[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Posted by James Fairweather on December 07, 2004 at 18:10:29:
I've been living in a house with a Heatmaker II boiler and DHW coil. Today I came home to a massive flood in the house. After getting the water supply shutoff (furnace was spilling over with water), I found that the pressure switch mounted to the DHW coil had ruptured. When I say ruptured, I mean the upper plastic half of the switch had completely seperated from the brass base. When I examined the switch closely, it appears that water had been living on the other side of the switch diaphragm from some time now, causing corrosion, etc. When I checked the switch manufacturer's page (Hobbs) they specifically call out that the stock switch polyamide membrane should not be used with water. Hobbs does offer a special teflon membrane for water use, but they membrane I'm looking at sure doesn't look or feel like teflon.
So here are my questions:
- what are the chances that the furnace will resume normal operation with a new pressure switch
- has anyone else ever seen one of these fail like this?
- would you leave your house for Christmas week with your inlaws and keep the "freshly repaired" furnace on?
thoughts appreciated
JF