Had a Homer Simpson DOH! Moment Today
The boy yells out from the shower at 6am this morning "the boiler must be broke there's no hot water". Seemed a little chilly in here too... thermometer says 26 outside 54 inside...hmm, I never had an outfire before and it's been running for like 2 years straight. Lets investigate. I go down in the basement with my bathrobe to find the problem. I'm thinking "oh no the worm broke" because I hear the stoker ratcheting like normal. Well when I saw the full ash bucket on the floor I realized my folly. On Sunday I emptied the ash pan and filled the hopper like I do every Sunday. DOH! In reality I took the ash pan out, put the new one in, and the phone rang and I forgot about it. The diagnosis was pretty obvious: no coal in the bin. The boiler hadn't cooled off too much, maybe 120* so it wasn't a big deal to get her relit. Lesson learned, it's just as easy to keep the hopper almost full as it is to keep it almost empty
