No" she responded, "it didn't go on at all today."

So this morning I got up, walked by the thermostat, and mentally decided "I will make it work today." So I performed the same checks: power (On); time (set); no heat. I replaced the new battery with a new battery and performed the same check. Nothing.

So back out to the garage we went. Opened the furnace closet to the sound of the pilot light.

And then I did something I had not done the day before. I reached down and slightly moved the door to the filter and the chamber. Suddenly, it burst into life for a second. I reopened, then reshut and locked in the place the filter door. The warm sound of blasting air greeted my ears.

I shut up the closet door, walked back into the house, and basked under the warm glow of the kitchen register (by far the best flow of air in the house) before wandering back to my previously scheduled morning.

What did I learn in my microcosm of home repair this morning?

1) Check everything. Twice. Physically - not just by listening or looking and thinking things are okay.

2) In any system, the smallest point of bad connection can prevent it from functioning.